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Hydrological parametrization of peatland water level dynamics using satellite-based precipitation: a case study in Brunei
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  • Sebastian Apers,
  • Alex Cobb,
  • Gabriëlle J. M. De Lannoy,
  • Michel Bechtold
Sebastian Apers
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Departement Aard- en Omgevingswetenschappen

Corresponding Author:sebastian.apers@kuleuven.be

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Alex Cobb
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre
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Gabriëlle J. M. De Lannoy
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Departement Aard- en Omgevingswetenschappen
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Michel Bechtold
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Departement Aard- en Omgevingswetenschappen
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Abstract

Tropical peatlands are characterized by highly organic, heterogeneous, and compressible peat soils. Without sampling and disturbing the soil, peat hydraulic and discharge parameters can be estimated from analyzing the in situ water level rise and recession. Such an analysis allows for the representation of the hydraulic behavior of a peatland from water level, precipitation, and topography data. Water level is measured in several remote tropical peatlands, whereas in situ precipitation is often not. Gridded satellite precipitation products provide an alternative, but are coarse and highly uncertain. Here, we introduce an algorithm for the hydrological parameterization of water level dynamics using satellite-based precipitation, and apply it to a tropical peatland in Brunei, while accounting for representativeness errors in the precipitation data. First, we adapt the rise and recession analysis developed by Cobb & Harvey (2019) for use with Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission (IMERG) precipitation estimates. The adapted rise analysis reduces the average error in the slope of the master rise curve with IMERG data from 21% to 3%. The average daily recession overestimation with IMERG data is reduced from 0.45 cm day -1 to 0.18 cm day -1. We also quantify the sensitivity of our rise analysis to precipitation errors using an ensemble of erroneous precipitation time series. Second, the adapted master rise and recession curves are used to fit soil hydraulic and discharge function parameters within the peatland-specific module of the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model. Our method enables the retrieval of accurate hydrological parameters for our case study, and should be tested in other peatland regions and with other satellite-based precipitation products.
10 Aug 2024Submitted to Hydrological Processes
10 Aug 2024Submission Checks Completed
10 Aug 2024Assigned to Editor
10 Aug 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
23 Aug 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned