Prediction of tropical monsoon hydrology using gridded meteorological products over the Cau river basin in Vietnam

Abstract

Gridded meteorological products are generated with different spatial/data and methods, and it will be sensitive to different regions for hydrological models. Therefore variables including temperature and precipitation should be evaluated before applying them in studies. To improve knowledge of this matter, the potential of two reanalysis products (RPs) including the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS) and Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) is for the first time compared with the ground-based meteorological data in 5 years from 2008 to 2013 over the Cau River Basin (CRB), Northern of Vietnam. The statistical indicators, and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model are employed to investigate the hydrological performance of the CRPs against the 17 rain gauses placed across the CRB. The result showed that there is a strong correlation of the temperature reanalysis in both CMADS, CFSR with ground-observed (correlation coefficient-CC is from 0.92 to 0.97). The division indicated clearly when CFSR data overestimated precipitation (about 88%) at both daily and monthly scales, whereas a slight variation of CMADS product was found in the high terrain. The flow simulation results also show that the performance of CMADS-SWAT (with value R2 > 0.75 and NSE > 0.78) is more accurate than CFSR-SWAT on the monthly scale. The assessment of the potential of CRPs especially CMADS will further provide an additional quick alternative for water resource research and management in basins with similar hydro-meteorological conditions.