U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods
Abstract
Computationally frugal methods of model analysis can provide substantial benefits when developing models of groundwater and other environmental systems. Model analysis includes ways to evaluate model adequacy and to perform sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Frugal methods typically require 10s of parallelizable model runs; their convenience allows for other uses of the computational effort. We suggest that model analysis be posed as a set of questions used to organize methods that range from frugal to expensive (requiring 10,000 model runs or more). This encourages focus on method utility, even when methods have starkly different theoretical backgrounds. We note that many frugal methods are more useful when unrealistic process-model nonlinearities are reduced. Inexpensive diagnostics are identified for determining when frugal methods are advantageous. Examples from the literature are used to demonstrate local methods and the diagnostics. We suggest that the greater use of computationally frugal model analysis methods would allow questions such as those posed in this work to be addressed more routinely, allowing the environmental sciences community to obtain greater scientific insight from the many ongoing and future modeling efforts
- Authors:
-
- U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
- Univ. of Adelaide, SA (Australia)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Univ. of Darmstadt (Germany)
- California State Univ. (CalState), Chico, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1286771
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1400448
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; SC0008272; 0911074; 21-66885
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Ground Water
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 54; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0017-467X
- Publisher:
- Wiley - NGWA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Model calibration; Sensitivity analysis; Uncertainty; Bayesian; regression; transparency; falsifiability
Citation Formats
Hill, Mary C., Kavetski, Dmitri, Clark, Martyn, Ye, Ming, Arabi, Mazdak, Lu, Dan, Foglia, Laura, and Mehl, Steffen. Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1111/gwat.12330.
Hill, Mary C., Kavetski, Dmitri, Clark, Martyn, Ye, Ming, Arabi, Mazdak, Lu, Dan, Foglia, Laura, & Mehl, Steffen. Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods. United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwat.12330
Hill, Mary C., Kavetski, Dmitri, Clark, Martyn, Ye, Ming, Arabi, Mazdak, Lu, Dan, Foglia, Laura, and Mehl, Steffen. 2015.
"Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods". United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwat.12330. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1286771.
@article{osti_1286771,
title = {Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods},
author = {Hill, Mary C. and Kavetski, Dmitri and Clark, Martyn and Ye, Ming and Arabi, Mazdak and Lu, Dan and Foglia, Laura and Mehl, Steffen},
abstractNote = {Computationally frugal methods of model analysis can provide substantial benefits when developing models of groundwater and other environmental systems. Model analysis includes ways to evaluate model adequacy and to perform sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Frugal methods typically require 10s of parallelizable model runs; their convenience allows for other uses of the computational effort. We suggest that model analysis be posed as a set of questions used to organize methods that range from frugal to expensive (requiring 10,000 model runs or more). This encourages focus on method utility, even when methods have starkly different theoretical backgrounds. We note that many frugal methods are more useful when unrealistic process-model nonlinearities are reduced. Inexpensive diagnostics are identified for determining when frugal methods are advantageous. Examples from the literature are used to demonstrate local methods and the diagnostics. We suggest that the greater use of computationally frugal model analysis methods would allow questions such as those posed in this work to be addressed more routinely, allowing the environmental sciences community to obtain greater scientific insight from the many ongoing and future modeling efforts},
doi = {10.1111/gwat.12330},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1286771},
journal = {Ground Water},
issn = {0017-467X},
number = 2,
volume = 54,
place = {United States},
year = {2015},
month = {3}
}
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