{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,17]],"date-time":"2026-02-17T19:54:23Z","timestamp":1771358063972,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,20]],"date-time":"2021-04-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1618876800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1451070"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1451070"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will measure rivers wider than 50\u2013100 m using a 21-day orbit, providing river reach derived discharges that can inform applications like flood forecasting and large-scale hydrologic modelling. However, these discharges will not be uniform in time or coincident with those of neighboring reaches. It is often assumed discharge upstream and downstream of a river location are highly correlated in natural conditions and can be transferred using a scaling factor like the drainage area ratio between locations. Here, the applicability of the drainage area ratio method to integrate, in space and time, SWOT-derived discharges throughout the observable river network of the Mississippi River basin is assessed. In some cases, area ratios ranging from 0.01 to 100 can be used, but cumulative urban area and\/or the number of dams\/reservoirs between locations decrease the method\u2019s applicability. Though the mean number of SWOT observations for a given reach increases by 83% and the number of peak events captured increases by 100%, expanded SWOT sampled time series distributions often underperform compared to the original SWOT sampled time series for significance tests and quantile results. Alternate expansion methods may be more viable for future work.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13081590","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,20]],"date-time":"2021-04-20T13:58:04Z","timestamp":1618927084000},"page":"1590","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Leveraging River Network Topology and Regionalization to Expand SWOT-Derived River Discharge Time Series in the Mississippi River Basin"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9930-1433","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cassandra","family":"Nickles","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}]},{"given":"Edward","family":"Beighley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1516","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2014.08.044","article-title":"Assessing the potential global extent of SWOT river discharge observations","volume":"519","author":"Pavelsky","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"307","DOI":"10.1007\/s10712-015-9346-y","article-title":"The SWOT Mission and Its Capabilities for Land Hydrology","volume":"37","author":"Biancamaria","year":"2016","journal-title":"Surv. Geophys."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8154","DOI":"10.1029\/2019GL083886","article-title":"How Does the Unique Space-Time Sampling of the SWOT Mission Influence River Discharge Series Characteristics?","volume":"46","author":"Nickles","year":"2019","journal-title":"Geophys. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10435","DOI":"10.1029\/2019GL084686","article-title":"Will the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission observe floods?","volume":"46","author":"Frasson","year":"2019","journal-title":"Geophys. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gleason, C.J., and Durand, M.T. (2020). Remote Sensing of River Discharge: A Review and a Framing for the Discipline. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12071107"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"958","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000690","article-title":"Streamflow Prediction in Ungauged Basins: Review of Regionalization Methods","volume":"18","author":"Razavi","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125016","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2020.125016","article-title":"Streamflow prediction in \u201cgeopolitically ungauged\u201d basins using satellite observations and regionalization at subcontinental scale","volume":"588","author":"Du","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1016\/j.spacepol.2016.05.005","article-title":"A review of applications of satellite earth observation data for global societal benefit and stewardship of planet earth","volume":"36","author":"Kansakar","year":"2016","journal-title":"Space Policy"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"823","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gloenvcha.2012.07.004","article-title":"Global exposure to river and coastal flooding: Long term trends and changes","volume":"22","author":"Jongman","year":"2012","journal-title":"Glob. Environ. Chang."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"865","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000383","article-title":"Evaluating Urban Storm-Water Infrastructure Design in Response to Projected Climate Change","volume":"16","author":"Forsee","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1515","DOI":"10.1002\/joc.4442","article-title":"Pacific Ocean SST and Z500 climate variability and western U.S. seasonal streamflow","volume":"36","author":"Soumya","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2253","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-24-2253-2020","article-title":"Identifying uncertainties in hydrologic fluxes and seasonality from hydrologic model components for climate change impact assessments","volume":"24","author":"Feng","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"160","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2018.03.060","article-title":"Simulating streamflow in ungauged basins under a changing climate: The importance of landscape characteristics","volume":"561","author":"Teutschbein","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"713","DOI":"10.1130\/G22633.1","article-title":"Effects of urbanization on watershed hydrology: The scaling of discharge with drainage area","volume":"34","author":"Galster","year":"2006","journal-title":"Geology"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pinter, N., Jemberie, A.A., Remo, J.W.F., Heine, R.A., and Ickes, B.S. (2008). Flood trends and river engineering on the Mississippi River system. Geophys. Res. Lett., 35.","DOI":"10.1029\/2008GL035987"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1198","DOI":"10.1080\/02626667.2013.803183","article-title":"A decade of Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB)\u2014A review","volume":"58","author":"Hrachowitz","year":"2013","journal-title":"Hydrol. Sci. J. J. Des Sci. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e1487","DOI":"10.1002\/wat2.1487","article-title":"Regionalization of hydrological modeling for predicting streamflow in ungauged catchments: A comprehensive review","volume":"8","author":"Guo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Wires Water"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"198","DOI":"10.1080\/23249676.2019.1611493","article-title":"Alternative for the regionalization of flow duration curves","volume":"7","author":"Blanco","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Appl. Water Eng. Res."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2015.03.042","article-title":"Ensemble hydrological prediction of streamflow percentile at ungauged basins in Pakistan","volume":"525","author":"Waseem","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2680","DOI":"10.1080\/02626667.2016.1154557","article-title":"Analysis of continuous streamflow regionalization methods within a virtual setting","volume":"61","author":"Arsenault","year":"2016","journal-title":"Hydrol. Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1297","DOI":"10.1080\/02626667.2019.1639716","article-title":"Streamflow prediction in ungauged basins: Analysis of regionalization methods in a hydrologically heterogeneous region of Mexico","volume":"64","author":"Arsenault","year":"2019","journal-title":"Hydrol. Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"278","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)1084-0699(2000)5:3(278)","article-title":"Evaluation of Peak Discharge Transposition","volume":"5","author":"McCuen","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"480","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.11426","article-title":"A comparison of methods for low streamflow estimation from spot measurements","volume":"32","author":"Stagnitta","year":"2018","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"307","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2009.12.045","article-title":"Spatial scaling in a changing climate: A hierarchical bayesian model for non-stationary multi-site annual maximum and monthly streamflow","volume":"383","author":"Lima","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Archfield, S.A., and Vogel, R.M. (2010). Map correlation method: Selection of a reference streamgage to estimate daily streamflow at ungaged catchments. Water Resour. Res., 46.","DOI":"10.1029\/2009WR008481"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gupta, V.K., Mantilla, R., Troutman, B.M., Dawdy, D., and Krajewski, W.F. (2010). Generalizing a nonlinear geophysical flood theory to medium-sized river networks. Geophys. Res. Lett., 37.","DOI":"10.1029\/2009GL041540"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"627","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.13350","article-title":"Flow dynamics at the continental scale: Streamflow correlation and hydrological similarity","volume":"33","author":"Betterle","year":"2019","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2668","DOI":"10.1080\/02626667.2016.1154558","article-title":"Improving streamflow estimation in ungauged basins using a multi-modelling approach","volume":"61","author":"Razavi","year":"2016","journal-title":"Hydrol. Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2019WR026999","DOI":"10.1029\/2019WR026999","article-title":"A Data Assimilation Framework for Generating Space-Time Continuous Daily SWOT River Discharge Data Products","volume":"56","author":"Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78492","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2990181","article-title":"Joint Spatial and Temporal Modeling for Hydrological Prediction","volume":"8","author":"Zhao","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1781","DOI":"10.1029\/WR015i006p01781","article-title":"An evaluation of some record reconstruction techniques","volume":"15","author":"Hirsch","year":"1979","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"190","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)1084-0699(2000)5:2(190)","article-title":"Using GIS to Determine Extent of Gauged Streams in a Region","volume":"5","author":"Moglen","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"49","article-title":"Neighbors: Nature\u2019s own hydrological models","volume":"414\u2013415","author":"Lerat","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3978","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.10877","article-title":"The assumption of uniform specific discharge: Unsafe at any time?","volume":"30","author":"Karlsen","year":"2016","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Asquith, W.H., Roussel, M.C., and Vrabel, J. (2021, February 22). Statewide Analysis of the Drainage-Area Ratio Method for 34 Streamflow percentile Ranges in Texas; Scientific Investigations Report 2006\u20135286, Available online: http:\/\/pubs.er.usgs.gov\/publication\/sir20065286.","DOI":"10.3133\/sir20065286"},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Liu, C., Zhang, Z., and Balay, J.W. (2021, March 15). Evaluation of Reference Gages for Passby Flow Determinations and Monitoring in the Susquehanna River Basin; 2017; Publication No. 305. Available online: https:\/\/www.srbc.net\/our-work\/reports-library\/technical-reports\/305-reference-gages-passby\/docs\/evaluation-reference-gages-passby-flow.pdf."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hortness, J.E. (2021, January 17). Estimating Low-Flow Frequency Statistics for Unregulated Streams in Idaho; Scientific Investigations Report 2006\u20135035, Available online: https:\/\/pubs.water.usgs.gov\/sir20065035.","DOI":"10.3133\/sir20065035"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Ries Iii, K.G., and Friesz, P.J. (2021, March 15). Methods for Estimating Low-Flow Statistics for Massachusetts Streams; Water-Resources Investigations Report 2000\u20134135, Available online: http:\/\/pubs.er.usgs.gov\/publication\/wri004135."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejrh.2015.09.002","article-title":"Watershed area ratio accurately predicts daily streamflow in nested catchments in the Catskills, New York","volume":"4","author":"Gianfagna","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2845","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.13229","article-title":"Determination of subcatchment and watershed boundaries in a complex and highly urbanized landscape","volume":"32","author":"Kayembe","year":"2018","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2020EF001558","DOI":"10.1029\/2020EF001558","article-title":"A Participatory Science Approach to Expanding Instream Infrastructure Inventories","volume":"8","author":"Whittemore","year":"2020","journal-title":"Earth\u2019s Future"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"80","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2009.08.003","article-title":"Decomposition of the mean squared error and NSE performance criteria: Implications for improving hydrological modelling","volume":"377","author":"Gupta","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"264","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2012.01.011","article-title":"Runoff conditions in the upper Danube basin under an ensemble of climate change scenarios","volume":"424\u2013425","author":"Kling","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4323","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-23-4323-2019","article-title":"Technical note: Inherent benchmark or not? Comparing Nash\u2013Sutcliffe and Kling\u2013Gupta efficiency scores","volume":"23","author":"Knoben","year":"2019","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9692","DOI":"10.1002\/2017WR021626","article-title":"BAM: Bayesian AMHG-Manning Inference of Discharge Using Remotely Sensed Stream Width, Slope, and Height","volume":"53","author":"Hagemann","year":"2017","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"U.S. Census Bureau (2021, March 15). Subcounty Resident Population Estimates: 1 April 2010 to 1 July 2016, Available online: https:\/\/www2.census.gov\/programs-surveys\/popest\/datasets\/2010-2016\/cities\/totals\/."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6499","DOI":"10.1029\/2019WR025287","article-title":"Global Reconstruction of Naturalized River Flows at 2.94 Million Reaches","volume":"55","author":"Lin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5053","DOI":"10.1029\/2019WR024873","article-title":"MERIT Hydro: A High-Resolution Global Hydrography Map Based on Latest Topography Dataset","volume":"55","author":"Yamazaki","year":"2019","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_49","unstructured":"Friedl, M., and Sulla-Menashe, D. (2021, February 19). MCD12C1 MODIS\/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V006 [Data set]. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. Available online: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5067\/MODIS\/MCD12C1.006."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"494","DOI":"10.1890\/100125","article-title":"High-resolution mapping of the world\u2019s reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management","volume":"9","author":"Lehner","year":"2011","journal-title":"Front. Ecol. Environ."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lee, D., and Veizer, J. (2003). Water and carbon cycles in the Mississippi River basin: Potential implications for the Northern Hemisphere residual terrestrial sink. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, 17.","DOI":"10.1029\/2002GB001984"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nickles, C., and Beighley, E. (2021). Expanding SWOT discharge series using the drainage area ratio method [Data set]. HydroShare.","DOI":"10.4211\/hs.7fcf864f87f546f090063f7dc1690920"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Webster, V.L., and Stedinger, J.R. (2019). Flood Frequency Analysis in the United States. Stat. Anal. Hydrol. Var., 233\u2013268.","DOI":"10.1061\/9780784415177.ch07"},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nickles, C., Beighley, E., and Feng, D. (2020). The Applicability of SWOT\u2019s Non-Uniform Space\u2013Time Sampling in Hydrologic Model Calibration. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12193241"},{"key":"ref_55","unstructured":"Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales (2018, May 18). SWOT Orbit: Ground Track and Swath Files. Available online: https:\/\/www.aviso.altimetry.fr\/en\/missions\/future-missions\/swot\/orbit.html."},{"key":"ref_56","unstructured":"DePhilip, M., and Moberg, T. (2021, February 22). Ecosystem Flow Recommendations for the Susquehanna River Basin. Available online: https:\/\/www.srbc.net\/regulatory\/policies-guidance\/docs\/ecosytem-flow-recommendations-susquehanna-basin-tnc.pdf."},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2601","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-23-2601-2019","article-title":"On the choice of calibration metrics for \u201chigh-flow\u201d estimation using hydrologic models","volume":"23","author":"Mizukami","year":"2019","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"W11558","DOI":"10.1029\/2009WR008887","article-title":"Are seemingly physically similar catchments truly hydrologically similar?","volume":"46","author":"Oudin","year":"2010","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_59","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9425","DOI":"10.1002\/2015WR017337","article-title":"Hydrological response to changing climate conditions: Spatial streamflow variability in the boreal region","volume":"51","author":"Teutschbein","year":"2015","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2020WR027794","DOI":"10.1029\/2020WR027794","article-title":"Combining Optical Remote Sensing, McFLI Discharge Estimation, Global Hydrologic Modeling, and Data Assimilation to Improve Daily Discharge Estimates Across an Entire Large Watershed","volume":"57","author":"Ishitsuka","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"453","DOI":"10.1175\/JHM-D-19-0084.1","article-title":"Underlying Fundamentals of Kalman Filtering for River Network Modeling","volume":"21","author":"Emery","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Hydrometeorol."},{"key":"ref_62","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-24-293-2020","article-title":"Spatiotemporal assimilation\u2013interpolation of discharge records through inverse streamflow routing","volume":"24","author":"Fisher","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111450","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2019.111450","article-title":"Enhancing SWOT discharge assimilation through spatiotemporal correlations","volume":"234","author":"Yang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/8\/1590\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:50:07Z","timestamp":1760161807000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/8\/1590"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,20]]},"references-count":63,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4]]}},"alternative-id":["rs13081590"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs13081590","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,20]]}}}