Improved particle swarm algorithm for hydrological parameter optimization

Abstract In this paper, a new method named MSSE-PSO (master–slave swarms shuffling evolution algorithm based on particle swarm optimization) is proposed. Firstly, a population of points is sampled randomly from the feasible space, and then partitioned into several sub-swarms (one master swarm and other slave swarms). Each slave swarm independently executes PSO or its variants, including the update of particles’ position and velocity. For the master swarm, the particles enhance themselves based on the social knowledge of master swarm and that of slave swarms. At periodic stage in the evolution, the master swarm and the whole slave swarms are forced to mix, and points are then reassigned to several sub-swarms to ensure the share of information. The process is repeated until a user-defined stopping criterion is reached. The tests of numerical simulation and the case study on hydrological model show that MSSE-PSO remarkably improves the accuracy of calibration, reduces the time of computation and enhances the performance of stability. Therefore, it is an effective and efficient global optimization method.