Uncertainty in hydrological signatures

Westerberg, I. K.; McMillan, H. K.

doi:10.5194/hess-19-3951-2015

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3951-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3951-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

Research article

|

24 Sep 2015

Research article |

| 24 Sep 2015

Uncertainty in hydrological signatures

I. K. Westerberg and H. K. McMillan

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Aug 2015	14	12	0	26
Sep 2015	157	91	16	264
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Jan 2017	17	7	2	26
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Apr 2017	25	11	3	39
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Oct 2017	9	96	0	105
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May 2023	13	17	0	30
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Nov 2024	20	13	1	34
Dec 2024	31	15	1	47
Jan 2025	28	18	3	49
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Jul 2025	47	22	1	70
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Dec 2025	43	47	2	92
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Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 24 Apr 2015)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
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May 2015	60	64	3	127
Jun 2015	38	26	1	65
Jul 2015	32	22	0	54
Aug 2015	14	12	0	26
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Nov 2015	72	38	2	112
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Mar 2025	36	19	2	57
Apr 2025	23	18	1	42
May 2025	53	14	1	68
Jun 2025	57	23	0	80
Jul 2025	47	22	1	70
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Sep 2025	75	33	2	110
Oct 2025	53	28	1	82
Nov 2025	44	46	2	92
Dec 2025	43	47	2	92
Jan 2026	70	50	19	139
Feb 2026	47	41	2	90
Mar 2026	22	12	5	39

Latest update: 11 Mar 2026

Short summary

This study investigated the effect of uncertainties in data and calculation methods on hydrological signatures. We present a widely applicable method to evaluate signature uncertainty and show results for two example catchments. The uncertainties were often large (i.e. typical intervals of ±10–40% relative uncertainty) and highly variable between signatures. It is therefore important to consider uncertainty when signatures are used for hydrological and ecohydrological analyses and modelling.