Publication Date:
2017-09-20
Description:
This is Part 2 of a two-paper series presenting the Global Streamflow Indices and Metadata Archive (GSIM), which is a collection of daily streamflow observations at more than 30000 stations around the world. While Part 1 describes the data collection process as well as the generation of auxiliary catchment data (e.g. catchment boundary, land-cover, mean climate), Part 2 introduces a set of quality controlled time series indices representing (i) the water balance, (ii) the seasonal cycle, (iii) low-flows and (iv) floods. To this end we first consider the quality of individual daily records using a combination of quality flags of the data providers and automated screening methods. Subsequently streamflow time series indices are computed for yearly, seasonal and monthly resolution. The paper closes with a generalized assessment of the homogeneity of all generated streamflow time series indices, which can be used to select time series that are suitable for a specific task. The presented global set of streamflow time series indices is made freely available at https://iacweb.ethz.ch/staff/lukasgu/GSIM/GSIM_indices.zip and is expected to foster global freshwater research, by acting as a ground-truth for model validation or as a basis for assessing the role of human impacts on the terrestrial water cycle.
Electronic ISSN:
1866-3591
Topics:
Geosciences
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