Skill assessment of GloFAS-ERA5 operational river discharge for the
major Indian River Catchments
Abstract
About 60 percent of the hydrographic stations show negative bias for
collected river 12 discharge. 13 Nearly 80 percent of the hydrographic
stations show good skill with significant mean 14 absolute error at few
stations. 15 The assessment shows a good skill for Ganges-Brahmaputra
and the lowest for Pennar and 16 Cauvery river basins. Abstract 18 A
significant task in river hydrology is to envisage the river’s present,
past, and future 19 environments. India has some of the world’s major
river basins, including Ganges-Brahmaputra, 20 Mahanadi, Krishna, and
the Godavari produce an enormous amount of water as river discharge 21
alongside turbidity into the Bay of Bengal. The revised Kling-Gupta
efficiency skill score 22 (KGESS) has been used to determine the
performance of reanalysis river discharge. The skill of 23 reanalysis
discharge was found admirable for the Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin
(KGESS = 0.86 24 > 0), with notable mean absolute error and
high correlation coefficient (0.94). Furthermore, 25 Subarnarekha,
Brahmani-Baitarani, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna river basins, and the
rivers 26 flowing between Mahanadi and Pennar Rivers exhibit moderate to
good skill. However, Pennar, 27 Cauvery, and the rivers flowing between
Pennar and Kanyakumari show the lowest skill. 28 Approximately 60%
hydrographic stations of river catchments demonstrate that reanalysis 29
discharge is negatively biased (i.e., bias < 1). Nearly 58%
hydrographic stations show lower 30 variability (i.e., variability ratio
< 1) with the median value of 0.91 and the interquartile range
31 (0.82, 1.13). Moreover, the overall median of the Pearson correlation
coefficient was 0.73 with 32 interquartile ranges between 0.51-0.83. The
reanalysis and observed datasets show a significant 33 change in river
discharge throughout the southwest monsoon and less in the post-monsoon
period. 34 Concurrently, some hydrographic stations show a significant
increase in river discharge during 35 post-monsoon in Pennar and Cauvery
River basins. 36 37