Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 11 2 2007 10.5194/hess-11-703-2007 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/703/2007/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/703/2007/hess-11-703-2007.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/703/2007/hess-11-703-2007.pdf 703 710 2007-01-17 Calibration of hydrological model parameters for ungauged catchments A. Bárdossy bardossy@iws.uni-stuttgart.de IWS, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 61, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany The parameters of hydrological models for catchments with few or no discharge records can be estimated using regional information. One can assume that catchments with similar characteristics show a similar hydrological behaviour and thus can be modeled using similar model parameters. Therefore a regionalisation of the hydrological model parameters on the basis of catchment characteristics is plausible. However, due to the non-uniqueness of the rainfall-runoff model parameters (equifinality), a workflow of regional parameter estimation by model calibration and a subsequent fit of a regional function is not appropriate. In this paper a different approach for the transfer of entire parameter sets from one catchment to another is discussed. Parameter sets are considered as tranferable if the corresponding model performance (defined as the Nash-Sutclife efficiency) on the donor catchment is good and the regional statistics: means and variances of annual discharges estimated from catchment properties and annual climate statistics for the recipient catchment are well reproduced by the model. The methodology is applied to a set of 16 catchments in the German part of the Rhine catchments. Results show that the parameters transfered according to the above criteria perform well on the target catchments. Abdulla, F A. and Lettenmaier, D P.: Development of regional estimation equations for a macroscale hydrologic model, J. Hydrol., 197, 230–257, 1997. Ahmed, S. and de~Marsily, G.: Comparison of geostatistical methods for estimating transmissivity using data transmissivity and specific capacity., Water Resour. Res., 23, 1717–1737, 1987. Bergström, S.: The HBV model, in: Computer Models of Watershed Hydrology, Water Resour. Publications, Littleton, Colorado, USA, 1995. Beven, K. and Freer, J.: Equifinality, data assimilation, and data uncertainty estimation in mechanistic modelling of complex environmental systems using the GLUE methodology, J. Hydrol., 249, 11–29, 2001. Falconer, K.: The Geometry of Fractal Sets, Cambridge University Press, 1987. Gupta, H., Sorooshian, S., and Yapo, P.: Toward improved calibration of hydrologic models: Multiple and noncommensurable measures of information, Water Resour. Res., 34(4), 751–763, 1998. Heuvelmans, G., Muys, B., and Feyen, J.: Regionalisation of the parameters of a hydrological model: Comparison of linear regression models with artificial neural nets., J. Hydrol., 319, 245–265, 2006. Hundecha, Y. and Bárdossy, A.: Modeling of the effect of land use changes on the runoff generation of a river basin through parameter regionalization of a watershed model, J. Hydrol., 292, 281–295, 2004. Kokkonen, T., Jakeman, A., Young, P., and Koivusalo, H.: Predicting daily flows in ungauged catchments: model regionalization from catchment descriptors at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, North Carolina., Hydrol. Processes, 11, 2219–2238, 2003. Kuczera, G. and Mroczkowski, M.: Assessment of hydrologic parameter uncertainty and the worth of data, Water Resour. Res., 34(6), 1481–1489, 1998. Madsen, H.: Parameter estimation in distributed hydrological catchment modeling using automatic calibration with multiple objectives, Adv. Water Resour., 26, 205–216, 2003. McIntyre, N., Lee, H., Wheater, H., Young, A., and Wagener, T.: Ensemble predictions of runoff in ungauged catchments., Water Resour. Res., 41(12), W12434, doi:10.1029/2005WR004289, 2005. Nash, J.: A unit hydrograph study with particular reference to British catchments, Proc. Inst. Civil. Eng., 17, 249–282, 1960. Nash, J. and Sutcliffe, J.: River flow forecasting through conceptual models. 1. A discussion of principles, J. Hydrol., 10, 282–290, 1970. Parajka, J., Merz, R., and Bloschl, G.: A comparison of regionalisation methods for catchment model parameters., Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 9, 157–171, 2005. Samaniego, L. and Bárdossy, A.: Robust parametric models of runoff characteristics at the mesoscale, J. Hydrol., 303, 136–151, 2005.