Performance evaluation of interpolation methods for incorporating rain gauge measurements into NEXRAD precipitation data: a case study in the Upper Guadalupe River Basin

High spatial and temporal resolution of precipitation data is critical input for hydrological budget estimation and flash flood modelling. This study evaluated four methods Bias Adjustment (BA), Simple Kriging with varying Local Means (SKlm), Kriging with External Drift (KED), and Regression Kriging (RK)] for their performances in incorporating gauge rainfall measurements into Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) multi‐sensor precipitation estimator (MPE; hourly and 4 × 4 km²). Measurements from a network of 50 gauges at the Upper Guadalupe River Basin, central Texas and MPE data for the year 2004 were used in the study. We used three evaluation coefficients percentage bias (PB), coefficient of determination (R²), and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) to examine the performance of the four methods for preserving regional‐ and local‐scale characteristics of observed precipitation data. The results show that the two Kriging‐based methods (SKlm and RK) are in general better than BA and KED and that the PB and NSE criteria are better than the R² criterion in assessing the performance of the four methods. It is also worth noting that the performance of one method at regional scale may be different from its performance at local scale. Critical evaluation of the performance of different methods at local or regional scale should be conducted according to the different purposes. The results obtained in this study are expected to contribute to the development of more accurate spatial rainfall products for hydrologic budget and flash flood modelling. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.