Multiple-pattern parameter identification and uncertainty analysis approach for water quality modeling

This paper presents a multiple-pattern parameter identification and uncertainty analysis approach for robust water quality modeling using a neural network (NN) embedded genetic algorithm (GA). The modeling approach uses an adaptive NN–GA framework to inversely solve the governing equations in a water quality model for multiple parameter patterns, along with an alternating fitness method to maintain solution diversity. The procedure was demonstrated through a coupled 2D hydrodynamic and eutrophication model for Loch Raven Reservoir in Maryland. The inverse problem was formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem minimizing the degree of misfit (DOM) between model results and observed data. A set of NN models was developed to approximate the input-output response relationship of the Loch Raven Reservoir model and was incorporated into a GA framework in an adaptive fashion to search for near-optimal solutions minimizing the DOM. The numerical example showed that the adaptive NN–GA approach is capable of identifying multiple parameter patterns that reproduce the observed data equally well. The resulting parameter patterns were incorporated into the numerical model, and a multiple-pattern robust water quality modeling analysis, along with a compound margin of safety (CMOS) method, was proposed and applied to analyze the parameter pattern uncertainty.