Using expert knowledge to increase realism in environmental system models can dramatically reduce the need for calibration

Conceptual environmental system models, such as rainfall runoff models, generally rely on calibration for parameter identification. Increasing complexity of this type of models for better representation of hydrological process heterogeneity, typically makes parameter identification more difficult. Although various, potentially valuable,...

Testing the realism of a topography-driven model (FLEX-Topo) in the nested catchments of the Upper Heihe, China

Although elevation data are globally available and used in many existing hydrological models, their information content is still underexploited. Topography is closely related to geology, soil, climate and land cover. As a result, it may reflect the dominant hydrological processes in a catchment. In this study, we evaluated this hypothesis...