Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2022-131
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2022-131
Submitted as: methods for assessment of models
 | 
23 May 2022
Submitted as: methods for assessment of models |  | 23 May 2022
Status: this preprint was under review for the journal GMD. A final paper is not foreseen.

Global Sensitivity Analysis of the distributed hydrologic model ParFlow-CLM (V3.6.0)

Wei Qu, Heye Bogena, Christoph Schüth, Harry Vereecken, Zongmei Li, and Stephan Schulz

Abstract. The integrated distributed hydrological model ParFlow-CLM was used to predict water and energy transport between subsurface, land surface, and atmosphere for the Stettbach headwater catchment, Germany. Based on this model, a global sensitivity analysis was performed using the Latin-Hypercube (LH) sampling strategy followed by the One-factor-At-a-Time (OAT) method to identify the most influential and interactive parameters affecting the main hydrologic processes. In total 12 parameters were evaluated including soil hydraulic properties, storage, Manning coefficient, leaf area index, stem area index, and aerodynamic resistance that characterize water and energy fluxes in soil and vegetation. In addition, the sensitivity analysis was also carried out for different slopes and meteorological conditions to test the transferability of the results to regions with other topographies and climates. Our results show that the simulated energy fluxes, i.e. latent heat flux and sensible heat flux are sensitive to the parameters such as wilting point, leaf area index, and stem area index, especially for steep slope and subarctic climate conditions. The simulated soil evaporation, plant transpiration, infiltration, and runoff, are most sensitive to soil porosity, the van Genuchten parameter n representing the soil pore size distribution, soil wilting point, and leaf area index. The subsurface soil water storage and groundwater storage are most sensitive to soil porosity, while the surface water storage was most sensitive to the soil roughness parameter. For the different slope and climate conditions, the rank order of input parameter sensitivity is consistent, but the magnitude of parameter sensitivity is very different. The strongest deviation in parameter sensitivity occurred for sensible heat flux under the different slope conditions as well as for transpiration under different climate conditions. Overall, this study provides an insight into the most important input parameters that control hydrological fluxes and how the simulated variables vary with the change in parameter values, which can improve our understanding of the key processes in the model and help us to reduce the computational demands of completing multiple simulations of expensive domains.

This preprint has been withdrawn.

Wei Qu, Heye Bogena, Christoph Schüth, Harry Vereecken, Zongmei Li, and Stephan Schulz

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on gmd-2022-131', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Jun 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Wei Qu, 15 Aug 2022
  • RC2: 'Comment on gmd-2022-131', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jul 2022
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Wei Qu, 15 Aug 2022
  • EC1: 'Decision on gmd-2022-131', Charles Onyutha, 20 Sep 2022

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on gmd-2022-131', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Jun 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Wei Qu, 15 Aug 2022
  • RC2: 'Comment on gmd-2022-131', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jul 2022
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Wei Qu, 15 Aug 2022
  • EC1: 'Decision on gmd-2022-131', Charles Onyutha, 20 Sep 2022
Wei Qu, Heye Bogena, Christoph Schüth, Harry Vereecken, Zongmei Li, and Stephan Schulz

Data sets

SA analysis data and input files Wei, Qu https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6553492

Model code and software

ParFlow-CLM model Smith, Steve; Maxwell, Reed; Condon, Laura et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4639761

Wei Qu, Heye Bogena, Christoph Schüth, Harry Vereecken, Zongmei Li, and Stephan Schulz

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This preprint has been withdrawn.

Short summary
We applied the global sensitivity analysis LH-OAT to the integrated hydrology model ParFlow-CLM to investigate the sensitivity of the 12 parameters for different scenarios. And we found that the general patterns of the parameter sensitivities were consistent, however, for some parameters a significantly larger span of the sensitivities was observed, especially for the higher slope and in subarctic climatic scenarios.