Understanding the Information Content in the Hierarchy of Model Development Decisions: Learning From Data

Process-based hydrological models seek to represent the dominant hydrological processes in a catchment. However, due to unavoidable incompleteness of knowledge, the construction of “fidelius” process-based models depends largely on expert judgment. We present a systematic approach that treats models as hierarchical assemblages of hypotheses ...

A constraint-based search algorithm for parameter identification of environmental models

Many environmental systems models, such as conceptual rainfall-runoff models, rely on model calibration for parameter identification. For this, an observed output time series (such as runoff) is needed, but frequently not available (e.g., when making predictions in ungauged basins). In this study, we provide an alternative approach for parameter...

A strategy for “constraint-based” parameter specification for environmental models

Many environmental systems models, such as conceptual rainfall-runoff models, rely on model calibration for parameter identification. For this, an observed output time series (such as runoff) is needed, but frequently not available. Here, we explore another way to constrain the parameter values of semi-distributed conceptual models, based on two...