Investigating the impact of calibration timescales on streamflow simulation, parameter sensitivity and model performance for Indian catchments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hydrological model calibration is a quintessential step in model development, and the time scale of calibration depends on the application. However, the implications of choice of time scale of calibration have not been explored extensively. Here, we evaluate the effect of the time scale of calibration on model sensitivity, best parameter ranges, and predictive uncertainty for three river basins using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Multiple models were set up for three different catchments from southern India. Our results showed that the sensitivity of the parameters, best parameter ranges, and model performance are conditioned on the time scale of calibration. The models calibrated at coarser time scales marginally outperformed the models calibrated at fine time scale in terms of Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and percentage bias. Transfer of parameters across scales (both from coarse to fine and from fine to coarse) have a general tendency to worsen the model performance in all three catchments, with few exceptions.