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<article language="en">
	<journal>
		<journal_title>Hydrology and Earth System Sciences</journal_title>
		<journal_url>www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net</journal_url>
		<issn>1027-5606</issn>
		<eissn>1607-7938</eissn>
		<volume_number>13</volume_number>
		<issue_number>6</issue_number>
		<publication_year>2009</publication_year>
	</journal>
	<doi>10.5194/hess-13-913-2009</doi>
	<article_url>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/913/2009/</article_url>
	<abstract_html>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/913/2009/hess-13-913-2009.html</abstract_html>
	<fulltext_pdf>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/913/2009/hess-13-913-2009.pdf</fulltext_pdf>
	<start_page>913</start_page>
	<end_page>921</end_page>
	<publication_date>2009-06-25</publication_date>
	<article_title content_type="html">Uncertainty in river discharge observations: a quantitative analysis</article_title>
	<authors>
		<author numeration="1" affiliations="1">
			<name>G. Di Baldassarre</name>
			<email>g.dibaldassarre@unesco-ihe.org</email>
		</author>
		<author numeration="2" affiliations="2">
			<name>A. Montanari</name>
		</author>
	</authors>
	<affiliations>
		<affiliation numeration="1" content_type="html">Department of Hydroinformatics and Knowledge Management, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands</affiliation>
		<affiliation numeration="2" content_type="html">Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy</affiliation>
	</affiliations>
	<abstract content_type="html">This study proposes a framework for analysing and quantifying the
uncertainty of river flow data. Such uncertainty is often considered to be
negligible with respect to other approximations affecting hydrological
studies. Actually, given that river discharge data are usually obtained by
means of the so-called rating curve method, a number of different sources of
error affect the derived observations. These include: errors in measurements
of river stage and discharge utilised to parameterise the rating curve,
interpolation and extrapolation error of the rating curve, presence of
unsteady flow conditions, and seasonal variations of the state of the
vegetation (i.e. roughness). This study aims at analysing these sources of
uncertainty using an original methodology. The novelty of the proposed
framework lies in the estimation of rating curve uncertainty, which is based
on hydraulic simulations. These latter are carried out on a reach of the Po
River (Italy) by means of a one-dimensional (1-D) hydraulic model code
(HEC-RAS). The results of the study show that errors in river flow data are
indeed far from negligible.</abstract>
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</article>

