A Particle Swarm Optimization for Parameter Estimation of a Rainfall-Runoff Model

Frédéric Bardolle (1) , Frédérick Delay (2) , Francis Bichot (3) , Gilles Porel (1) , Nathalie Dörfliger (3)

1 IC2MP - Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers
2 LHyGeS - Laboratoire d'Hydrologie et de Géochimie de Strasbourg
3 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)

Transfer function based models are widely used in hydrological modeling, especially for rainfall-runoff simulation. This paper deals with a new model associating three elementary transfer functions in series along four parallel branches. Each transfer function is a parametric probability density function with some physical meaning regarding hydrological transfers. Model inversion is performed using the so-called particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The systemic model and the PSO method were tested on the Sèvre Niortaise water catchment in France.

Keywords: Hydrological modeling; Transfer function; Particle swarm optimization

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences

Frédéric Bardolle, Frédérick Delay, Francis Bichot, Gilles Porel, Nathalie Dörfliger. A Particle Swarm Optimization for Parameter Estimation of a Rainfall-Runoff Model. Mathematics of Planet Earth, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp.153-156, 2014, Lecture Notes in Earth System Sciences, ⟨10.1007/978-3-642-32408-6_36⟩. ⟨hal-03663874⟩