The Application of Remote Sensing Precipitation Products for Runoff Modelling and Flood Inundation Area Estimation in Typical Monsoon Basins of Indochina Peninsula

Tropical monsoon climate in IndoChina Peninsula features dry and rainy season. Microwave remote sensing offers emerging capabilities for hydrological simulation. This paper aims to clarify whether the contributions of remote sensing precipitation on runoff simulation will change due to terrains and model algorithms. We simulated runoff in mountainous area-Yuan River Basin based on remote sensing early version precipitation products by using Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. We also simulated runoff in flat terrain area-Mun-chi River Basin based on remote sensing final version precipitation products by Variable Infiltration Capacity Model (VIC) model. We compared the runoff results against gauge-based CMORPH-AWS and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) interpolated precipitation, and also estimated flood inundation areas in Mun-chi River from 2005 to 2014 based on runoff simulations. The results show that (1) gauge-based precipitation products CMORPH-AWS and WMO precipitation have largest NSE and smallest RMSE for runoff simulation in these two basins. The runoff simulation by VIC model and SWAT model based on TRMM Multi-satellite Preciptiation Analysis (TMPA) remote sensing product have higher correlation with the observations; (2) Runoff simulations based on TMPA can be used for flood inundation area estimation in larger river basin rather than smaller basin or subbasin. Our study reveals that high-quality precipitation products significantly improved runoff simulation accuracy in these two basins. Remote sensing precipitation product TMPA has potential on runoff simulation and flood assessment in remote or observation lacking area in IndoChina Peninsula.