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  1. Home
  2. Essential Climate Variables
  3. River Discharge

 

River Discharge

River-discharge measurements have essential direct applications for water management and related services, including flood protection. They are needed in the longer term to help identify and adapt to some of the most significant potential effects of climate change. The flow of freshwater from rivers into the oceans also needs to be monitored because it reduces ocean salinity, and changes in flow may thereby influence the thermohaline circulation.

  Domain: Terrestrial
  Subdomain: Hydrology
  Scientific Area: Hydrosphere
  ECV Steward: Ulrich Looser
  Products:  River Discharge, Water Level

 


Annual Freshwater Fluxes (1960−2009) into the North Polar Ocean

Source: https://www.bafg.de/GRDC/EN/03_dtprdcts/31_FWFLX/FWF_into%20oceans_6009…

 


ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV River Discharge.

 

Products   River Discharge     Water Level
  (*) Unit Values   Unit Values
Horizontal Resolution G   -   m <20
B -   20-50
T -   >50
Vertical Resolution G   -     -
B -   -
T -   -
Temporal Resolution G h 1   h 1
B 24   24
T 720   720
Timeliness G month 1 (day)   month 1 (day)
B 1   1
T 12   12
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) G % 5   cm 10
B 10    
T 15   >10
Stability G m y-1
/ decade
0.01   m y-1
/ decade
0.01
B 0.05    
T 0.1   0.05

 

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful.

 


Data Sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.

 

  • WMO Hydrological Observing System

http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/hwrp/chy/whos/index.php

  • Global Runoff Data Base (GRDC)

https://portal.grdc.bafg.de/

  • The Global River Discharge (RivDIS) Project

http://www.rivdis.sr.unh.edu/   

EU Copernicus

 

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