Maximum Likelihood Ensemble Filter-based Data Assimilation with HSPF for Improving Water Quality Forecasting

Due to the large dimensionality of the state vector and sparsity of observations, the initial conditions (IC) of water quality models are subject to large uncertainties. To reduce the IC uncertainties in operational water quality forecasting, an ensemble data assimilation (DA) procedure for the Hydrologic Simulation Program - Fortran (HSPF) model has been developed and evaluated for the Kumho River Subcatchment of the Nakdong River Basin in Korea. The procedure, referred to herein as MLEF-HSPF, uses maximum likelihood ensemble filter (MLEF) which combines strengths of variational assimilation (VAR) and ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). The Control variables involved in the DA procedure include the bias correction factors for mean areal precipitation and mean areal potential evaporation, the hydrologic state variables, and the water quality state variables such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4) and chlorophyll a (CHL-a). Due to the very large dimensionality of the inverse problem, accurately specifying the parameters for the DA procdedure is a challenge. Systematic sensitivity analysis is carried out for identifying the optimal parameter settings. To evaluate the robustness of MLEF-HSPF, we use multiple subcatchments of the Nakdong River Basin. In evaluation, we focus on the performance of MLEF-HSPF on prediction of extreme water quality events.