Strategies for smarter catchment hydrology models: incorporating scaling and better process representation

Roy C Sidle

doi:10.1186/s40562-021-00193-9

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Strategies for smarter catchment hydrology models: incorporating scaling and better process representation

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Strategies for smarter catchment hydrology models: incorporating scaling and better process representation

Roy C Sidle

Geoscience Letters, Vol.8, pp.1-14

2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-021-00193-9

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Abstract

Hydrological processes

Remote sensing

Catchment models

Hydrological connectivity

Spatial–temporal scaling

Flexible model structure

Parsimonious models

Hydrological models have proliferated in the past several decades prompting debates on the virtues and shortcomings of various modelling approaches. Rather than critiquing individual models or modelling approaches, the objective here is to address the critical issues of scaling and hydrological process representation in various types of models with suggestions for improving these attributes in a parsimonious manner that captures and explains their functionality as simply as possible. This discussion focuses mostly on conceptual and physical/process-based models where understanding the internal catchment processes and hydrologic pathways is important. Such hydrological models can be improved by using data from advanced remote sensing (both spatial and temporal) and derivatives, applications of machine learning, flexible structures, and informing models through nested catchment studies in which internal catchment processes are elucidated. Incorporating concepts of hydrological connectivity into flexible model structures is a promising approach for improving flow path representation. Also important is consideration of the scale dependency of hydrological parameters to avoid scale mismatch between measured and modelled parameters. Examples are presented from remote high-elevation regions where water sources and pathways differ from temperate and tropical environments where more attention has been focused. The challenge of incorporating spatially and temporally variable water inputs, hydrologically pathways, climate, and land use into hydrological models requires modellers to collaborate with catchment hydrologists to include important processes at relevant scales—i.e. develop smarter hydrological models.

Details

Title: Strategies for smarter catchment hydrology models: incorporating scaling and better process representation
Authors: Roy C Sidle (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Publication details: Geoscience Letters, Vol.8, pp.1-14
Publisher: SpringerOpen
Date published: 2021
DOI: 10.1186/s40562-021-00193-9
ISSN: 2196-4092
Copyright note: © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99549707802621
Output Type: Journal article