Parameter Identifiability for Three Sediment Entrainment Equations
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 127, Issue 2
Abstract
A process-based erosion model is used to study parameterization problems of sediment entrainment equations in overland flow areas. One of the equations for entrainment by flow is developed based on a theory of excess stream power, while the other two relate to excess hydraulic shear. The investigation is conducted in two steps. The first step examines parameter optimization for simulated data sets where the parameter values are known. In the second step, parameter optimization for the most robust equation is examined using experimental data from rainfall simulator plots. Results demonstrate that although the model is capable of estimating total sediment yields with relatively small errors in parameter estimates, the converse is true when the optimization is performed for sediment concentrations. Although sediment yields calculated from simulated sediment concentrations match well with observed data, the parameter estimates generally underestimate sediment concentrations on the rising limb of the sediment graphs, and they overestimate them on the falling limb. This difficulty might be related to structural problems in the model, and unique solutions for parameter estimates cannot be obtained.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 127 • Issue 2 • April 2001
Pages: 92 - 99
History
Received: Feb 4, 1999
Published online: Apr 1, 2001
Published in print: Apr 2001
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