In water-scarce regions, precipitation is a highly variable and essential resource for crop production. Developing countries like India have an uneven distribution of rain gauges, so reliance on satellite and reanalysis-based precipitation products is critical for their prudent management. Hence, the study statistically evaluated different precipitation products against the station data for water-scarce regions in Tamil Nadu and found that ERA5-Land performed the best, followed by MSWEP.

The paper identifies the opportunities and limits of flood early warning in small catchments. Flood early warning for small, fast-responding catchments usually need to include rainfall forecasts. First, the demands of potential users of warning products are assessed. Second, the quality and limitations of rainfall forecasts (emerging from meteorological forecasting uncertainty) are investigated. Third, different flood forecasting techniques are compared.