Improving hydrological modelling of urban drainage swales through use of soil water content observations

• Flow observations alone may not provide sufficient information for calibration of detailed hydrological models of urban drainage swales. Therefore this study investigated the added value of using soil water content (SWC) observations made throughout the swale. This can be done by (1) including SWC in the likelihood function that is used to quantify model performance or (2) by using the SWC observations to set initial conditions in the model. The results show that combining outflow and SWC in the likelihood function is necessary to obtain reliable and precise predictions for both variables, and that this increases the number of parameters that are identifiable from the data. Using SWC observations to set initial model conditions improves model performance and affects the degree to which soil hydraulic parameters are identifiable. Overall, it is concluded that SWC observations may be a valuable complement to outflow observations in the modelling of urbanswales.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Vattenteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Water Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

stormwater drainage

soil water content

data selection

parametric uncertainty

predictive uncertainty

likelihood functions

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)