Reducing Uncertainties of Hydrologic Model Predictions Using a New Ensemble Pre-Processing Approach

Abstract:

Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) was developed to characterize the uncertainty in hydrologic predictions. However, ESP outputs are still prone to bias due to the uncertainty in the forcing data, initial condition, and model structure. Among these, uncertainty in forcing data has a major impact on the reliability of hydrologic simulations/forecasts. Major steps have been taken in generating less uncertain precipitation forecasts such as the Ensemble Pre-Processing (EPP) to achieve this goal. EPP is introduced as a statistical procedure based on the bivariate joint distribution between observation and forecast to generate ensemble climatologic forecast from single-value forecast. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of pre-processed ensemble precipitation forecast in generating ensemble streamflow predictions. Copula functions used in EPP, model the multivariate joint distribution between univariate variables with any level of dependency. Accordingly, ESP is generated by employing both raw ensemble precipitation forecast as well as pre-processed ensemble precipitation. The ensemble precipitation forecast is taken from Climate Forecast System (CFS) generated by National Weather Service‘s (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) models. Study is conducted using the precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) over two basins in the Pacific Northwest USA for the period of 1979 to 2013. Results reveal that applying this new EPP will lead to reduction of uncertainty and overall improvement in the ESP.