## 5 Conclusions  
In this study, we performed the first assessment of six gridded precipitation products (ARC2, CHIRPS, ERA5, IMERG, PERSIANN, RFEv2) over the Ankavia watershed in Madagascar, for a common period from September 2018 to August 2020, with 14 rainfall gauges taken as reference. The main findings of the study can be summarized as follows:  
* The point gridded approach is better suited than the point-to-grid approach in terms of continuous statistical metrics to evaluate gridded precipitation products against rain gauge data;At a daily scale, IMERG outperforms all other tested gridded precipitation products, followed by RFEv2 and ARC2;
* GPPs tend to overestimate the 0-0.2 mm/day rainfall class but underestimate the >0.2 mm/day ranges. Only GPPs with smaller grid sizes (0.04\({}^{\circ}\), 0.05\({}^{\circ}\)) accurately estimate the >150 mm/day precipitation class;
* IMERG is shown to perform well in detecting rain events up to 100 mm/day but is surpassed by PERSIANN in detecting rain events larger than 150 mm/day. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of rainy days are not correctly estimated by IMERG;
* IMERG shows good performance at monthly, daily, and event time scales in our case study; nevertheless, its capacity to reproduce spatial variability of rainfall is very subpar at the catchment scale. Overall, this GPP assessment study in northeastern Madagascar provides evidence that the IMERG v06 final precipitation datasets perform satisfactorily when compared to rain gauge time series using the point-gridded technique at a daily time scale. In addition, the level of performance is fairly constant across a broad range of daily rainfall values, except for extreme events. Therefore, IMERG is the most reliable for estimating rainfall characteristics in this region. However, the product should be used with caution for hazard and flood assessment, given its limitations for extreme rainfall events. Conceptualization, Z.R. and C.L.B. ; Formal analysis, Z.R. and C.L.B. ; Funding acquisition, M.V. ; Investigation, Z.R. ; Methodology, Z.R. and C.L.B. ; Project administration, M.V. ; Software, Z.R. ; Supervision, A.R. and C.L.B. ; Validation, Z.R., A.R. and C.L.B. ; Visualization, Z.R., A.R., F.J., M.V. and C.L.B. ; Writing--original draft, Z.R. ; Writing--review and editing, Z.R., F.J., M.V. and C.L.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research and APC fees are funded by the Belgian Academie de Recherche d'Enseignement Superieur (ARES-CCD: www.ares-ac.be) (accessed on 26 February 2022), through the 2017 Research Project for Development (PRD) in Madagascar, named: Reinforcement des Capacites en Gestion Integree des Ressources en Eau (GIRE-SAVA). More information on: [[https://www.ares-ac.be/fr/cooperation-au-developpement/pays-projects/projects-dans-le-monde/item/162-prd-renforcement-des-capacites-en-gestion-integree-des-ressources-en-eau-de-la-region-sava-gire-sava](https://www.ares-ac.be/fr/cooperation-au-developpement/pays-projects/projects-dans-le-monde/item/162-prd-renforcement-des-capacites-en-gestion-integree-des-ressources-en-eau-de-la-region-sava-gire-sava)]([https://www.ares-ac.be/fr/cooperation-au-developpement/pays-projects/projects-dans-le-monde/item/162-prd-renforcement-des-capacites-en-gestion-integree-des-ressources-en-eau-de-la-region-sava-gire-sava](https://www.ares-ac.be/fr/cooperation-au-developpement/pays-projects/projects-dans-le-monde/item/162-prd-renforcement-des-capacites-en-gestion-integree-des-ressources-en-eau-de-la-region-sava-gire-sava)) (accessed on 14 April 2022). The observed rain-gauge precipitation data used in this study are from the GIRE SAVA project (available on request). The authors acknowledge all those who gave their support for the accomplishment of this study. Our special thanks go to the south coordinator [PERSON] (2017-2021), [PERSON] (since 2021, and their respective staff in the Centre Universitaire Regional de la SAVA (CURSA).