Research Article

RAPID applied to the SIM-France model

  1. Cédric H. David1,2,3,*,
  2. Florence Habets4,
  3. David R. Maidment2,
  4. Zong-Liang Yang3

Article first published online: 21 APR 2011

DOI: 10.1002/hyp.8070

Issue

Hydrological Processes

Hydrological Processes

Volume 25, Issue 22, pages 3412–3425, 30 October 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

David, C. H., Habets, F., Maidment, D. R. and Yang, Z.-L. (2011), RAPID applied to the SIM-France model. Hydrol. Process., 25: 3412–3425. doi: 10.1002/hyp.8070

Author Information

  1. 1

    Centre de Géosciences, Mines Paristech, Fontainebleau, France

  2. 2

    Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

  4. 4

    UMR-7619 Sisyphe [CNRS, UPMC, Mines-Paristech], Paris, France

*Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C1160, Austin, TX 78712, USA.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 12 OCT 2011
  2. Article first published online: 21 APR 2011
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 2 MAR 2011 06:36AM EST
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 24 FEB 2011
  5. Manuscript Received: 7 DEC 2009

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Keywords:

  • stream flow;
  • river network;
  • network matrix;
  • parameters;
  • estimation;
  • dam;
  • quad-tree

Abstract

SIM-France is a large connected atmosphere/land surface/river/groundwater modelling system that simulates the water cycle throughout metropolitan France. The work presented in this study investigates the replacement of the river routing scheme in SIM-France by a river network model called RAPID to enhance the capacity to relate simulated flows to river gauges and to take advantage of the automated parameter estimation procedure of RAPID. RAPID was run with SIM-France over a 10-year period and results compared with those of the previous river routing scheme. We found that while the formulation of RAPID enhanced the functionality of SIM-France, the flow simulations are comparable in accuracy to those previously obtained by SIM-France. Sub-basin optimization of RAPID parameters was found to increase model efficiency. A single criterion for quantifying the quality of river flow simulations using several river gauges globally in a river network is developed that normalizes the square error of modelled flow to allow equal treatment of all gauging stations regardless of the magnitude of flow. The use of this criterion as the cost function for parameter estimation in RAPID allows better results than by increasing the degree of spatial variability in optimization of model parameters. Likewise, increased spatial variability of RAPID parameters through accounting for topography is shown to enhance model performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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