Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Insights From Dayflow: A Historical Streamflow Reanalysis Dataset for the Conterminous United States

Journal Article · · Water Resources Research
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR032312· OSTI ID:1922544
Abstract

Reconstructed historical streamflow time series can supplement limited streamflow gauge observations. However, there are common challenges of typical modeling approaches: process‐based hydrologic models can be data/computation‐intensive, and statistics‐based models can be region/stream‐specific. Here we present a nationally scalable modeling framework integrating the simulated runoff from the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model with the Routing Application for Parallel computatIon of Discharge (RAPID) routing model leveraging high‐performance computing. We demonstrate an efficient method of assimilating streamflow at US Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow monitoring sites using a simple hierarchical approach in the VIC‐RAPID framework. The result is a reconstructed 36‐year (1980–2015) daily and monthly streamflow dataset (Dayflow) at ∼2.7 million NHDPlusV2 stream reaches in the conterminous US (CONUS). We perform a comprehensive evaluation at 7,526 USGS sites and characterize their error statistics. The results demonstrate that 49% of the USGS sites demonstrate Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE) > 0.5 and 58% of the sites show percentage bias within ±20% for the daily naturalized streamflow. Streamflow data assimilation across CONUS shows an overall improvement over naturalized streamflow, notably in the western semiarid‐to‐arid regions. Comparison to other national and global streamflow reanalysis datasets such as the National Water Model and Global Reach‐scale A priori Discharge Estimates for SWOT demonstrates improved KGE, reduced bias, and directions for Dayflow improvements. Investigations of error statistics with key hydrologic, hydroclimatic, and geomorphologic basin characteristics reveal region‐specific patterns which may help improve future framework applications. Overall, Dayflow may enable a better understanding of hydrologic conditions in a changing environment, especially in locations currently not represented by streamflow monitoring networks.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1922544
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1923182
OSTI ID: 1923933
Journal Information:
Water Resources Research, Journal Name: Water Resources Research Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 59; ISSN 0043-1397
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (90)

A unified approach for process‐based hydrologic modeling: 2. Model implementation and case studies journal April 2015
Recent tree die-off has little effect on streamflow in contrast to expected increases from historical studies: MUTED STREAMFLOW RESPONSES TO TREE DIE-OFF journal December 2015
Global projections of river flood risk in a warmer world: RIVER FLOOD RISK IN A WARMER WORLD journal February 2017
Towards seamless large-domain parameter estimation for hydrologic models: LARGE-DOMAIN MODEL PARAMETERS journal September 2017
Hyper-resolution global hydrological modelling: what is next?: “Everywhere and locally relevant” journal December 2014
The future of distributed models: Model calibration and uncertainty prediction journal July 1992
Prediction in ungauged basins: a grand challenge for theoretical hydrology journal January 2003
Large-scale river flow archives: importance, current status and future needs journal March 2011
Global river hydrography and network routing: baseline data and new approaches to study the world's large river systems: GLOBAL RIVER HYDROGRAPHY AND NETWORK ROUTING journal April 2013
Effects of projected climate change on energy supply and demand in the Pacific Northwest and Washington State journal May 2010
River flow forecasting through conceptual models part I — A discussion of principles journal April 1970
Dual state–parameter estimation of hydrological models using ensemble Kalman filter journal February 2005
Enhancing hydrologic data assimilation by evolutionary Particle Filter and Markov Chain Monte Carlo journal January 2018
Projecting changes in annual hydropower generation using regional runoff data: An assessment of the United States federal hydropower plants journal February 2015
Ensemble flood risk assessment in Europe under high end climate scenarios journal November 2015
Regional hydrologic response to climate change in the conterminous United States using high-resolution hydroclimate simulations journal August 2016
A global streamflow reanalysis for 1980–2018 journal January 2020
Real-time streamflow forecasting: AI vs. Hydrologic insights journal December 2021
A reservoir operation scheme for global river routing models journal July 2006
Decomposition of the mean squared error and NSE performance criteria: Implications for improving hydrological modelling journal October 2009
Large-scale water cycle perturbation due to irrigation pumping in the US High Plains: A synthesis of observed streamflow changes journal September 2010
Effects of climate change on streamflow extremes and implications for reservoir inflow in the United States journal January 2018
Atlantic Ocean Sea Surface Temperatures and Southeast United States streamflow variability: Associations with the recent multi-decadal decline journal September 2019
Low streamflow trends at human-impacted and reference basins in the United States journal January 2020
Change points in annual peak streamflows: Method comparisons and historical change points in the United States journal April 2020
Relating hydroclimatic change to streamflow, baseflow, and hydrologic partitioning in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, 1980 to 2015 journal May 2020
Bayesian recursive parameter estimation for hydrologic models journal October 2001
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission journal January 2007
Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis of land surface parameters using the Variable Infiltration Capacity model journal January 2007
Uncertainty in hydrologic modeling: Toward an integrated data assimilation framework: HYDROLOGIC DATA ASSIMILATION journal July 2007
Use of a standardized runoff index for characterizing hydrologic drought journal January 2008
Increased groundwater to stream discharge from permafrost thawing in the Yukon River basin: Potential impacts on lateral export of carbon and nitrogen journal January 2007
Macroscale hydrologic modeling of ecologically relevant flow metrics: MODELING ECOLOGICAL STREAM FLOW METRICS journal September 2010
The community Noah land surface model with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP): 1. Model description and evaluation with local-scale measurements journal January 2011
Hyperresolution global land surface modeling: Meeting a grand challenge for monitoring Earth's terrestrial water: OPINION journal May 2011
Spatial-temporal variations of evapotranspiration and runoff/precipitation ratios responding to the changing climate in the Pacific Northwest during 1921-2006 journal January 2013
The Quest for Model Uncertainty Quantification: A Hybrid Ensemble and Variational Data Assimilation Framework journal March 2019
Streamflow in the Columbia River Basin: Quantifying Changes Over the Period 1951‐2008 and Determining the Drivers of Those Changes journal August 2019
Diagnostic Evaluation of Large‐Domain Hydrologic Models Calibrated Across the Contiguous United States journal December 2019
MERIT Hydro: A high‐resolution global hydrography map based on latest topography datasets journal May 2019
Global Reconstruction of Naturalized River Flows at 2.94 Million Reaches journal August 2019
A Vector‐Based River Routing Model for Earth System Models: Parallelization and Global Applications journal June 2021
Regional Patterns and Physical Controls of Streamflow Generation Across the Conterminous United States journal June 2021
Combined Modeling of US Fluvial, Pluvial, and Coastal Flood Hazard Under Current and Future Climates journal February 2021
A simple hydrologically based model of land surface water and energy fluxes for general circulation models journal January 1994
Organic carbon decomposition rates controlled by water retention time across inland waters journal May 2016
Gridded daily weather data for North America with comprehensive uncertainty quantification journal July 2021
On The Subject Of A Flood Propagation Computation Method (Musklngum Method) journal January 1969
Global land cover classification at 1 km spatial resolution using a classification tree approach journal January 2000
Evaluating model performance: towards a non-parametric variant of the Kling-Gupta efficiency journal October 2018
Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective journal July 2019
Regional scale hydrology: I. Formulation of the VIC-2L model coupled to a routing model journal February 1998
Climate change, riverine flood risk and adaptation for the conterminous United States journal August 2021
A High-Resolution National-Scale Hydrologic Forecast System from a Global Ensemble Land Surface Model journal June 2016
Continental-Scale River Flow Modeling of the Mississippi River Basin Using High-Resolution NHD Plus Dataset journal September 2016
Towards Real-Time Continental Scale Streamflow Simulation in Continuous and Discrete Space journal October 2017
A Power Law Model for River Flow Velocity in Iowa Basins journal June 2018
Assessing Retrospective National Water Model Streamflow with Respect to Droughts and Low Flows in the Colorado River Basin journal July 2019
Performance of the National Water Model in Iowa Using Independent Observations journal December 2019
Effects of Groundwater‐Surface Water Exchange Mechanism in the National Water Model over the Northern High Plains Aquifer, USA journal July 2020
Evaluating Baseflow Simulation in the National Water Model: A Case Study in the Northern High Plains Region, USA journal March 2021
Machine Learning Assisted Reservoir Operation Model for Long‐Term Water Management Simulation journal September 2022
Digital Hydrologic Networks Supporting Applications Related to Spatially Referenced Regression Modeling1: Digital Hydrologic Networks Supporting Applications Related to Spatially Referenced Regression Modeling journal August 2011
A Conterminous United States Multilayer Soil Characteristics Dataset for Regional Climate and Hydrology Modeling journal January 1998
River Network Routing on the NHDPlus Dataset journal October 2011
Development of a Unified Land Model for Prediction of Surface Hydrology and Land–Atmosphere Interactions journal December 2011
North American Regional Reanalysis journal March 2006
MSWEP V2 Global 3-Hourly 0.1° Precipitation: Methodology and Quantitative Assessment journal March 2019
Twentieth-Century Trends in Runoff, Evapotranspiration, and Soil Moisture in the Western United States journal April 2007
Comparing Large-Scale Hydrological Model Predictions with Observed Streamflow in the Pacific Northwest: Effects of Climate and Groundwater* journal December 2014
Global Maps of Streamflow Characteristics Based on Observations from Several Thousand Catchments journal August 2015
Streamflow Forecasting without Models journal August 2020
Production of Temporally Consistent Gridded Precipitation and Temperature Fields for the Continental United States journal June 2005
A Recent Increase in Western U.S. Streamflow Variability and Persistence journal April 2005
GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and altered flow conditions in the conterminous United States journal February 2010
Retrospective analysis of fish community change during a half-century of landuse and streamflow changes journal September 2010
Insights on Streamflow Predictability Across Scales Using Horizontal Visibility Graph Based Networks journal July 2020
MCD15A2H MODIS/Terra+Aqua Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V006 dataset January 2015
GloFAS-ERA5 operational global river discharge reanalysis 1979–present journal January 2020
The multiscale routing model mRM v1.0: simple river routing at resolutions from 1 to 50 km journal January 2019
Evaluating a reservoir parametrization in the vector-based global routing model mizuRoute (v2.0.1) for Earth system model coupling journal June 2022
mizuRoute version 1: a river network routing tool for a continental domain water resources applications journal January 2016
Deriving a global river network map and its sub-grid topographic characteristics from a fine-resolution flow direction map journal January 2009
Global-scale analysis of river flow alterations due to water withdrawals and reservoirs journal January 2009
A large-scale, high-resolution hydrological model parameter data set for climate change impact assessment for the conterminous US journal January 2014
Development of a large-sample watershed-scale hydrometeorological data set for the contiguous USA: data set characteristics and assessment of regional variability in hydrologic model performance journal January 2015
Assessing the performance of global hydrological models for capturing peak river flows in the Amazon basin journal July 2019
Technical note: Inherent benchmark or not? Comparing Nash–Sutcliffe and Kling–Gupta efficiency scores journal January 2019
Comparison of generalized non-data-driven lake and reservoir routing models for global-scale hydrologic forecasting of reservoir outflow at diurnal time steps journal May 2020
Which rainfall score is more informative about the performance in river discharge simulation? A comprehensive assessment on 1318 basins over Europe journal January 2020

Similar Records

Dayflow: CONUS Daily Streamflow Reanalysis, Version 1 (V1)
Dataset · Mon Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 2022 · OSTI ID:1847639