Spatially Variable Precipitation and Its Influence on Water Balance in a Headwater Alpine Basin, Nepal

The current knowledge of the spatial variability precipitation in High Mountain Asia is based on remotely-sensed estimates (coarse and temporal resolution) or data from sparsely-distributed rain gauges. However, as strongly affected by topography mountainous terrain, spatially varying resulting water balances are currently poorly understood. To fill this gap knowledge, we studied variation its impact balance a small headwater basin located foothills Himalaya, Nepal. We deployed ten gauges climate stations, spanning whole elevation range 700–4500 m above sea level (masl) for period four years. Our results show quadratic polynomial relationship between annual station elevation, which used to produce maps. performance elevation-based adequate closing while performances average Thiessen polygon method poor inconsistent balance. also demonstrate that one two at lowest substantially underestimate 2000–3000 masl provide significantly better estimate basin.