Articles | Volume 29, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6157-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6157-2025
Research article
 | 
11 Nov 2025
Research article |  | 11 Nov 2025

Error-correction across gauged and ungauged locations: A data assimilation-inspired approach to post-processing river discharge forecasts

Gwyneth Matthews, Hannah L. Cloke, Sarah L. Dance, and Christel Prudhomme

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Cited articles

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Barnard, C., Blick, M., Wetterhall F., Mazzetti, C., Decremer, D., Jurlina, T., Baugh, C., Harrigan, S., Battino, P., and Prudhomme, C.: River discharge and related forecasted data from the European Flood Awareness System, v4.0, European Commission, Joint Research Center (JRC) [data set], https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.9f696a7a, 2020. a, b
Bell, M. J., Martin, M. J., and Nichols, N. K.: Assimilation of data into an ocean model with systematic errors near the equator, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 130, 873–893, https://doi.org/10.1256/qj.02.109, 2004. a, b
Bennett, A., Stein, A., Cheng, Y., Nijssen, B., and McGuire, M.: A process-conditioned and spatially consistent method for reducing systematic biases in modeled streamflow, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 23, 769–783, 2022. a, b
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Short summary
Forecasts provide information crucial for managing floods and for water resource planning, but they often have errors. “Post-processing” reduces these errors but is usually only applied at river gauges, leaving areas without gauges uncorrected. We developed a new method that uses spatial information contained within the forecast to spread information about the errors from gauged locations to ungauged areas. Our results show that the method successfully makes river forecasts more accurate.
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