Predicting Variability in a Lake Ontario Phosphorus Model

The prediction of a model always has a degree of uncertainty. Because the level of uncertainty is inversely related to the value of information contained in the prediction, there is a need to quantify the uncertainty. One approach to estimate prediction uncertainty is first-order error analysis. In this method, the error in a characteristic (variable or parameter) is defined by its first nonzero moment (the variance). Errors are propagated through the model using first-order terms in the Taylor series, and the variances are then combined to yield the total prediction uncertainty. An alternative approach to model prediction error analysis is Monte Carlo simulation. In this technique, probability density functions are assigned to each characteristic (variable or parameter), reflecting the uncertainty in that characteristic. Then, values are randomly selected from the distribution for each term and inserted into the model, to calculate a prediction. Repeating this process a number of times produces a distribution of predicted values, which reflects the combined uncertainties. These two approaches (first-order error analysis and Monte Carlo simulation) are applied to Lake Ontario data using a steady state mass balance phosphorus model. Comparisons are made which suggest guidelines for the use of each.