Coderre et al. (2026) Technical Note: Using Benchmark Ensembles to Reduce the Impact of Streamflow Variability on Model Performance Metrics

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water Resources Research
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-01
• Authors: Paul Coderre, Wouter Johannes Maria Knoben, Cyril Thébault, Nicolás Vasquéz, Martyn Clark, Alain Pietroniro
• DOI: 10.1029/2026wr043517

Research Groups

• Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Short Summary

This study generalizes the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) metric by introducing benchmark efficiencies (BME), which considers multiple benchmarks to evaluate hydrologic model performance. The results show that using BME can improve comparisons of model performance across catchments, especially in strongly seasonal areas.

Objective

• To develop a more comprehensive method for evaluating hydrologic model performance by considering multiple benchmarks

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: North America (catchment scale)
• Temporal Scale: Long-term (not specified)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified
• Data sources: Not specified in the abstract, but likely includes observational data and possibly reanalysis datasets

Main Results

• The introduction of benchmark efficiencies (BME) allows for model error to be analyzed more independently of flow variability than with the NSE.
• Spatial patterns of BME exist due to flow variability, but selecting the lowest BME score reduces bias toward individual flow regimes.
• In strongly seasonal catchments, NSE values can be above 0.5 while BME values are negative, indicating that models considered "satisfactory" may actually fail to beat simple benchmarks.

Contributions

• This study provides a more comprehensive method for evaluating hydrologic model performance by considering multiple benchmarks, which improves comparisons of model performance across catchments.
• The results demonstrate the importance of accounting for flow variability when evaluating model performance.

Funding

• Not specified in the abstract

Citation

@article{Coderre2026Technical,
  author = {Coderre, Paul and Knoben, Wouter Johannes Maria and Thébault, Cyril and Vasquéz, Nicolás and Clark, Martyn and Pietroniro, Alain},
  title = {Technical Note: Using Benchmark Ensembles to Reduce the Impact of Streamflow Variability on Model Performance Metrics},
  journal = {Water Resources Research},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2026wr043517},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2026wr043517}
}