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[Display omitted] • Groundwater vulnerability zonation investigation is conducted for GHM Greater Bay Area. • Three different perspectives are comprehensively considered in this study. • Groundwater risk, function value and contamination status are superposed using the AHP method. • Quantification and visualization of groundwater contamination prevention regionalization. • The AHP-DRASTICH model is an effective method to evaluate the groundwater risk in shallow aquifers. The groundwater contamination assessment and prevention regionalization are an important part of groundwater investigation, which is of great significance to groundwater environmental management and contamination control. Although the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GHM Greater Bay Area) has faced significant groundwater contamination since 2020, there's been no investigation into its vulnerability zonation. In this paper, groundwater in a typical area of south China was taken as the research object. We analyzed groundwater contamination risk by considering both the groundwater vulnerability and the load from contamination sources. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, we superposed the groundwater risk, function value and contamination status, and realized the quantification and visualization of groundwater contamination prevention regionalization. Based on the DRASTIC model, the zones of low, moderate, high, and very high vulnerability are respectively 14.2 %, 24.28 %, 37.67 %, and 20.45 % of the study area. Results show that the groundwater vulnerability grade in the area is III-IV, which means it is easy to be polluted. The functional value of groundwater in the south-central part of the region is relatively high. Most of the areas with high prevention and control levels are located in plain areas and the Piedmont plain area with an area of 460 km2. The secondary control levels (key protection area) are mainly located in the middle, southwest, and northeast of the plain, with an area of 6944 square kilometers. Consequently, the ideas and contamination prevention zone maps might provide a scientific foundation for long-term planning and management and groundwater conservation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and peripheral zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• ERA5 describes moderate-intensity rainfall, but fails for hourly/daily precipitation. • ERA5-HRES outperforms ERA5-Land in detecting rainfall magnitude and rainfall events. • ERA5 performs best in coastal cities and mountainous vegetation areas during the wet and dry season, respectively. • ERA5 is insufficient in reproducing precipitation in areas with high urbanization level. Precipitation is an important component of the global water cycle. A comprehensive understanding of precipitation characteristics, especially that in urban areas, is essential for practical applications in hydrology. ERA5, a state-of-the-art reanalysis product with wide temporal coverage as well as fine spatial and temporal resolution, has greater potential to reproduce precipitation than many other products. However, how ERA5 precipitation performs has not been well investigated in urban areas. Therefore, we evaluate and compare the ability of two ERA5 products, ERA5-Land and ERA5-HRES, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) using observations from over 3000 rain gauges in a high-density network during 2018. The results show that ERA5 products generally characterize moderate-intensity rain. Due to the different causes of seasonal precipitation as well as the combined influence of coastal effects and topography, the best performance of ERA5 products is found in the southern coastal plains during the wet season and in the northern mountainous vegetation areas during the dry season. Meanwhile, it is challenging for ERA5 products to model precipitation in areas with higher urbanization levels. We also find that ERA5-Land data with finer spatial resolution fails to deliver any preferable results than ERA5-HRES. ERA5 products needs further improvement in the GBA for providing accurate precipitation patterns. This paper gives a detailed insight into the performance of ERA5 products, which offers a valuable reference for its probable applicability in the coastal urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]