A Study on a Simple Algorithm for Parallel Computation of a Grid-Based One-Dimensional Distributed Rainfall-Runoff Model

• DOI: 10.1007/s12205-020-2458-z
• Publication Date: 2020-01-03T15:02:36Z
• Authors: Yun Seok Choi; Mun-Ju Shin; Kyung Tak Kim
• Keywords: 0207 environmental engineering; 02 engineering and technology

This paper presents an algorithm that can efficiently simulate a grid-based one-dimensional distributed rainfall-runoff model by performing parallel computations using flow accumulation values for individual grid cells, which are calculated through an eight flow direction method. This parallel computation algorithm uses information about flow accumulation to automatically find parallel computation target grid cells within the overall area and perform parallel computation on the grid by unit. The Microsoft.NET Parallel class was used to apply and evaluate the parallel computation algorithm independently on two machines. The results showed that the time reduction effect of parallel computation differed for each target domain, because flow accumulation values varied depending on the domain. Parallel computation reduced computation time by around 40% to 78% in virtual domains and around 63% in the real domain compared to sequential computation. The results of this study can be utilized to reduce the computation time of distributed models.