Articles | Volume 21, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3953-2017
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3953-2017
Opinion article
 | 
01 Aug 2017
Opinion article |  | 01 Aug 2017

HESS Opinions: The complementary merits of competing modelling philosophies in hydrology

Markus Hrachowitz and Martyn P. Clark

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Cited articles

Ajami, N. K., Gupta, H., Wagener, T., and Sorooshian, S.: Calibration of a semi-distributed hydrologic model for streamflow estimation along a river system, J. Hydrol., 298, 112–135, 2004.
Andersen, H. and Hepburn, B.: Scientific Method, in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by: Zalta, E. N., Stanford, 2016.
Andréassian, V. and Perrin, C.: On the ambiguous interpretation of the Turc-Budyko nondimensional graph, Water Resour. Res., 48, W10601, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012WR012532, 2012.
Andréassian, V., Perrin, C., Berthet, L., Le Moine, N., Lerat, J., Loumagne, C., Oudin, L., Mathevet, T., Ramos, M.-H., and Valéry, A.: HESS Opinions Crash tests for a standardized evaluation of hydrological models, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 1757–1764, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-1757-2009, 2009.
Arnold, J. G., Srinivasan, R., Muttiah, R. S., and Williams, J. R.: Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment part I: Model development, J. Am. Water Resour. As., 34, 73–89, 1998.
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Short summary
Physically based and conceptual models in hydrology are the two endpoints in the spectrum of modelling strategies, mostly differing in their degree of detail in resolving the model domain. Given the limitations both modelling strategies face, we believe that to achieve progress in hydrological modelling, a convergence of these methods is necessary. This would allow us to exploit the respective advantages of the bottom-up and top-down models while limiting their respective uncertainties.
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