Articles | Volume 22, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4425-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4425-2018
Research article
 | 
22 Aug 2018
Research article |  | 22 Aug 2018

How can expert knowledge increase the realism of conceptual hydrological models? A case study based on the concept of dominant runoff process in the Swiss Pre-Alps

Manuel Antonetti and Massimiliano Zappa

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Cited articles

Abbaspour, K. C., Faramarzi, M., Ghasemi, S. S., and Yang, H.: Assessing the impact of climate change on water resources in Iran, Water Resour. Res., 45, W10434, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007615, 2009.
Addor, N., Rössler, O., Köplin, N., Huss, M., Weingartner, R., and Seibert, J.: Robust changes and sources of uncertainty in the projected hydrological regimes of Swiss catchments, Water Resour. Res., 50, 7541–7562, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015549, 2014.
Antonetti, M., Buss, R., Scherrer, S., Margreth, M., and Zappa, M.: Mapping dominant runoff processes: an evaluation of different approaches using similarity measures and synthetic runoff simulations, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2929–2945, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2929-2016, 2016.
Antonetti, M., Scherrer, S., Kienzler, P. M., Margreth, M., and Zappa, M.: Process-based Hydrological Modelling: The Potential of a Bottom-Up Approach for Runoff Predictions in Ungauged Catchments, Hydrol. Process., 31, 2902–2920, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.11232, 2017.
Bahremand, A.: HESS Opinions: Advocating process modeling and de-emphasizing parameter estimation, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1433–1445, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1433-2016, 2016.
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Short summary
We developed 60 modelling chain combinations based on either experimentalists' (bottom-up) or modellers' (top-down) thinking and forced them with data of increasing accuracy. Results showed that the differences in performance arising from the forcing data were due to compensation effects. We also found that modellers' and experimentalists' concept of model realism differs, and the level of detail a model should have to reproduce the processes expected must be agreed in advance.
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