Hydro-geomorphic dataset of catchments across the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau is known as the water tower of Asia, supplying water to almost 2 billion people. As a result of the unique high-elevation terrain and atmospheric circulation, this region is severely affected by floods each year. Due to global warming in recent years, the Tibetan Plateau is experiencing more extreme precipitation events, and flood disasters are more likely to occur. However, compared with other regions in China, the Tibetan Plateau is still in its early stage when it comes to flood risk assessment and prediction because of the complex topographic conditions and a lack of gauging stations. At the same time, the unclear flood occurrence mechanism and the various flood types under monsoons and upper-level westerly winds in this region lead to strong uncertainty in the storm flood simulation.

To provide support for regional-scale hydrological simulation and improve the flood risk assessment information, we produce a hydro-geomorphic unit hydrograph dataset that characterizes the rainfall and runoff response relationship in 11069 catchments across the Tibetan Plateau. More specifically, the main geomorphological features of 11069 catchments are extracted first. Then, the WFIUHs are derived from DEM and other remote sensing data combined with the empirical physical formula. Finally, the performance of the WFIUHs in hydrological simulation is assessed in several gauging catchments in this region.