Parameter Estimation of the Nonlinear Muskingum Model Using Ant Colony Optimization

There are two types of basic approaches to route floods : the hydrologic routing approaches and the hydraulic routing approache. One of the hydrologic routing techniques, the Muskingum method has been frequently used to route floods in natural channels and rivers.In this paper, parameter estimation of the nonlinear Muskingum model is presented by Using Ant Colony Optimization. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is one of the recent optimization methods which is inspired by the fact that ants are able to find the shortest route between their nest and a food source. This is accomplished by using pheromone trails as a form of indirect communication. In this paper, calibration of a rainfall-runoff model is presented by using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) method. The results are compared with the GA and HS methods.