Assessing Bayesian model averaging uncertainty of groundwater modeling based on information entropy method

- Variance and information entropy are consistent in measuring normal distribution.
- Information entropy is more appropriate for bimodal distribution than variance.
- Information entropy is more informative in measuring BMA uncertainties.

SummaryBecause of groundwater conceptualization uncertainty, multi-model methods are usually used and the corresponding uncertainties are estimated by integrating Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) methods. Generally, the variance method is used to measure the uncertainties of BMA prediction. The total variance of ensemble prediction is decomposed into within-model and between-model variances, which represent the uncertainties derived from parameter and conceptual model, respectively. However, the uncertainty of a probability distribution couldn't be comprehensively quantified by variance solely. A new measuring method based on information entropy theory is proposed in this study. Due to actual BMA process hard to meet the ideal mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive condition, BMA predictive uncertainty could be decomposed into parameter, conceptual model, and overlapped uncertainties, respectively. Overlapped uncertainty is induced by the combination of predictions from correlated model structures. In this paper, five simple analytical functions are firstly used to illustrate the feasibility of the variance and information entropy methods. A discrete distribution example shows that information entropy could be more appropriate to describe between-model uncertainty than variance. Two continuous distribution examples show that the two methods are consistent in measuring normal distribution, and information entropy is more appropriate to describe bimodal distribution than variance. The two examples of BMA uncertainty decomposition demonstrate that the two methods are relatively consistent in assessing the uncertainty of unimodal BMA prediction. Information entropy is more informative in describing the uncertainty decomposition of bimodal BMA prediction. Then, based on a synthetical groundwater model, the variance and information entropy methods are used to assess the BMA uncertainty of groundwater modeling. The uncertainty assessments of groundwater BMA prediction are consistent with that of analytical function examples.