Performance of gridded precipitation products in the Black Sea region for hydrological studies

Gridded precipitation products are becoming good alternative data sources for regions with limited weather gauging stations. In this study, four climate gridded were utilized, namely Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), European Centre Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim/land, the Asian Precipitation-Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE), and Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP). The key novelty study is to fill gap in one important areas transcontinental region Eurasia, Rize province Black Sea being selected as a area since it has complex topography climatology addition number A set assessed performance observed before using hydrological model (SWAT) evaluate basin response products. Three methods considered study: (i) spatial comparison (ii) (iii) statistical evaluations. Along forcing, SWAT simulations analyzed conjunction streamflow observations. an overall evaluation, percentage bias CFSR, APHRODITE, MSWEP mean monthly 19.9%, 33.4%, 41.4%, 85.0% respectively. For flow simulations, CFSR have resulted exaggerated peak flows high season due overestimated forcing (Nash Sutcliffe efficiency [NS] equal 0.22 −0.73, respectively). On contrary, APHRODITE underestimated lower estimates (NS = 0.38). ERA-Interim land showed agreement 0.53). From these readings, we stated that exhibited improved whereas worst performance. suggests could supplement observational scarcity mountainous regions.