Within the scope of a program to empirically assess the pathways
across large river systems of substances from diffuse sources, a method
has been proposed and demonstrated in part I of blind functional streamflow
disaggregation (FSD). It yields fast, transient and (s)low conceptual, parallel
component flows. We apply the technique here to German and Austrian
gauging stations from watersheds of the Elbe and the Danube basins, covering
geomorphologic conditions from lowlands to alpine. Potential relations
to the classical concept of river runoff composition (base-, inter- and overland
flows) are evaluated by contrasting FSD analyses with direct, rainfall–
runoff syntheses using the distributed models LARSIM (”Large Area Runoff
Simulation Model”), SWAT (”Soil and Water Assessment Tool”) and SWIM
(”Soil and Water Integrated Model”). The material is supplemented in part
by another empirical technique, DIFGA (”Differentielle Ganglinien-Analyse”),
and by the HBV (”Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavdelning”) model in
a lumped mode. Blind FSD in its shortcut version turns out to be competitive
in general to the simulations consulted. A moderately higher surface and subsurface flow diversification, like the one borne in a greedy FSD process,
is however indicated. We shed a glance in passing at further useful applications,
from supporting hydrologic modelling to tracing climatic signatures
in internal changes of the terrestrial hydrologic cycle.
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