TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pathiraja, Sahani Darschika
A1  - Moradkhani, H.
A1  - Marshall, L.
A1  - Sharma, Ashish
A1  - Geenens, G.
T1  - Data-driven model uncertainty estimation in hydrologic data assimilation
JF  - Water resources research : WRR / American Geophysical Union
N2  - The increasing availability of earth observations necessitates mathematical methods to optimally combine such data with hydrologic models. Several algorithms exist for such purposes, under the umbrella of data assimilation (DA). However, DA methods are often applied in a suboptimal fashion for complex real-world problems, due largely to several practical implementation issues. One such issue is error characterization, which is known to be critical for a successful assimilation. Mischaracterized errors lead to suboptimal forecasts, and in the worst case, to degraded estimates even compared to the no assimilation case. Model uncertainty characterization has received little attention relative to other aspects of DA science. Traditional methods rely on subjective, ad hoc tuning factors or parametric distribution assumptions that may not always be applicable. We propose a novel data-driven approach (named SDMU) to model uncertainty characterization for DA studies where (1) the system states are partially observed and (2) minimal prior knowledge of the model error processes is available, except that the errors display state dependence. It includes an approach for estimating the uncertainty in hidden model states, with the end goal of improving predictions of observed variables. The SDMU is therefore suited to DA studies where the observed variables are of primary interest. Its efficacy is demonstrated through a synthetic case study with low-dimensional chaotic dynamics and a real hydrologic experiment for one-day-ahead streamflow forecasting. In both experiments, the proposed method leads to substantial improvements in the hidden states and observed system outputs over a standard method involving perturbation with Gaussian noise.
KW  - data assimilation
KW  - model error
KW  - uncertainty quantification
KW  - particle filter
KW  - nonparametric statistics
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/2018WR022627
SN  - 0043-1397
SN  - 1944-7973
VL  - 54
IS  - 2
SP  - 1252
EP  - 1280
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pathiraja, Sahani Darschika
A1  - Anghileri, Daniela
A1  - Burlando, Paolo
A1  - Sharma, Ashish
A1  - Marshall, Lucy
A1  - Moradkhani, Hamid
T1  - Time-varying parameter models for catchments with land use change
BT  - the importance of model structure
JF  - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS
N2  - Rapid population and economic growth in Southeast Asia has been accompanied by extensive land use change with consequent impacts on catchment hydrology. Modeling methodologies capable of handling changing land use conditions are therefore becoming ever more important and are receiving increasing attention from hydrologists. A recently developed data-assimilation-based framework that allows model parameters to vary through time in response to signals of change in observations is considered for a medium-sized catchment (2880 km(2)) in northern Vietnam experiencing substantial but gradual land cover change. We investigate the efficacy of the method as well as the importance of the chosen model structure in ensuring the success of a time-varying parameter method. The method was used with two lumped daily conceptual models (HBV and HyMOD) that gave good-quality streamflow predictions during pre-change conditions. Although both time-varying parameter models gave improved streamflow predictions under changed conditions compared to the time-invariant parameter model, persistent biases for low flows were apparent in the HyMOD case. It was found that HyMOD was not suited to representing the modified baseflow conditions, resulting in extreme and unrealistic time-varying parameter estimates. This work shows that the chosen model can be critical for ensuring the time-varying parameter framework successfully models streamflow under changing land cover conditions. It can also be used to determine whether land cover changes (and not just meteorological factors) contribute to the observed hydrologic changes in retrospective studies where the lack of a paired control catchment precludes such an assessment.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2903-2018
SN  - 1027-5606
SN  - 1607-7938
VL  - 22
IS  - 5
SP  - 2903
EP  - 2919
PB  - Copernicus
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -