Dynamically dimensioned search algorithm for computationally efficient watershed model calibration

A new global optimization algorithm, dynamically dimensioned search (DDS), is introduced for automatic calibration of watershed simulation models. DDS is designed for calibration problems with many parameters, requires no algorithm parameter tuning, and automatically scales the search to find good solutions within the maximum number of user‐specified function (or model) evaluations. As a result, DDS is ideally suited for computationally expensive optimization problems such as distributed watershed model calibration. DDS performance is compared to the shuffled complex evolution (SCE) algorithm for multiple optimization test functions as well as real and synthetic SWAT2000 model automatic calibration…