Bias-Corrected CHIRP Satellite Rainfall for Water Level Simulation, Lake Ziway, Ethiopia
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 9
Abstract
Applicability of satellite rainfall products must be explored since rain gauge networks have limitations to provide adequate spatial coverage. In this study, Climate Hazards InfraRed Precipitation (CHIRP) satellite-only product was evaluated for rainfall-runoff modeling whereas the simulated runoff served as input to simulate the water levels of Lake Ziway from 1986 to 2014. CHIRP dataset was bias-corrected using power transformation and used as input to Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model to simulate streamflow of Meki and Katar catchments. Results showed that gauged catchments of Meki and Katar contributed 524 and 855 mm to the annual lake inflow, respectively. The estimated runoff from ungauged catchments is 182 mm that amounts to approximately 8.5% of the total lake inflow over the period 1986–2000. The results of lake level simulation show good agreement from 1986 to 2000, but deteriorating agreement after 2000, which is mainly attributed to errors in water balance terms and human-induced impacts. For the period 1986–2000, the water balance closure error for the lake was 67.5 mm per year, which accounts for 2.9% of the total lake inflow from rainfall and river inflow. This study shows bias correction increases the applicability of CHIRP satellite product for lake water balance studies.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the data providers of Climate Hazards Group Infrared precipitation (CHIRP), NMA, and Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Electricity (MoWiE) for providing hydrometrological datasets. Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) also acknowledge for the hydrological model. Financial support from MoWiE and Arba Minch University in Ethiopia was also gratefully acknowledged. We also acknowledge the support received from International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
References
Abraham, T., A. Woldemicheala, A. Muluneha, and B. Abateb. 2018. “Hydrological responses of climate change on Lake Ziway catchment, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.” J. Earth Sci. Clim. Change 9 (6): 474. https://doi.org/10.4172/2157-7617.1000474.
Allen, R. G., L. S. Pereira, D. Raes, and M. Smith. 1998. Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop water requirements. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.
Ashenafi, Y., and D. Hailu. 2014. “Assessment of the use of remotely sensed rainfall products for runoff simulation in the Upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia.” Zede. J. 31: 1–9.
Ayalew, S. 2010. “Developing simplified regional potential evapotranspiration estimation method for Abbay river basin” EEA. J. 27: 25–33.
Ayehu, G. T., T. Tadesse, B. Gessesse, and T. Dinku. 2018. “Validation of new satellite rainfall products over the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia.” Atmos. Meas. Tech. 11 (4): 1921–1936. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1921-2018.
Ayenew, T. 2004. “Environmental implication of changes in the levels of lakes in the Ethiopian Rift since 1970.” Reg. Environ. Change 4 (4): 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-004-0083-x.
Ayenew, T. 2007. “Water management problems in the Ethiopian rift: Challenges for development.” J. Afr. Earth Sci. 48 (2–3): 222–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2006.05.010.
Bergström, S. 1992. The HBV model: Its structure and applications. Norrköping, Sweden: Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.
Bhatti, H. A., T. Rientjes, A. T. Haile, E. Habib, and W. Verhoef. 2016. “Evaluation of bias correction method for satellite-based rainfall data” Sensors 16 (6): 884. https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060884.
Dembélé, M., and S. J. Zwart. 2016. “Evaluation and comparison of satellite-based rainfall products in Burkina Faso, West Africa.” Int. J. Remote Sens. 37 (17): 3995–4014. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2016.1207258.
Dessie, M., N. E. Verhoest, V. R. Pauwels, E. Adgo, J. Deckers, J. Poesen, and J. Nyssen. 2015. “Water balance of a lake with floodplain buffering: Lake Tana, Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia.” J. Hydrol. 522 (Mar): 174–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.12.049.
Dessie, M., N. E. Verhoest, V. R. Pauwels, T. Admasu, E. Adgo, J. Deckers, J. Poesen, and J. Nyssen. 2014. “Analyzing runoff processes through conceptual hydrological modeling in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 18 (12): 5149–5167. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5149-2014.
Desta, H., and B. Lemma. 2017. “SWAT based hydrological assessment and characterization of Lake Ziway sub-watersheds, Ethiopia.” J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud. 13: 122–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2017.08.002.
Desta, H., B. Lemma, and E. Gebremariam. 2017. “Identifying sustainability challenges on land and water uses: The case of Lake Ziway watershed, Ethiopia.” Appl. Geogr. 88 (Nov): 130–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.09.005.
Dinku, T. 2014. “Validation of the CHIRPS satellite rainfall estimate.” In Proc., 7th Int. Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) Workshop. Bologna, Italy: International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the Earth Institute at Univ.
Dinku, T., C. Funk, P. Peterson, R. Maidment, T. Tadesse, H. Gadain, and P. Ceccato. 2018. “Validation of the CHIRPS satellite rainfall estimates over eastern of Africa.” Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 144 (Nov): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3244.
Duan, Z., J. Liu, Y. Tuo, G. Chiogna, and M. Disse. 2016. “Evaluation of eight high spatial resolution gridded rainfall products in Adige Basin (Italy) at multiple temporal and spatial scales.” Sci. Total Environ. 573 (Dec): 1536–1553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.08.213.
Ebert, E. E., J. E. Janowiak, and C. Kidd. 2007. “Comparison of near-real-time rainfall estimates from satellite observations and numerical models.” Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 88 (1): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-88-1-47.
Fuka, D. R., M. T. Walter, C. MacAlister, A. T. Degaetano, T. S. Steenhuis, and Z. M. Easton. 2014. “Using the climate forecast system reanalysis as weather input data for watershed models.” Hydrol. Process. 28 (22): 5613–5623. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10073.
Funk, C. C., P. J. Peterson, M. F. Landsfeld, D. H. Pedreros, J. P. Verdin, J. D. Rowland, B. E. Romero, G. J. Husak, J. C. Michaelsen, and A. P. Verdin. 2014. A quasi-global rainfall time series for drought monitoring. Washington, DC: USGS.
Funk, C. C., A. Verdin, J. Michaelsen, P. Peterson, D. Pedreros, and G. Husak. 2015. “A global satellite-assisted rainfall climatology.” Earth Syst. Sci. Data 7 (2): 275–287. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-275-2015.
Gebere, S. B., T. Alamirew, B. J. Merkel, and A. M. Melesse. 2015. “Performance of high resolution satellite rainfall products over data scarce parts of Eastern Ethiopia.” Remote Sens. 7 (9): 11639–11663. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70911639.
Goshime, D. W., R. Absi, and B. Ledésert. 2019. “Evaluation and bias correction of CHIRP rainfall estimate for rainfall-runoff simulation over Lake Ziway watershed, Ethiopia.” Hydrology 6 (3): 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology6030068.
Gumindoga, W., T. H. M. Rientjes, A. T. Haile, H. Makurira, and P. Reggiani. 2019. “Performance of bias-correction schemes for CMORPH rainfall estimates in the Zambezi River basin.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 23 (7): 2915–2938. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2915-2019.
Habib, E., A. T. Haile, N. Sazib, Y. Zhang, and T. Rientjes. 2014. “Effect of bias correction of satellite-rainfall estimates on runoff simulations at the source of the Upper Blue Nile.” Remote Sens. 6 (7): 6688–6708. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6076688.
Haile, A. T., E. Habib, and T. Rientjes. 2013. “Evaluation of the climate prediction center (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH) rainfall product on hourly time scales over the source of the Blue Nile River.” Hydrol. Process. 27 (12): 1829–1839. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9330.
Hargreaves, G. H., and R. G. Allen. 1985. “History and evaluation of Hargreaves evapotranspiration equation.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 129 (1): 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(2003)129:1(53).
Hessels, T. M. 2015. Comparison and validation of several open access remotely sensed rainfall products for the Nile Basin. Delft, Netherlands: Delft Univ. of Technology.
Huffman, G. J., D. T. Bolvin, E. J. Nelkin, D. B. Wolff, R. F. Adler, G. Gu, Y., Hong, K. P. Bowman, and E. F. Stocker. 2007. “The TRMM multi-satellite precipitation analysis (TMPA): Quasi-global, multiyear, combined-sensor rainfall estimates at fine scales.” J. Hydrometeorol. 8 (1): 38–55. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM560.1.
Jansen, H. C., H. Hengsdijk, D. Legesse, T. Ayenew, P. Hellegers, and P. C. Spliethoff. 2007. Land and water resources assessment in the Ethiopian Central Rift Valley : Project: ecosystems for water, food and economic development. Wageningen, Netherlands: Wageningen Univ.
Johansson, B. 2013. Integrated Hydrological Modelling System (IHMS) manual version 6.3. Norrköping, Sweden: Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.
Joyce, R. J., J. E. Janowiak, P. A. Arkin, and P. P. Xie. 2004. “A method that produces global rainfall estimates from passive microwave and infrared data at high spatial and temporal resolution.” J. Hydrometeorol. 5: 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2004)005%3C0487:CAMTPG%3E2.0.CO;2.
Kebede, S., Y. Travi, T. Alemayehu, and V. Marc. 2006. “Water balance of Lake Tana and its sensitivity to fluctuations in rainfall, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia.” J. Hydrol. 316 (1–4): 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.05.011.
Khandu, X., J. L. Awange, and E. Forootan. 2015. “An evaluation of high-resolution gridded rainfall products over Bhutan (1998–2012).” Int. J. Climatol. 36 (3): 1067–1087. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4402.
Krakauer, N. Y., S. M. Pradhanang, T. Lakhankar, and A. K. Jha. 2013. “Evaluating satellite products for rainfall estimation in mountain regions: A case study for Nepal.” Remote Sens. 5 (8): 4107–4123. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs5084107.
Kumambala, P. G., and A. Ervine. 2010. “Water balance model of Lake Malawi and its sensitivity to climate change.” Open Hydrol. J. 4 (1): 152–162. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874378101004010152.
Lafon, T., S. Dadson, G. Buys, and C. Prudhomme. 2013. “Bias correction of daily rainfall simulated by a regional climate model: A comparison of methods.” Int. J. Climatol. 33 (6): 1367–1381. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3518.
Le, A. M., and N. G. Pricope. 2017. “Increasing the accuracy of runoff and streamflow simulation in the Nzoia Basin, Western Kenya, through the Incorporation of satellite-derived CHIRPS data.” Water 9 (2): 114. https://doi.org/10.3390/w9020114.
Leander, R., and T. Buishand. 2007. “Resampling of regional climate model output for the simulation of extreme river flows.” J. Hydrol. 332 (3–4): 487–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2006.08.006.
Legesse, D., and T. Ayenew. 2006. “Effect of improper water and land resource utilization on the central main Ethiopian rift lakes.” Q. Int. 148 (1): 8–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2005.11.003.
Legesse, D., C. Vallet-Coulomb, and F. Gasse. 2004. “Analysis of the hydrological response of a tropical terminal lake, Lake Abiyata (main Ethiopian rift valley) to changes in climate and human activities.” Hydrol. Process. 18 (3): 487–504. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.1334.
Lindström, G., B. Johansson, M. Persson, M. Gardelin, and S. Bergström. 1997. “Development and test of the distributed HBV-96 hydrological model.” J. Hydrol. 201 (1–4): 272–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(97)00041-3.
Melesse, A. M., W. Abtew, and T. Dessalegn. 2009. “Evaporation estimation of rift valley lakes: Comparison of models.” Sensors 9 (12): 9603–9615. https://doi.org/10.3390/s91209603.
Moges, S. A., Z. Katambara, and Z. Bashar. 2003. “Decision support system for estimation of potential evapotranspiration in Pangani Basin.” Phys. Chem. Earth. 28 (20–27): 927–934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2003.08.038.
Nicholson, S. E., and X. Yin. 2001. “Rainfall conditions in equatorial East Africa during the nineteenth century as inferred from the record of Lake Victoria.” Clim. Change 48 (2–3): 387–398. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010736008362.
Peng, S., W. Liu, W. Wang, Q. Shao, X. Jiao, Z. Yu, W. Xing, J. Xu, Z. Zhang, and Y. Luo. 2013. “Estimating the effects of climatic variability and human activities on streamflow in the Hutuo river Basin, China.” J. Hydrol. Eng. 18 (4): 422–430. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000664.
Penman, H. L. 1948. “Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil and grass.” Proc. R. Soc. A: Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 193 (1032): 120–145. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1948.0037.
Pike, A. 1988. “The use of temperature based evaporation equations in Southern Africa.” In Proc., Seminar Pietermaritzburg. Durban, South Africa: Univ. of Natal.
Pratama, A. W., A. Buono, R. Hidayat, and H. Harsa. 2018. “Bias correction of daily satellite rainfall data using genetic algorithm.” IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth. Environ. Sci. 149 (1): 012071.
Rientjes, T. H. M., B. U. J. Perera, A. T. Haile, P. Reggiani, and L. P. Muthuwatta. 2011. “Regionalisation for lake level simulation—The case of Lake Tana in the Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 15 (4): 1167–1183. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-1167-2011.
Seyoum, W. M., A. M. Milewski, and M. C. Durham. 2015. “Understanding the relative impacts of natural processes and human activities on the hydrology of the Central Rift Valley Lakes, East Africa.” Hydrol. Process. 29 (19): 4312–4324. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10490.
Shrestha, N. K., F. M. Qamer, D. Pedreros, M. S. R. Murthy, S. M. Wahid, and M. Shrestha. 2017. “Evaluating the accuracy of Climate Hazard Group (CHG) satellite rainfall estimates for rainfall based drought monitoring in Koshi basin, Nepal.” J. Hydrol.: Reg. Stud. 13: 138–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2017.08.004.
Sorooshian, S., K.-L. Hsu, X. Gao, H. V. Gupta, B. Imam, and D. Braithwaite. 2000. “Evaluation of PERSIANN system satellite–based estimates of tropical rainfall.” Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 81 (9): 2035–2046. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(2000)081%3C2035:EOPSSE%3E2.3.CO;2.
Terink, W., R. T. W. L. Hurkmans, P. J. J. F. Torfs, and R. Uijlenhoet. 2010. “Evaluation of a bias correction method applied to downscaled precipitation and temperature reanalysis data for the Rhine basin.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 14 (6): 687–703. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-14-687-2010.
Vallet-Coulomb, C., D. Legesse, F. Gasse, Y. Travi, and T. Chernet. 2001. “Lake evaporation estimates in tropical Africa (Lake Ziway, Ethiopia).” J. Hydrol. 245 (1–4): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(01)00341-9.
Wagesho, N., M. K. Jain, and N. K. Goel. 2013. “Effect of climate change on runoff generation: Application to Rift Valley Lakes Basin of Ethiopia.” J. Hydrol. Eng. 18 (8): 1048–1063. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000647,1048-1063.
Wale, A., T. H. M. Rientjes, A. S. M. Gieske, and H. A. Getachew. 2009. “Ungauged catchment contributions to Lake Tana’s water balance.” Int. J. Hydrol. Process. 23 (26): 3682–3693. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7284.
Wang, J., Y. Hong, J. Gourley, P. Adhikari, L. Li, and F. Su. 2010. “Quantitative assessment of climate change and human impacts on long-term hydrologic response: A case study in a sub-basin of the Yellow River, China.” Int. J. Climatol. 30 (14): 2130–2137. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2023.
Worqlul, A. W., E. K. Ayana, B. H. P. Maathuis, C. MacAlister, W. D. Philpot, J. M. Osorio Leyton, and T. S. Steenhuis. 2018. “Performance of bias corrected MPEG rainfall estimate for rainfall-runoff simulation in the upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia.” J. Hydrol. 556: 1182–1191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.01.058.
Worqlul, A. W., A. S. Collick, S. A. Tilahun, S. Langan, T. H. Rientjest, and T. S. Steenhuis. 2015. “Comparing TRMM 3B42, CFSR and ground-based rainfall estimates as input for hydrological models, in data scarce regions: The Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss. 12 (2): 2081–2112. https://doi.org/10.5194/hessd-12-2081-2015.
Yong, B., B. Chen, J. J. Gourley, L. Ren, Y. Hong, X. Chen, W. Wang, S. Chen, and L. Gong. 2014. “Intercomparison of the version-6 and version-7 TMPA rainfall products over high and low latitudes basins with independent gauge networks.” J. Hydrol. 508 (Jan): 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.10.050.
Yong, B., L. L. Ren, Y. Hong, J. H. Wang, J. J. Gourley, S. H. Jiang, and W. Wang. 2010. “Hydrologic evaluation of multisatellite precipitation analysis standard rainfall products in basins beyond its inclined latitude band: A case study in Laohahe basin, China.” Water Resour. Res. 46 (7): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009WR008965.
Yuan, F., L. Zhang, K. W. W. Win, L. Ren, C. Zhao, Y. Zhu, S. Jiang, and Y. Liu. 2017. “Assessment of GPM and TRMM multi-satellite rainfall products in streamflow simulations in a data-sparse mountainous watershed in Myanmar.” Remote Sens. 9 (3): 302. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9030302.
Zhou, Z., Y. Jia, Y. Qiu, J. Liu, H. Wang, C.-Y. Xu, J. Li, and L. Liu. 2018. “Simulation of dualistic hydrological processes affected by intensive human activities based on distributed hydrological model.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 144 (12): 04018077. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000990.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 25 • Issue 9 • September 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 22, 2019
Accepted: Mar 18, 2020
Published online: Jun 24, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 24, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.