Hybrid modeling approach to assess the sustainability of hydrological systems

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The assessment of the sustainability of natural and human-made hydrological and environmental systems (e.g., restored watersheds, watershed infrastructure, urban drainage systems) relies mainly on mathematical modeling to allow for long-term simulation and presentation of the performance of the system in question. In this research, a hybrid modeling approach for hydrological systems will be developed. The hybrid approach is defined as a modeling system that includes or integrates multiple (at least two) models. These models can be physically based where sufficient knowledge of the physical processes should be available or data-driven models that can be employed when the knowledge of the physical processes is absent or incomplete. The proposed hybrid modeling approach and the resulting hybrid models will be evaluated in terms of their modeling accuracy, accommodation of various sources of uncertainty, and computational efficiency, which includes computational time and tractability as well as their impact on the final system management decisions. The proposed research will be validated and applied to a multiple case studies, such as, modeling the various hydrological process (eg., soil moisture content, actual evapotranspiration, runoff) in restored watersheds in northen Alberta and natural forested sites from the BOREAS project in Saskatchewan.