Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
available, and in order to solve such issues, the hydrologist is required to use
climatological data (mainly rainfall) and to recreate the relationship between rainfall
and water levels that occurs within the drainage basin. This is, of course, subject to
the geographical infomation that is available.
Figure 7.4.
Distributed models and the problems associated with the drainage model
7.2. Pluviometry: a spatially continuous piece of geographical information
7.2.1.
Mathematically modeling precipitation
Rainfall is a random phenomenon that possesses a certain amount of spatial
continuity. Due to the data produced by rain gauges and pluviographs, it is possible
to measure rainfall. Measurements recorded by remote sensing produce an image of
the precipitation field. However, the accuracy of any indirect estimation is poor (see
chapter on remote sensing) and such estimations can not be used to model the effect
that rainfall has on water levels. At the moment, weather radars provide a relatively
good estimation of the spatial distribution of rainfall. However, this type of
