Most catchments were between the theoretical water and energy limits in the Budyko space (dashed blue and red lines) for both classic and adjusted Budyko framework as expected for natural catchments (Bouazizet al. , 2018) (Figure 4). In the energy limit zone (above red dashed line), actual evapotranspiration (ET) is greater than potential evapotranspiration (PET), and water discharge (Q) becomes negative in the upper water limit (above blue dashed line). Considering the topographic area (the classic Budyko framework, Figure 4a), we noted that catchments with effective areas smaller than half of their topographic areas (dark red circles) were placed near those limits, remaining within the assumption of a closed water balance. In addition, most of the others with effective areas larger than their topographic areas (light and dark blue circles) distanced themselves from the Budyko curve. Four catchments were located outside the Budyko space with specific streamflow (Q) larger than precipitation (P). In turn, Q cannot be larger than P assuming a closed water balance, which corroborates our findings that these catchments have effective areas larger than the topographic area.