Sensitivity Analysis and Automatic Calibration of a Rainfall-Runoff Model Using Multi-objectives

The practical experience with sensitivity analysis suggests that no single-objective function is adequate to measure the ways in which the model fails to match the important characteristics of the observed data. In order to successfully measure parameter sensitivity of a numerical model, multiple criteria should be considered. Sensitivity analysis of a rainfall-runoff model is performed using the local sensitivity method (Morris method) and multiple objective analysis. Formulation of SA strategy for the MIKE/NAM rainfall-runoff model is outline. The SA is given as a set of Pareto ranks from a multi-objective viewpoint. The Nondominated Sorting Differential Evolution (NSDE) was used to calibrate the rainfall-runoff model. The method has been applied for calibration of a test catchment and compared on validation data. The simulations show that the NSDE method possesses the ability to finding the optimal Pareto front.