Parallelisation of a distributed hydrologic model

In the solution of streamflow problems, fully distributed hydrologic models (DHMs), which are based directly on governing equations, offer distinct advantages over conceptual rainfall-runoff models, which are derived from empirical observations. However, the primary problem associated with DHMs is that they consume more computational resources than other models, and as a result, they have not been as popular as their capabilities would imply. A parallel DHM software system for solving streamflow prediction problems has been implemented and analysed, and an investigation has been conducted of the efficiency and scalability of the algorithm load balancing among processors interprocessor communication disk performance. The load balancing algorithms show great promise for the kind of problem addressed. The software exhibits substantial parallel speedup, but the degree of speedup is limited by I/O costs.