On the use of global sensitivity analysis for the numerical analysis of permeable pavements

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of different global sensitivity analysis techniques in conjunction with a mechanistic model in the numerical analysis of a permeable pavement installed at the University of Calabria. The Morris method and the variance-based E-FAST procedure are applied to investigate the influence of soil hydraulic parameters on the pavement’s behavior. The analysis reveals that the Morris method represents a reliable computationally cheap alternative to variance-based procedures for screening important factors and provides the first inspection of the model. The study is completed by a combined GSA-GLUE uncertainty analysis used to evaluate the model accuracy.

Keywords:

• Urban drainage
• permeable pavement
• infiltration
• sensitivity analysis
• modeling

Abbreviations:

• LID: low-impact development
• GSA: global sensitivity analysis
• E-FAST: extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test
• GLUE: generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation
• NSE: Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency
• SM: screening methods
• OAT: one-factor-at-a-time