scholarly journals Multi-Objective Calibration of a Distributed Hydrological Model in a Highly Glacierized Watershed in Central Asia

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 554
Author(s):  
Huiping Ji ◽  
Gonghuan Fang ◽  
Jing Yang ◽  
Yaning Chen

Understanding glacio-hydrological processes is crucial to water resources management, especially under increasing global warming. However, data scarcity makes it challenging to quantify the contribution of glacial melt to streamflow in highly glacierized catchments such as those in the Tienshan Mountains. This study aims to investigate the glacio-hydrological processes in the SaryDjaz-Kumaric River (SDKR) basin in Central Asia by integrating a degree-day glacier melt algorithm into the macro-scale hydrological Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. To deal with data scarcity in the alpine area, a multi-objective sensitivity analysis and a multi-objective calibration procedure were used to take advantage of all aspects of streamflow. Three objective functions, i.e., the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient of logarithms (LogNS), the water balance index (WBI), and the mean absolute relative difference (MARD), were considered. Results show that glacier and snow melt-related parameters are generally sensitive to all three objective functions. Compared to the original SWAT model, simulations with a glacier module match fairly well to the observed streamflow, with the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NS) and R2 approaching 0.82 and an absolute percentage bias less than 1%. Glacier melt contribution to runoff is 30–48% during the simulation period. The approach of combining multi-objective sensitivity analysis and optimization is an efficient way to identify important hydrological processes and recharge characteristics in highly glacierized catchments.

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 703-721
Author(s):  
Golak Bihari Mahanta ◽  
Deepak BBVL ◽  
Bibhuti B. Biswal ◽  
Amruta Rout

Purpose From the past few decades, parallel grippers are used successfully in the automation industries for performing various pick and place jobs due to their simple design, reliable nature and its economic feasibility. So, the purpose of this paperis to design a suitable gripper with appropriate design parameters for better performance in the robotic production systems. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, an enhanced multi-objective ant lion algorithm is introduced to find the optimal geometric and design variables of a parallel gripper. The considered robotic gripper systems are evaluated by considering three objective functions while satisfying eight constraint equations. The beta distribution function is introduced for generating the initial random number at the initialization phase of the proposed algorithm as a replacement of uniform distribution function. A local search algorithm, namely, achievement scalarizing function with multi-criteria decision-making technique and beta distribution are used to enhance the existing optimizer to evaluate the optimal gripper design problem. In this study, the newly proposed enhanced optimizer to obtain the optimum design condition of the design variables is called enhanced multi-objective ant lion optimizer. Findings This study aims to obtain optimal design parameters of the parallel gripper with the help of the developed algorithms. The acquired results are investigated with the past research paper conducted in that field for comparison. It is observed that the suggested method to get the best gripper arrangement and variables of the parallel gripper mechanism outperform its counterparts. The effects of the design variables are needed to be studied for a better design approach concerning the objective functions, which is achieved by sensitivity analysis. Practical implications The developed gripper is feasible to use in the assembly operation, as well as in other pick and place operations in different industries. Originality/value In this study, the problem to find the optimum design parameter (i.e. geometric parameters such as length of the link and parallel gripper joint angles) is addressed as a multi-objective optimization. The obtained results from the execution of the algorithm are evaluated using the performance indicator algorithm and a sensitivity analysis is introduced to validate the effects of the design variables. The obtained optimal parameters are used to develop a gripper prototype, which will be used for the assembly process.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manman Leng ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Shengping Wang ◽  
Zhiqiang Zhang

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is widely used to simulate watershed streamflow by integrating complex interactions between climate, geography, soil, vegetation, land use/land cover and other human activities. Although there have been many studies involving sensitivity analysis, uncertainty fitting, and performance evaluation of SWAT model all over the world, identifying dominant parameters and confirming actual hydrological processes still remain essential for studying the effect of climate and land use change on the hydrological regime in some water-limited regions. We used hydro-climate and spatial geographical data of a watershed with an area of 3919 km2, located on the Loess Plateau of China, to explore the suitable criterion to select parameters for running the model, and to elucidate the dominant ones that govern the hydrological processes for achieving the sound streamflow simulation. Our sensitivity analysis results showed that parameters not passing the sensitive check (p-value < 0.05) could play a significant role in hydrological simulation rather than only the parameters with p-value lower than 0.05, indicating that the common protocol is not appropriate for selecting parameters by sensitivity screening only. Superior performance of the rarely used parameter SOL_BD was likely caused by a combination of lateral and vertical movement of water in the loess soils due to the run-on infiltration process that occurred for meso-scale watershed monthly streamflow modeling, contrasting with traditionally held infiltration excessive overland flow dominated runoff generation mechanisms that prevail on the Loess Plateau. Overall, the hydrological processes of meso-scale watershed in the region could be well simulated by the model though underestimates of monthly streamflow could occur. Simulated water balance results indicated that the evapotranspiration in the region was the main component leaving the watershed, accounting for 88.9% of annual precipitation. Surface runoff contributed to 63.2% of the streamflow, followed by lateral flow (36.6%) and groundwater (0.2%). Our research highlights the importance for selecting more appropriate parameters for distributed hydrological models, which could help modelers to better comprehend the meso-scale watershed runoff generation mechanism of the Loess Plateau and provide policy makers robust tool for developing sustainable watershed management planning in water-limited regions.


Author(s):  
J. Hamel ◽  
M. Li ◽  
S. Azarm

Uncertainty in the input parameters to an engineering system may not only degrade the system’s performance, but may also cause failure or infeasibility. This paper presents a new sensitivity analysis based approach called Design Improvement by Sensitivity Analysis (DISA). DISA analyzes the interval parameter uncertainty of a system and, using multi-objective optimization, determines an optimal combination of design improvements required to enhance performance and ensure feasibility. This is accomplished by providing a designer with options for both uncertainty reduction and, more importantly, slight design adjustments. The approach can provide improvements to a design of interest that will ensure a minimal amount of variation in the objective functions of the system while also ensuring the engineering feasibility of the system. A two stage sequential framework is used in order to effectively employ metamodeling techniques to approximate the analysis function of an engineering system and greatly increase the computational efficiency of the approach. This new approach has been applied to two engineering examples of varying difficulty to demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel Mayo-Molina ◽  
Juliana Y. Leung

Abstract The Steam Alternating Solvent (SAS) process has been proposed and studied in recent years as a new auspicious alternative to the conventional thermal (steam-based) bitumen recovery process. The SAS process incorporates steam and solvent (e.g. propane) cycles injected alternatively using the same configuration as the Steam-Assisted Gravity-Drainage (SAGD) process. The SAS process offers many advantages, including lower capital and operational cost, as well as a reduction in water usage and lower Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. On the other hand, one of the main challenges of this relatively new process is the influence of uncertain reservoir heterogeneity distribution, such as shale barriers, on production behaviour. Many complex physical mechanisms, including heat transfer, fluid flows, and mass transfer, must be coupled. A proper design and selection of the operational parameters must consider several conflicting objectives. This work aims to develop a hybrid multi-objective optimization (MOO) framework for determining a set of Pareto-optimal SAS operational parameters under a variety of heterogeneity scenarios. First, a 2-D homogeneous reservoir model is constructed based on typical Cold lake reservoir properties in Alberta, Canada. The homogeneous model is used to establish a base scenario. Second, different shale barrier configurations with varying proportions, lengths, and locations are incorporated. Third, a detailed sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the most impactful parameters or decision variables. Based on the results of the sensitivity analysis, several objective functions are formulated (e.g., minimizing energy and solvent usage). Fourth, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is applied to generate a set of proxy models to approximate the non-linear relationship between the decision variables and the objective functions and to reduce the overall computational time. Finally, three Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) are applied to search and compare the optimal sets of decision parameters. The study showed that the SAS process is sensitive to the shale barrier distribution, and that impact is strongly dependent on the location and length of a specific shale barrier. When a shale barrier is located near the injector well, pressure and temperature may build up in the near-well area, preventing additional steam and solvent be injected and, consequently, reducing the oil production. Operational constraints, such as bottom-hole pressure, steam trap criterion, and bottom-hole gas rate in the producer, are among various critical decision variables examined in this study. A key conclusion is that the optimal operating strategy should depend on the underlying heterogeneity. Although this notion has been alluded to in other previous steam- or solvent-based studies, this paper is the first to utilize a MOO framework for systematically determining a specific optimal strategy for each heterogeneity scenario. With the advancement of continuous downhole fibre-optic monitoring, the outcomes can potentially be integrated into other real-time reservoir characterization and optimization work-flows.


Author(s):  
Rahmatullah Sediqi ◽  
Mustafa Tombul

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a semi-distributed physically-based hydrological model, is broadly used for simulating streamflow and analyzing hydrological processes in the basin. The SWAT model was applied to analyze the hydrological processes in Göksu Himmetli, Zamanti-Ergenuşağı, Göksun Poskoflu ve Hurman-Gözler Üstü sub-basins in the upper region of Seyhan and Ceyhan watersheds located in the south of Turkey. Model sensitivity analysis, calibration, and validation were performed using SWAT-CUP automatic calibration program and SUFI-2 algorithm. According to the model sensitivity analysis results, the most sensitive parameters in these basins have been seen as CN2, ALPHA_BNK, CH_K2, and GW_DELAY. In this study, 11 years (1994-2004) meteorological and eight years (1997-2004) observed flow data were used, three years for the model warm-up period, five years (1997-2001) for calibration, and three years (2002-2004) for validation. The model statistical performance was evaluated using the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) as the objective function. As the result of the model calibration and validation, the NSE value in the considered four sub-basins varied between 0,70 - 0,90. The results obtained in the study showed a relatively high correlation between the observed and simulated discharge data.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuqiang Tian ◽  
Yu Sun ◽  
Hongchang Hu ◽  
Hongyi Li

Abstract. In the calibration of hydrological models, evaluation criteria are explicitly and quantitatively defined as single- or multi-objective functions when utilizing automatic calibration approaches. In most previous studies, there is a general opinion that no single-objective function can represent all of the important characteristics of even one specific kind of hydrological variable (e.g., streamflow). Thus hydrologists must turn to multi-objective calibration. In this study, we demonstrated that an optimized single-objective function can compromise multi-response modes (i.e., multi-objective functions) of the hydrograph, which is defined as summation of a power function of the absolute error between observed and simulated streamflow with the exponent of power function optimized for specific watersheds. The new objective function was applied to 196 model parameter estimation experiment (MOPEX) watersheds across the eastern United States using the semi-distributed Xinanjiang hydrological model. The optimized exponent value for each watershed was obtained by targeting four popular objective functions focusing on peak flows, low flows, water balance, and flashiness, respectively. The results showed that the optimized single-objective function can achieve a better hydrograph simulation compared to the traditional single-objective function Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient for most watersheds, and balance high flow part and low flow part of the hydrograph without substantial differences compared to multi-objective calibration. The proposed optimal single-objective function can be practically adopted in the hydrological modeling if the optimal exponent value could be determined a priori according to hydrological/climatic/landscape characteristics in a specific watershed. This is, however, left for future study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 6339-6350
Author(s):  
Esra Çakır ◽  
Ziya Ulukan

Due to the increase in energy demand, many countries suffer from energy poverty because of insufficient and expensive energy supply. Plans to use alternative power like nuclear power for electricity generation are being revived among developing countries. Decisions for installation of power plants need to be based on careful assessment of future energy supply and demand, economic and financial implications and requirements for technology transfer. Since the problem involves many vague parameters, a fuzzy model should be an appropriate approach for dealing with this problem. This study develops a Fuzzy Multi-Objective Linear Programming (FMOLP) model for solving the nuclear power plant installation problem in fuzzy environment. FMOLP approach is recommended for cases where the objective functions are imprecise and can only be stated within a certain threshold level. The proposed model attempts to minimize total duration time, total cost and maximize the total crash time of the installation project. By using FMOLP, the weighted additive technique can also be applied in order to transform the model into Fuzzy Multiple Weighted-Objective Linear Programming (FMWOLP) to control the objective values such that all decision makers target on each criterion can be met. The optimum solution with the achievement level for both of the models (FMOLP and FMWOLP) are compared with each other. FMWOLP results in better performance as the overall degree of satisfaction depends on the weight given to the objective functions. A numerical example demonstrates the feasibility of applying the proposed models to nuclear power plant installation problem.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Koishi ◽  
Z. Shida

Abstract Since tires carry out many functions and many of them have tradeoffs, it is important to find the combination of design variables that satisfy well-balanced performance in conceptual design stage. To find a good design of tires is to solve the multi-objective design problems, i.e., inverse problems. However, due to the lack of suitable solution techniques, such problems are converted into a single-objective optimization problem before being solved. Therefore, it is difficult to find the Pareto solutions of multi-objective design problems of tires. Recently, multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have become popular in many fields to find the Pareto solutions. In this paper, we propose a design procedure to solve multi-objective design problems as the comprehensive solver of inverse problems. At first, a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is employed to find the Pareto solutions of tire performance, which are in multi-dimensional space of objective functions. Response surface method is also used to evaluate objective functions in the optimization process and can reduce CPU time dramatically. In addition, a self-organizing map (SOM) proposed by Kohonen is used to map Pareto solutions from high-dimensional objective space onto two-dimensional space. Using SOM, design engineers see easily the Pareto solutions of tire performance and can find suitable design plans. The SOM can be considered as an inverse function that defines the relation between Pareto solutions and design variables. To demonstrate the procedure, tire tread design is conducted. The objective of design is to improve uneven wear and wear life for both the front tire and the rear tire of a passenger car. Wear performance is evaluated by finite element analysis (FEA). Response surface is obtained by the design of experiments and FEA. Using both MOGA and SOM, we obtain a map of Pareto solutions. We can find suitable design plans that satisfy well-balanced performance on the map called “multi-performance map.” It helps tire design engineers to make their decision in conceptual design stage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4575
Author(s):  
Eduardo Fernández ◽  
Nelson Rangel-Valdez ◽  
Laura Cruz-Reyes ◽  
Claudia Gomez-Santillan

This paper addresses group multi-objective optimization under a new perspective. For each point in the feasible decision set, satisfaction or dissatisfaction from each group member is determined by a multi-criteria ordinal classification approach, based on comparing solutions with a limiting boundary between classes “unsatisfactory” and “satisfactory”. The whole group satisfaction can be maximized, finding solutions as close as possible to the ideal consensus. The group moderator is in charge of making the final decision, finding the best compromise between the collective satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Imperfect information on values of objective functions, required and available resources, and decision model parameters are handled by using interval numbers. Two different kinds of multi-criteria decision models are considered: (i) an interval outranking approach and (ii) an interval weighted-sum value function. The proposal is more general than other approaches to group multi-objective optimization since (a) some (even all) objective values may be not the same for different DMs; (b) each group member may consider their own set of objective functions and constraints; (c) objective values may be imprecise or uncertain; (d) imperfect information on resources availability and requirements may be handled; (e) each group member may have their own perception about the availability of resources and the requirement of resources per activity. An important application of the new approach is collective multi-objective project portfolio optimization. This is illustrated by solving a real size group many-objective project portfolio optimization problem using evolutionary computation tools.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document