Using udometric network data to estimate an environmental covariate

Abstract

Many hydrological and ecological studies recognize the importance of characterizing the temporal and spatial variability of precipitation. In this study, geostatistical methodologies were developed in order to estimate a hydro-meteorological factor by (re)building the space-time distribution of the precipitation associated to monthly averages in a certain hydrological river basin that will be used in the modelling of surface water quality. A hydro-meteorological factor is constructed for each water quality monitoring site (WQMS), based on the analysis of the space-time behaviour of the precipitation observed in an udometric network located in a Portuguese river basin.