Multiple solutions, multi-site, and parameter transfer to calibrate DHSVM hydrological model

Abstract

The application of hydrologic models often needs sets of input parameters related to environmental attributes which are not always available. This leads to the necessity of calibrating the input parameters. However, due to the non-linearity of the hydrologic phenomena, there may be multiple “best” solutions for the calibration. This paper proposes a method for calibrating the DHSVM hydrologic model using the concepts of multiple solutions, multi-site, and parameter transfer among catchments. Eight watersheds were calibrated, resulting in obtaining five sets of “best” parameters (clusters) for each one. Afterward, each watershed was modeled using the parameters of the other catchments in order to verify if the transfer of the calibrated parameters could promote satisfactory modeling of the streamflows. The results show that clusters calibrated for one watershed may be suitable for other catchments. Besdes, the calibrated parameters of the smaller catchments were satisfactory to simulate the streamflow of the bigger catchments. The proposed method can be useful in calibrating and extrapolating the input parameters to regions that do not have information about them.