Technical Notes
May 28, 2012

Global Calibration of Distributed Hydrological Models for Large-Scale Applications

Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 6

Abstract

Large-scale distributed hydrological modeling is nowadays more widely applied for water resource management. To ensure the spatial consistency of distributed parameters, an alternative calibration strategy is suggested: the global calibration. This approach aims to identify a single parameter set suitable for every stations located within the modeled domain. A global calibration procedure is applied and tested over a large portion of the St. Lawrence River basin (387,000km2) using Hydrotel, a physically based semidistributed hydrological model. Despite limitations in estimating high flows on small catchments, global calibration is regarded as a fair trade-off between local performance and regional consistency of parametric information. In the near future, the global calibration strategy will act as a key methodological framework for large-scale hydrological assessments.

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Published In

Go to Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18Issue 6June 2013
Pages: 719 - 721

History

Received: Sep 9, 2011
Accepted: May 24, 2012
Published online: May 28, 2012
Published in print: Jun 1, 2013

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Authors

Affiliations

Hydrologist, Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ), 675 boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1R 5V7 (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
R. Bourdillon [email protected]
Hydrologist, Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ), 675 boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1R 5V7. E-mail: [email protected]
Hydrologist, Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ), 675 boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1R 5V7. E-mail: [email protected]
R. Turcotte [email protected]
Chief Hydrologist, Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ), 675 boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1R 5V7. E-mail: [email protected]

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