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Get Started with airGRteaching

Olivier Delaigue

Hydrological modelling in three steps

This part explains how to run the airGR hydrological models in only three simple steps with airGRteaching.

Preparation of input data

A data.frame of daily hydrometeorological observations time series at the catchment scale is needed. The required fields are:

head(BasinObs)
##       DatesR    P   E    Qmm    T
## 1 1984-01-01  4.1 0.2 0.6336  0.5
## 2 1984-01-02 15.9 0.2 0.8256  0.2
## 3 1984-01-03  0.8 0.3 2.9280  0.9
## 4 1984-01-04  0.0 0.3 1.8240  0.5
## 5 1984-01-05  0.0 0.1 1.5000 -1.6
## 6 1984-01-06  0.0 0.3 1.3560  0.9

Before running a model, airGRteaching functions require data and options with specific formats.

For this step, you just have to use the PrepGR() function. You have to define:

If you want to use CemaNeige, you also have to define:

PREP <- PrepGR(ObsDF = BasinObs, HydroModel = "GR5J", CemaNeige = FALSE)


Calibration step

To calibrate a model, you just have to use the CalGR() function. By default, the objective function used is the Nash–Sutcliffe criterion ("NSE"), and the warm-up period is automatically set (depends on model). You just have to define:

You can obviously define another objective function or warm-up period:

The calibration algorithm has been developed by Claude Michel (Calibration_Michel() function in the airGR package) .

CAL <- CalGR(PrepGR = PREP, CalCrit = "KGE2",
             WupPer = NULL, CalPer = c("1990-01-01", "1993-12-31"))
## Grid-Screening in progress (0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%)
##   Screening completed (243 runs)
##       Param =  175.915,   -0.110,   83.931,    1.857,    0.467
##       Crit. KGE2[Q]      = 0.8300
## Steepest-descent local search in progress
##   Calibration completed (18 iterations, 406 runs)
##       Param =  188.670,    1.456,   83.931,    1.779,    0.493
##       Crit. KGE2[Q]      = 0.8787


Simulation step

To run a model, please use the SimGR() function. The PrepGR and WupPer arguments of SimGR() are similar to the ones of the CalGR() function. Here, EffCrit is used to calculate the performance of the model over the simulation period SimPer and Param is the object returned by the CalGR() function.

SIM <- SimGR(PrepGR = PREP, Param = CAL, EffCrit = "KGE2",
             WupPer = NULL, SimPer = c("1994-01-01", "1998-12-31"))
## Crit. KGE2[Q] = 0.8549
##  SubCrit. KGE2[Q] cor(sim, obs, "pearson") = 0.9012 
##  SubCrit. KGE2[Q] cv(sim)/cv(obs)          = 0.8974 
##  SubCrit. KGE2[Q] mean(sim)/mean(obs)      = 0.9724


Formating outputs

The call of the as.data.frame() function with PrepGR, CalGR or SimGR objects allows to coerce the outputs to a data frame.

head(as.data.frame(PREP))
##        Dates PotEvap PrecipObs PrecipFracSolid_CemaNeige TempMeanSim_CemaNeige
## 1 1984-01-01     0.2       4.1                        NA                    NA
## 2 1984-01-02     0.2      15.9                        NA                    NA
## 3 1984-01-03     0.3       0.8                        NA                    NA
## 4 1984-01-04     0.3       0.0                        NA                    NA
## 5 1984-01-05     0.1       0.0                        NA                    NA
## 6 1984-01-06     0.3       0.0                        NA                    NA
##     Qobs Qsim
## 1 0.6336   NA
## 2 0.8256   NA
## 3 2.9280   NA
## 4 1.8240   NA
## 5 1.5000   NA
## 6 1.3560   NA
head(as.data.frame(CAL))
##        Dates PotEvap PrecipObs PrecipFracSolid_CemaNeige TempMeanSim_CemaNeige
## 1 1990-01-01     0.3       0.0                        NA                    NA
## 2 1990-01-02     0.4       9.3                        NA                    NA
## 3 1990-01-03     0.4       3.2                        NA                    NA
## 4 1990-01-04     0.3       7.3                        NA                    NA
## 5 1990-01-05     0.1       0.0                        NA                    NA
## 6 1990-01-06     0.1       0.0                        NA                    NA
##    Qobs     Qsim
## 1 1.992 2.523954
## 2 1.800 2.446199
## 3 2.856 2.943436
## 4 2.400 3.286214
## 5 3.312 3.512572
## 6 3.072 3.224969
head(as.data.frame(SIM))
##        Dates PotEvap PrecipObs PrecipFracSolid_CemaNeige TempMeanSim_CemaNeige
## 1 1994-01-01     0.4       2.2                        NA                    NA
## 2 1994-01-02     0.4       0.0                        NA                    NA
## 3 1994-01-03     0.6       0.7                        NA                    NA
## 4 1994-01-04     0.6       3.2                        NA                    NA
## 5 1994-01-05     0.6      35.1                        NA                    NA
## 6 1994-01-06     0.5      21.3                        NA                    NA
##    Qobs     Qsim
## 1 2.904 3.593023
## 2 2.832 3.414026
## 3 2.364 2.988078
## 4 2.544 2.668972
## 5 2.640 3.526016
## 6 8.928 8.819935

Pre-defined graphical plots

Static plots

The call of the plot() function with a PrepGR object draws the observed precipitation and discharge time series.

plot(PREP, main = "Observation")

By default (with the argument which = "synth"), the call of the plot() function with a CalGR object draws the classical airGR plot diagnostics (observed and simulated time series together with diagnostic plot)

plot(CAL, which = "synth")

With the CalGR object, if the argument which is set to "iter", the plot() function draws the evolution of the parameters and the values of the objective function during the second step of the calibration (steepest descent local search algorithm):

plot(CAL, which = "iter")

With the CalGR object, if the argument which is set to "ts", the plot() function simply draws the time series of the observed precipitation, and the observed and simulated flows:

plot(CAL, which = "ts", main = "Calibration")
## Warning in plot.OutputsModel(x$OutputsModel, Qobs = x$Qobs, which = which, :
## zeroes detected in 'Qsim': some plots in the log space will not be created
## using all time-steps

The call of the plot() function with a SimGR object displays the classical airGR plot diagnostics.

plot(SIM)

Dynamic plots

Dynamic plots, using the dygraphs JavaScript charting library, can be displayed by the package.

The dyplot() function can be applied on PrepGR, CalGR and SimGR objects and draws the time series of the observed precipitation, and the observed and simulated (except with PrepGR objects) flows.

The user can zoom on the plot device and can read the exact values.

With this function, users can easily explore the data time series and also explore and interpret the possible problems of the calibration or simulation steps.

dyplot(SIM, main = "Simulation")

Graphical user interface

The airGRteaching package also provides the ShinyGR() function, which allows to launch a graphical user interface using the shiny package.

The ShinyGR() function needs at least:

ShinyGR(ObsDF = BasinObs, SimPer = c("1994-01-01", "1998-12-31"))

Only the monthly model (GR2M) and the daily models (GR4J, GR5J, GR6J + CemaNeige) are currently available.
If you want to use CemaNeige, you also have to define the same arguments desribed above for the PrepGR() function.

It is also possible to change the interface look; different themes are proposed (theme argument).

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.