Optimization approach for hydrologic channel routing

Flood routing plays a vital role in mitigating the floods. Among the available methods of hydrologic flood routing Muskingum method of flood routing is widely used especially when limited data is available. A technique resulting in accurate, simple and quick estimation of Muskingum model parameters would be helpful in reliable flood routing. Spreadsheet optimization technique called GRG solver is known to be a simple, robust and reliable approach to model non-linear systems. Therefore, in the present study GRG solver has been used to estimate the outflow by modelling non-linear form of Muskingum flood routing equation. A comparative analysis of earlier spreadsheet approach with the present study based on three data set available in literature, shows that the present methodology yields more reliable results. The results were compared using correlation coefficient (r), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MARE).