CH-IRP: Stable Isotopes in Swiss Streamflow and Precipitation

Fortnightly measurements of δ²H and δ¹⁸O stable isotopes in streamflow from 23 Swiss hydrological catchments, paired with interpolated monthly precipitation data. The dataset includes deuterium excess, streamflow conditions preceding sampling, statistical outlier z-scores, and lab quality control comments. Associated files provide mean areal precipitation, temperature, and topographic catchment boundaries.

Use Cases

• Tracing water sources and flowpaths in catchments based on stable isotope ratios in precipitation and streamflow.
• Calibrating or validating hydrological models using deuterium excess and associated precipitation/temperature data.
• Assessing sampling and storage artifacts on isotopic composition using provided lab quality control flags.
• Identifying statistical outliers in isotopic time series using the provided z-score columns.
• Analyzing spatial patterns in water isotopes across 23 Swiss catchments using the provided shapefiles.

Strengths

• Includes quality annotations such as z-scores for statistical outliers and lab comments on double measurements and potential storage issues.
• Provides associated geospatial data (catchment boundary shapefiles) and meteorological data (mean areal precipitation and temperature).
• Covers a specific and well-defined geographic region with data from 23 hydrological catchments.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, specific time range, and exact column names are not provided in the available sources.
• The dataset's freshness is unclear as the last update date is unknown.
• Precipitation data is derived from interpolation, which introduces inherent uncertainty not quantified in the descriptions.

Provenance

Source

Maria Staudinger, University of Zurich

Collection Method

Fortnightly grab samples of streamflow and interpolation of source data for monthly catchment precipitation.

Geography

23 hydrological catchments in Switzerland