Articles | Volume 30, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5521-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5521-2026
Research article
 | 
01 Sep 2026
Research article |  | 01 Sep 2026

Integrating Physical-Based Xinanjiang Model and Deep Learning for Interpretable Streamflow Simulation: A Multi-Source Data Fusion Approach across Diverse Chinese Basins

Zhaocai Wang, Nannan Xu, Wei Song, Xingxing Zhang, Junhao Wu, and Xi Chen

Cited articles

Acuña Espinoza, E., Kratzert, F., Klotz, D., Gauch, M., Álvarez Chaves, M., Loritz, R., and Ehret, U.: Technical note: An approach for handling multiple temporal frequencies with different input dimensions using a single LSTM cell, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1749–1758, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1749-2025, 2025a. 
Acuña Espinoza, E., Loritz, R., Kratzert, F., Klotz, D., Gauch, M., Álvarez Chaves, M., and Ehret, U.: Analyzing the generalization capabilities of a hybrid hydrological model for extrapolation to extreme events, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1277–1294, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1277-2025, 2025b. 
Ahmed, A. A. M., Deo, R. C., Ghahramani, A., Feng, Q., Raj, N., Yin, Z. L., and Yang, L. S.: New double decomposition deep learning methods for river water level forecasting, Sci. Total Environ., 831, 154722, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154722, 2022. 
Alnahit, A. O., Mishra, A. K., and Khan, A. A.: Stream water quality prediction using boosted regression tree and random forest models, Stochastic Environ. Res. Risk Assess., 36, 2661–2680, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-021-02152-4, 2022. 
Bai, P., Liu, X. M., Liang, K., Liu, X. J., and Liu, C. M.: A comparison of simple and complex versions of the Xinanjiang hydrological model in predicting runoff in ungauged basins, Hydrol. Res., 48, 1282–1295, https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.094, 2017. 
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Short summary
This study integrates Xinanjiang (XAJ) and Temporal Convolutional Network - Gated Recurrent Unit (TCN-GRU) via Random Forest (RF) for streamflow simulation. It combines XAJ’s physical modeling with TCN-GRU’s temporal analysis. Validated in four hydrologically diverse basins, the model achieves Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) 0.971–0.991, outperforming traditional models. Robust in flood/interval simulations, analysis identifies dew point temperature and evaporation as key factors through three interpretable methods.
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