Multi-objective fitting of concentration–discharge relationships (loads
and concentrations)
Abstract
Concentration–discharge (C–Q) relationships are widely used to assess
the link between hydrological and biogeochemical processes at catchment
scale. They can be fitted to represent either concentrations or
discharge-weighted concentrations (i.e., load). In this technical note,
we test a multi-objective calibration using both concentration and load,
and compare it to a mono-objective calibration applied on either
concentrations or load: although widely used in hydrological modeling,
multi-objective calibrations are rarely applied to fit C–Q
relationships. The multi-objective calibration yielded parameters which
were more representative of the concentration behavior during the rarest
high-flow events, avoiding issues of under-representation of
high-discharge, low-concentration periods. In this technical note, we
use the multi-objective calibration on a high-frequency dataset acquired
on the ORACLE-Orgeval Observatory (France).