Articles | Volume 21, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3093-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3093-2017
Cutting-edge case studies
 | 
28 Jun 2017
Cutting-edge case studies |  | 28 Jun 2017

On the probability distribution of daily streamflow in the United States

Annalise G. Blum, Stacey A. Archfield, and Richard M. Vogel

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Cited articles

Archfield, S. A.: Estimation of continuous daily streamflow at ungaged locations in southern New England, PhD dissertation, Tufts University, 2009.
Archfield, S. A. and Vogel, R. M.: Map correlation method: Selection of a reference streamgage to estimate daily streamflow at ungaged catchments, Water Resour. Res., 46, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009WR008481, 2010.
Basso, S., Schirmer, M., and Botter, G.: On the emergence of heavy-tailed streamflow distributions, Adv. Water Resour., 82, 98–105, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.04.013, 2015.
Botter, G., Zanardo, S., Porporato, A., Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., and Rinaldo, A.: Ecohydrological model of flow duration curves and annual minima, Water Resour. Res., 44, 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR006814, 2008.
Bowers, M. C., Tung, W. W., and Gao, J. B.: On the distributions of seasonal river flows: Lognormal or power law? Water Resour. Res., 48, 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011308, 2012.
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Short summary
Flow duration curves are ubiquitous in surface water hydrology for applications including water allocation and protection of ecosystem health. We identify three probability distributions that can provide a reasonable fit to daily streamflows across much of United States. These results help us understand of the behavior of daily streamflows and enhance our ability to predict streamflows at ungaged river locations.