Name- Swagata Banik

Roll no- 13001320062

Subject Code-CE(PC)502

ENGINEERING HYDROLOGY
Abstract
Improved stream flow forecasting is considered an important task for researchers
and water resources managers. However, stream flow forecasting is often
challenging owing to the complexity of hydrologic systems. The accuracy of stream
flow forecasting mainly depends on the input data from rainfall. Hence, this is
important to make the estimation of rainfall as accurate as possible result in achieve
an economical design of watershed management, water budget studies, reservoir
operation, and flood forecasting and control. Most of the previous research was
highlighted, an optimal rain gauge network is necessary to provide high quality
rainfall estimates. The goal of this paper is to provide a concise review of several
studies on the optimal design of a rain gauge network models to enhance the
accuracy of stream flow forecasting. This study had two components. First, the
design of an optimal rain gauge network using the kriging-based geo-statistical
approach based on the variance reduction framework. Second, the uses of
optimization technique for minimizing the kriging variance in order to optimize rain
gauge networks. Additionally, a discussion of both techniques to design an optimal
rain gauge network is presented. A well designed rain gauge network is capable of
providing accurate rainfall estimates with an optimal number of rain gauge network
density. This paper closes with a set of recommendations for what observations and
capabilities are needed in the future to advance our understanding of an optimal rain
gauge network design and their location for improving the estimate of aerial rainfall.

INTRODUCTION
Checking the Consistency of Data of a Rain Gauge Station
Sometimes a significant change may occur in and around a particular rain gauge
station. Such a change occurring in a particular year, will start affecting the rain
gauge data, being reported from that particular station .After a number of years, it
may be felt that the data of that station is not giving consistent rainfall values .The
rain gauge station might have been installed at different sites in the past that is
 through there is a long and continuous rainfall record. The data obtained are not
homogeneous with respect to the present location of the rain gauge. The
consistency and accuracy of the data are tested by double mass curve analysis .The
consistency and accuracy of the data are tested by double mass curve analysis. In
this method, a group of 5 to 10 neighbouring stations are chosen, in the vicinity of
the doubtful station. The yearly rainfall values, reported from this group of stations
are serially, and their mean yearly values are worked out for each consecutive year
of available record. These mean yearly rainfall values (of the chosen group of
stations) are serially arranged in a reverse chronological order (i.e. the latest year
getting the first entry). Against these values, the recorded yearly rainfall values of the
doubtful station are also serially for each year.

Design of rain gauge network

An optimal rain gauge network should neither suffer from lack of rain gauge stations
nor be oversaturated with redundant rain gauge stations. A typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look for a combination among all rain gauge stations in
such a way that minimizes the estimation variance and/or maximizes the information
content for the observed data. This can be achieved either by optimal positioning of
additional and redundant stations or simply removing redundant stations that forms
the scope of this paper. The variance reduction approach under the kriging-based
geo-statistical approach was used for the rain gauge network design in this study.
Reduction of the kriging error was considered as an indicator to achieve the optimal
network. The underlying principle is that optimal positioning of additional as well as
redundant stations in high variance zones will reduce the kriging error in the network
and hence improve the network performance. Applying this principle repeatedly, a
certain stage will come when the optimal combination of existing and additional
stations can be obtained that yield high network performance to form the optimal rain
gauge network.

Selection of site for rain gauge:

 While selecting the site for the installation of rain gauge the following points should
be take kept in mind.

1.  The site should be in levels ground and other types of the ground like hilltops,  hill
slope, etc. undulation type of slope is not suitable.
2. The site should be an open space.
3. The nearest object from the rain gauge should be kept at a distance of twice the
height of the object.
4. Sad should be away from continuous wind forces.
5. Other metrological instruments and the fencing of the site should maintain step 3
above.
6. The site should be easily accessible.
7. The gauge should be truly vertical.
8. 10% of the total number of rain gauge stations of any basin should be self-
recording.
9. The observer must visit the site regularly to ensure its proper reading readiness for
measurements

Procedure:

Rainfall data of at least 6 rain gauging stations is taken. The stations should be
meterologically similar. Then double mass curve is plotted. It is a graph in
which abscissa represents mean cumulative precipitation of all the stations
under consideration.
Ordinate represents cumulative precipitation of a station whose consistency is
to be checked. If the curve comes out to be straight line then the rainfall data
of the station under consideration is consistent. This is based on the principle
that the mean accumulated precipitation of a number of stations which are
meteorologically similar is not materially affected. If the curve is not a straight
line data is inconsistent. Knowing the readings which are fictitious necessary
corrections can be made in the data.
Once it is ascertained that the rainfall data is consistent then general tendency
or trend of the rainfall values can be satisfactorily studied to forecast future
rainfall that may occur. This can also be done by plotting what is known as
rainfall frequency curve. By frequency we mean the average time interval that
elapses between successive occurrences of rainfall of same depth or value.

Optimal design of a rain gauge network

models to enhance the accuracy of stream
flow forecasting:
A review of the existing optimal rain gauge network design approaches is vital to
come up with a suitable approach for the optimal design of rain gauge network.
Optimal rain gauge network can be defined as a balanced network that neither
suffers from lack of rain gauge stations nor is over-saturated with redundant rain
gauge stations. Hence, in any hydrological study, an optimal rain gauge network is
often considered as crucial component. The design of hydrometric networks is a
classical problem in hydrometeorology, which has received significant attention from
the researchers for many years. Since myriad concerns are associated with
hydrometric network design many approaches have been developed for that purpose
around the world
Study area and data source:
The Brue catchment in Somerset, south-western England (51.08°N, 2.58°W),
covering an area of 135 km2 to its river gauging station at Lovington, is chosen as a
case study for the investigations carried out in this work. It is mainly pastureland with
some areas of woodland in the higher eastern half of the domain. The choice of
catchment is based on the availability of quality data; furthermore, the characteristics
of the Brue catchment are considered to be representative of rural U.K. catchments
used for rainfall–runoff modeling. With 6 years of continuous data provided by a
dense 49-rain-gauge network (see Fig. 1), the Brue catchment provides an ideal
study area for the analysis of rain gauge network design. The designed scheme can
be carefully evaluated with the large number of available rain gauges. Operationally,
most catchments are only serviced by two rain gauges at best. The cost of
maintaining a denser network is too prohibitive for it to be feasible on a larger scale.
Clearly, the rich dataset provided by a dense rain gauge network is rare and contains
information on rainfall events that would normally be missed by catchments with just
one or two rain gauges.

FIG. 1.
The Brue catchment terrain map. The purple dots represent the rain gauges and the
grid represents the real radar grids. The labeled number is the index of the
corresponding grid.
Rain gauge network design is carried out for 373 rainfall events from September
1993 to April 2000. Except for some events where either radar or gauge data are
missing, these events cover almost all significant storms during the period. To
display the outcomes, 10 demonstrated typical events are chosen from them. The
event identifier (ID), durations, and averaged rainfall over the catchment are listed
in Table 1. The events cover a wide range of scenarios; some of the rainfall is
consistent over several hours (events 3 and 4), and some events are short lived but
intense (events 2 and 9). Averaged rainfall represents the areal-averaged rainfall
over a catchment with accumulated rainfall for an event. It is calculated using radar
rainfall measurements. With possible systematic errors, the radar rainfall estimates
tend to be larger than gauge rainfall values in the Brue catchment. Discussion of
radar rainfall adjustment and uncertainty analysis is outside of the scope of this work.
Interested readers can refer to our previous papers for more information

TABLE 1.
Ten typical rainfall events measured over the Brue catchment. The averaged rainfall
represents the accumulated radar rainfall for an event and areal-averaged rainfall in
the catchment.

Location of rain gauges

After establishing the level of redundancy in the radar grid network, it is necessary to
determine which grids to select so that the maximum level of information will be
retained and unnecessary repeated measurements would be removed. Since the
components do not represent physical radar grids, cluster analyses (CA Max and CA
Med) are used.

The locations of OGs for each event derived from PCA and CA Max are shown for
retaining at least 90% of the total variance, as explained in Fig. 5. Each event has a
different combination of radar grids and suggests that the optimum locations of a
small number of radar grids depends on the rainfall event itself. The selected
optimum radar grids tend to be located at the boundary of the catchment, especially
for events that claim only one or two grids. For example, in event 1, two OGs are
located at the southern boundary of the catchment, while the OG is chosen from the
northern boundary in event 2. The corresponding derived OGs using the CA Med
method are shown in Fig. 6. Inspection of Figs. 5 and 6 shows that the different
variable selection methods produce different OG locations. In some cases, the OG
locations differ just slightly (e.g., event 10), and in other cases the locations differ
substantially (e.g., events 8 and 9).

FIG. 5.Locations of the OGs derived from the CA Max method for the 10 typical events (total
variance explained ≥90%).
FIG. 6
Locations of the OGs derived from the CA Med method for the 10 typical events (total
variance explained ≥90%).

The minimum rain gauge density required for different

types of catchments,
As per the guidelines of World Meteorological Organisation, are given below:

(1) For flat regions of temperate Mediterranean and Tropical zones-one station
per 600-900 sq. km. For countries with limited funds, population or other
factors such as lack of communication, the density may be reduced to one
station per 600-3000 sq.km
(2) For Mountainous regions of temperate Mediterranean and Tropical tones one
station per 100-250 sq. km. For countries with problems mentioned above, the
density may be reduced to one station per 250-1000 sq. km.
(3) For arid or polar zones - the minimum density may be one station per 1500-
10.000 sq. km. depending upon the feasibility.
(4) In India, however, the standard prescribed by a High level Committee on
floods set up by the Govt. of India. recommends to establish minimum 1.
station per 500 sq.km. (e. I station per 200 sq. miles).

Fig. 2 represents the rain gauge density values, as adopted in different

countries of the world. This figure reflects that Israel has the maximum rain
gauge density of the order of 37 gauges/1000 sq. km of area, as against the
Indian figure of 1.7 gauge per 1000 sq.km
 Fig. 2 Rain gauge density as adopted in different countries

Double-mass Curve
This method is based on the assumption that the mean accumulated precipitation for
a large group of stations is not significantly affected by a change or changes in
individual stations.  If we plot the mean accumulated precipitation for several stations
against the accumulated precipitation of the record for the station that needs to be
adjusted, any change in slope will indicate a “break” in the station record.   This is
shown by point B in the Fig. for the year 1974.

If the slope of the line AB (year 1970-74 in the example) is a and of the line AC
(1974-85 in example fig.) is b, the adjustment of the inconsistent data is made by the
ration of the slope of two line segments.  Two ways of adjustments are possible.

1.     The data adjusted to reflect the conditions that existed prior to the indicated
break.  This is done by multiplying each recent precipitation value after break
point B of station X (being tested) by the ratio a/b.
2.     The data are adjusted to reflect recent conditions following the break.  This is
achieved by multiplying each value of the precipitation before the break by the
ratio b/a.  Adjustment of this type is generally made.

St(Y)=St-1 (Y) + Yt        , t = 1,2,…,N 

 St(X) = St-1 (X) +Xt   , t = 1,2,…,N

in which . Thus we have two sequences of partial sums, namely: and The double
mass plot is constructed as shown in the sketch below.

Figure 1(a) reflects the inconsistency in the data while Fig.1(b) reflects that series yt
has a pattern consistent with that of series xt. Referring to Fig.1(a) the point where
the slope changes from s1 to s2 marks the time where the inconsistency occurs.
Therefore part of the record of y must be adjusted. Which part of the record must be
adjusted (before the break point or after) depends on the particular case. For
example, if the inconsistency in y has occurred because the gage was moved from
the original location to another location (the current location), then it is logical to
adjust the record before the break point.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion, as mentioned earlier, the goal of this paper was to provide

a brief review of past recent studies on the optimal design of a rain
gauge network models to enhance the accuracy of streamflow
forecasting. In a rain gauge network design exercise, network expansion
(using additional stations) as well as network rationalization (eliminating
or re-locating redundant stations) and identification of optimal locations
of both additional and redundant stations are seen as a potential way to
achieve the optimal rain gauge network. In other words, the additional
stations that contribute to reduce kriging variance of the network can be
selected. Also, the redundant stations that have little or no contribution to
the network variance reduction can be either eliminated or optimally
located in the high variance areas of the network. However, this study
focused on kriging and optimization approach in optimal rain gauge
network for enhancing stream flow forecasting which was found highly
effective in improving the stream flow forecasting accuracy.

References
[1] Jain A, Kumar AM 2007 Hybrid neural network models for hydrologic
time series forecasting. Applied Soft Computing 7(2): 585-592. DOI:
10.1016/j.asoc.2006.03.002.
[2] Londhe S, Charhate S 2010 Comparison of data-driven modelling
techniques for river flow forecasting. Hydrological Sciences Journal
55(7): 1163-1174. DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2010.512867

[3] Akhtar MK, Corzo GA, Andel SJ, Jonoski A 2009 River flow
forecasting with artificial neural networks using satellite observed
precipitation pre-processed with flow lengths and travel time information:
case study of the Ganges River basin. Hydrology and Earth System
Sciences 13: 1607-1618. DOI: 10.5194/hess-13-1607-2009.

An optimal rain gauge network

should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.
An optimal rain gauge network
should neither suffer from
lack of rain gauge stations nor be
oversaturated with
redundant rain gauge stations. A
typical procedure of rain
gauge network design has to look
for a combination among
all rain gauge stations in such a way
that minimizes the
estimation variance and/or
maximizes the information
content for the observed data.