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Abstract

Hydrological modeling has become a widely accepted theoretical tool for water resources engineering and management. Rainfall-runoff models are used both for short and medium time management (for example flood forecasting) and long-time design purposes. However, the application of hydrological models is limited due to several reasons. One important limitation is imposed by the availability of data and parameter estimation. Discharges are only measured at a few selected river cross sections, leading to a small number of catchments for which the runoff calculated from the models might be verified. Further, the high spatial and temporal variability of the meteorological input (such as precipitation, temperature or wind) cannot fully be captured by the usually small number of meteorological stations. Radar measurement of precipitation can provide more detailed space time information on precipitation but unfortunately the reliability of the data is at present still low. Other influencing ...