This R package proposes a geomorphology-based hydrological modelling approach to transfer streamflow measurements from gauged catchments to ungauged catchments, i.e. where there is no station monitoring the streamflow. It follows a runoff-runoff approach, i.e. it directly combines the observed streamflow series available at monitoring stations to estimate streamflow elsewhere in the surrounding rivers without the need to implement a full rainfall-runoff model. The package itself and the theoretical aspects of the approach are presented in detail and discussed by de Lavenne et al. (2023).
The hydrological modelling is based on a description of the hydro-geomorphometry of the river network, which can be easily observed for any given outlet. An inversion of this model for a gauged catchment allows the observed streamflow series to be deconvoluted in order to estimate an almost scale-independent signal, namely the net rainfall (Boudhraâ et al. 2018). Transferring this estimate of the net rainfall series to a targeted ungauged catchment then makes it possible to simulate the streamflow there. The use of streamflow observations from several gauged catchments in the neighbourhood increases the robustness of the simulation (de Lavenne et al. 2016). The methodology was first implemented on a few catchments in semiarid Tunisia at the event time scale (Boudhraâ et al. 2009), then in dense configurations of neighbouring and nested catchments in France, which mainly have a temperate oceanic climate (de Lavenne et al. 2015; de Lavenne et al. 2016; de Lavenne and Cudennec 2019), and in snow-influenced Québec, Canada (Ecrepont et al. 2019).
install.packages("transfR")To implement the method, it is advised to explore the following functions in this order:
as_transfr creates a “transfR” database from a “stars”
object and a morphometric description of the catchments (hydraulic
lengths)velocity estimates the main model parameter, i.e. the
streamflow velocity, from different regionalisation strategiesuh estimates a simple linear model, i.e. the unit
hydrograph, based on the analysis of catchment geomorphology and
streamflow velocityrapriori provides an a priori estimate of net rainfall,
as needed for model inversioninversion estimates net rainfall by inverse
modellinghdist computes hydrological distances between
catchments, such as the rescaled Ghosh distancesmixr estimates the net rainfall of one catchment by
averaging the net rainfall of neighbouring gauged catchments and
according to hydrological distancesconvolution computes the convolution of the net
rainfall by the unit hydrograph to estimate streamflowThis package comes with two datasets (Blavet and Oudon) that contain
all the necessary inputs to test the package and perform discharge
prediction. Users are advised to check the ‘Get started with transfR’
vignette (vignette("V01_get_started", package = "transfR"))
that provides a complete implementation of the method with the Oudon
dataset. Two additional vignettes are proposed to help the preparation
of input data: a spatiotemporal array of observed discharge
(vignette("V02_inputs_preparation_stars", package = "transfR"))
and a morphometric description of the catchments
(vignette("V03_inputs_preparation_whitebox", package = "transfR")).
In addition, each function comes with different examples.
A detailed description of the modelling approach and the package has been published by de Lavenne et al. (2023): the theoretical aspects of each modelling step are described in more detail, arguments justifying the default values used in the functions are presented, and limitations of the approach are discussed for a consistent implementation of the approach.
For the French region of Brittany, a web service (SIMFEN) using this package was developed to facilitate the implementation of the method without the need for the user to have programming skills in R or to collect the necessary input data (Dallery et al. 2020).
Boudhraâ H, Cudennec C, Slimani M, Andrieu H (2009). “Hydrograph transposition between basins through a geomorphology-based deconvolution-reconvolution approach.” IAHS publication, 333, 76.
Boudhraâ H, Cudennec C, Andrieu H, Slimani M (2018). “Net rainfall estimation by the inversion of a geomorphology-based transfer function and discharge deconvolution.” Hydrological Sciences Journal, 63(2), 285–301. doi: 10.1080/02626667.2018.1425801.
Dallery D, Squividant H, de Lavenne A, Launay J, Cudennec C (2020). “An end-user-friendly hydrological Web Service for hydrograph prediction in ungauged basins.” Hydrological Sciences Journal, 1–9. doi: 10.1080/02626667.2020.1797045.
Ecrepont S, Cudennec C, Anctil F, Jaffrézic A (2019). “PUB in Québec: A robust geomorphology-based deconvolution-reconvolution framework for the spatial transposition of hydrographs.” Journal of Hydrology, 570, 378–392. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.12.052.
de Lavenne A, Boudhraâ H, Cudennec C (2015). “Streamflow prediction in ungauged basins through geomorphology-based hydrograph transposition.” Hydrology Research, 46(2), 291–302. doi: 10.2166/nh.2013.099.
de Lavenne A, Skøien JO, Cudennec C, Curie F, Moatar F (2016). “Transferring measured discharge time series: Large-scale comparison of Top-kriging to geomorphology-based inverse modeling.” Water Resources Research, 52(7), 5555–5576. doi: 10.1002/2016WR018716.
de Lavenne A, Cudennec C (2019). “Assessment of freshwater discharge into a coastal bay through multi-basin ensemble hydrological modelling.” Science of The Total Environment, 669, 812 - 820. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.387.
de Lavenne A, Loree T, Squividant H, Cudennec C (2023). “The transfR toolbox for transferring observed streamflow series to ungauged basins based on their hydrogeomorphology.” Environmental Modelling & Software, 159, 105562. doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105562.