  We study the numerical recovery of Manning's roughness coefficient for the
diffusive wave approximation of the shallow water equation. We describe a
conjugate gradient method for the numerical inversion. Numerical results for
one-dimensional model are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the
approach. Also we provide a proof of the differentiability of the weak form
with respect to the coefficient as well as the continuity and boundedness of
the linearized operator under reasonable assumptions using the maximal
parabolic regularity theory.
