Daily Streamflow of Argentine Rivers Analysis Using Information Theory Quantifiers

MICAELA SURIANO; LEONIDAS FACUNDO CARAM; OSVALDO ANIBAL ROSSO

ENTROPY

MOLECULAR DIVERSITY PRESERVATION INTERNATIONAL-MDPI

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2024 vol. 26 p. 56 - 78

1099-4300

This paper analyzes the temporal evolution of streamflow for different rivers in Argentinabased on information quantifiers such as statistical complexity and permutation entropy. The mainobjective is to identify key details of the dynamics of the analyzed time series to differentiate the degreesof randomness and chaos. The permutation entropy is used with the probability distribution ofordinal patterns and the Jensen–Shannon divergence to calculate the disequilibrium and the statisticalcomplexity. Daily streamflow series at different river stations were analyzed to classify the differenthydrological systems. The complexity-entropy causality plane (CECP) and the representation ofthe Shannon entropy and Fisher information measure (FIM) show that the daily discharge seriescould be approximately represented with Gaussian noise, but the variances highlight the difficultyof modeling a series of natural phenomena. An analysis of stations downstream from the Yacyretádam shows that the operation affects the randomness of the daily discharge series at hydrometricstations near the dam. When the station is further downstream, however, this effect is attenuated.Furthermore, the size of the basin plays a relevant role in modulating the process. Large catchmentshave smaller values for entropy, and the signal is less noisy due to integration over larger time scales.In contrast, small and mountainous basins present a rapid response that influences the behavior ofdaily discharge while presenting a higher entropy and lower complexity. The results obtained in thepresent study characterize the behavior of the daily discharge series in Argentine rivers and provide key information for hydrological modeling.