Articles | Volume 29, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2851-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2851-2025
Technical note
 | 
08 Jul 2025
Technical note |  | 08 Jul 2025

Technical note: Streamflow seasonality using directional statistics

Wouter R. Berghuijs, Kate Hale, and Harsh Beria

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Cited articles

Almagro, A., Meira Neto, A. A., Vergopolan, N., Roy, T., Troch, P. A., and Oliveira, P. T. S.: The drivers of hydrologic behavior in Brazil: Insights from a catchment classification, Water Resour. Res., 60, e2024WR037212, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR037212, 2024. 
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Berghuijs, W.: Streamflow seasonality using directional statistics workflow figures, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15264750, 2025. 
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Short summary
We present directional statistics to characterize seasonality, capturing the timing of streamflow (center of mass timing) and the strength of its seasonal cycle (concentration). Directional statistics are more robust than several widely used metrics to quantify streamflow seasonality. The introduced metrics can improve our understanding of streamflow seasonality and associated changes and can also be used to study the seasonality of other environmental fluxes within and beyond hydrology.
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