Many fields have identified an increasing need to use global satellite precipitation products for hydrological applications, especially in ungauged basins. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of three Satellite-based Precipitation Products (SPPs): Integrated Multi–satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) Final run V6, Soil Moisture to Rain (SM2RAIN)-Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) V1.5, and Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) V2.2 for a subbasin of the Mekong River Basin (MRB). The study area of the Srepok River basin (SRB) represents the Central Highland sub-climatic zone in Vietnam under the impacts of newly built reservoirs during 2001–2018. In this study, our evaluation was performed using the Rainfall Assessment Framework (RAF) with two separated parts: (1) an intercomparison of rainfall characteristics between rain gauges and SPPs; and (2) a hydrological comparison of simulated streamflow driven by SPPs and rain gauges. Several key findings are: (1) IMERGF-V6 shows the highest performance compared to other SPP products, followed by SM2RAIN-ASCAT V1.5 and MSWEP V2.2 over assessments in the RAF framework; (2) MSWEP V2.2 shows discrepancies during the dry and wet seasons, exhibiting very low correlation compared to rain gauges when the precipitation intensity is greater than 15 mm/day; (3) SM2RAIN–ASCAT V1.5 is ranked as the second best SPP, after IMERGF-V6, and shows good streamflow simulation, but overestimates the wet seasonal rainfall and underestimates the dry seasonal rainfall, especially when the precipitation intensity is greater than 20 mm/day, suggesting the need for a recalibration and validation of its algorithm; (4) SM2RAIN-ASCAT had the lowest bias score during the dry season, indicating the product’s usefulness for trend analysis and drought detection; and (5) RAF shows good performance to evaluate the performance of SPPs under the impacts of reservoirs, indicating a good framework for use in other similar studies. The results of this study are the first to reveal the performance of MSWEP V2.2 and SM2RAIN-ASCAT V1.5. Additionally, this study proposes a new rainfall assessment framework for a Vietnam basin which could support future studies when selecting suitable products for input into hydrological model simulations in similar regions.

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In the present day, the acceleration of urban surface heat impacts resulting from urbanization and industrialization is critical for citizens and municipal governments in developing-country cities. The previous key findings have indicated the association between urban surface heat and the following areas: forests, mixed agricultural land, built-up area, and water bodies. This study was motivated by a lack of knowledge regarding the variation of temperature, evaporation, and humidity in Central Vietnam’s major region. The non-parametric Mann–Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator, and Landsat image analysis were employed to determine the trend and statistical significance of the variables across the 42-year study period for Da Nang city and Quang Nam province. Our results show that Da Nang city has a consistent trend with a high correlation between temperature, evaporation, and relative humidity, whereas Quang Nam province showed an inverse relationship between temperature and relative humidity since the beginning of the regional urbanization. The maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures have increased by at least 0.29 °C in Quang Nam province and 0.71 °C in Da Nang city since 2000. Between 1979 and 2021, the frequency of days with temperatures exceeding 35°C has increased by two and seven days during the past decade at the meteorological stations in Da Nang and Tam Ky, respectively. The temperature in Da Nang city varied from 31.80°C to 32.82°C with high temperatures concentrated in urbanized regions with less coverage of small trees, plants, and water bodies. Thus, the results of this study will serve as a scientific basis for decision-makers and regional officials for land-use management and to increase community awareness of sustainable planning, particularly in Da Nang city and Quang Nam province in Central Vietnam.