Séminaire du Professeur Min-Hui Lo

Constraining groundwater model parameters using GRACE water storage changes in the NCAR land surface model

This conference is mainly for a public of Master students, but open to the public.

Several recent studies have shown the significance of representing shallow groundwater in land surface hydrologic simulations. However, optimal methods for parameter estimation in order to realistically simulate water table depth have received little attention. Due to the lack of data and suitable methodology for calibrating groundwater parameters, most global models assume spatially-constant parameters. The recent availability of GRACE water storage data provides a unique opportunity to constrain model simulations of terrestrial hydrology. Our previous work has demonstrated that baseflow can be used to constrain water table depth simulations in land surface models. In this study, we simultaneously incorporate both GRACE and baseflow for parameter estimation in land surface models, and demonstrate the advantages gained from this approach using a Monte Carlo simulation framework. The optimal parameter set is validated successfully in Illinois. For other regions without groundwater data, the multi-objective calibration strategy demonstrated here can be used to enhance parameter estimation and to improve water table depth simulations in land surface models.