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http://hdl.handle.net/11375/25083
Title: | ADVANCING SEQUENTIAL DATA ASSIMILATION METHODS FOR ENHANCED HYDROLOGIC FORECASTING IN SEMI-URBAN WATERSHEDS |
Authors: | Leach, James |
Advisor: | Coulibaly, Paulin |
Department: | Civil Engineering |
Keywords: | Data Assimilation;Ensemble Forecasting;Ensemble Kalman FIlter;Particle Filter;Streamflow |
Publication Date: | 2019 |
Abstract: | Accurate hydrologic forecasting is vital for proper water resource management. Practices that are impacted by these forecasts include power generation, reservoir management, agricultural water use, and flood early warning systems. Despite these needs, the models largely used are simplifications of the real world and are therefore imperfect. The forecasters face other challenges in addition to the model uncertainty, which includes imperfect observations used for model calibration and validation, imperfect meteorological forecasts, and the ability to effectively communicate forecast results to decision-makers. Bayesian methods are commonly used to address some of these issues, and this thesis will be focused on improving methods related to recursive Bayesian estimation, more commonly known as data assimilation. Data assimilation is a means to optimally account for the uncertainties in observations, models, and forcing data. In the literature, data assimilation for urban hydrologic and flood forecasting is rare; therefore the main areas of study in this thesis are urban and semi-urban watersheds. By providing improvements to data assimilation methods, both hydrologic and flood forecasting can be enhanced in these areas. This work explored the use of alternative data products as a type of observation that can be assimilated to improve hydrologic forecasting in an urban watershed. The impact of impervious surfaces in urban and semi-urban watersheds was also evaluated in regards to its impact on remotely sensed soil moisture assimilation. Lack of observations is another issue when it comes to data assimilation, particularly in semi- or fully-distributed models; because of this, an improved method for updating locations which do not have observations was developed which utilizes information theory’s mutual information. Finally, we explored extending data assimilation into the short-term forecast by using prior knowledge of how a model will respond to forecasted forcing data. Results from this work found that using alternative data products such as those from the Snow Data Assimilation System or the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission, can be effective at improving hydrologic forecasting in urban watersheds. They also were effective at identifying a limiting imperviousness threshold for soil moisture assimilation into urban and semi-urban watersheds. Additionally, the inclusion of mutual information between gauged and ungauged locations in a semi-distributed hydrologic model was able to provide better state updates in models. Finally, by extending data assimilation into the short-term forecast, the reliability of the forecasts could be improved substantially. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/25083 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Leach_James_M_201911_PhD.pdf | 6.17 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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