Multisite Daily Streamflow Simulation With Time Irreversibility

Abstract Synthetic daily streamflow generation requires a critical understanding of the underlying dynamics resulting from the inherent temporal asymmetry (time irreversibility) in the rising and falling limbs of the hydrograph. Most models considering the time irreversibility deal with single‐site streamflow simulation. Addressing intersite dependencies is, however, crucial for interconnected stream networks. This study presents a time irreversibility dynamics‐based multisite streamflow generating framework to simulate concurrent streamflow sequences at multiple sites in a basin. This framework explicitly takes into account the spatial correlation and time irreversible dynamics of streamflow. To demonstrate the utility and applicability, a few selected streamflow gauging stations in the Godavari River Basin, located in southern India, are considered. The proposed framework shows the ability to adequately generate multisite simulations capturing at‐site statistics as well as intersite correlations for the case study. Furthermore, the approach ensures that the simulated flow values are not merely resampled from the historical data, uses the physical features of the hydrograph, and shows variability beyond that observed in the historical sequence. Such a rich variety of streamflow sequences can help water managers to investigate how existing water resources systems on interconnected stream networks will operate in scenarios which have not been observed in the historical record.