Articles | Volume 26, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3419-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3419-2022
Research article
 | 
07 Jul 2022
Research article |  | 07 Jul 2022

Revisiting parameter sensitivities in the variable infiltration capacity model across a hydroclimatic gradient

Ulises M. Sepúlveda, Pablo A. Mendoza, Naoki Mizukami, and Andrew J. Newman

Related authors

Technical note: What does the Standardized Streamflow Index actually reflect? Insights and implications for hydrological drought analysis
Fabián Lema, Pablo A. Mendoza, Nicolás A. Vásquez, Naoki Mizukami, Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, and Ximena Vargas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-221,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-221, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
GPEP v1.0: the Geospatial Probabilistic Estimation Package to support Earth science applications
Guoqiang Tang, Andrew W. Wood, Andrew J. Newman, Martyn P. Clark, and Simon Michael Papalexiou
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1153–1173, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1153-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1153-2024, 2024
Short summary
Towards robust seasonal streamflow forecasts in mountainous catchments: impact of calibration metric selection in hydrological modeling
Diego Araya, Pablo A. Mendoza, Eduardo Muñoz-Castro, and James McPhee
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 4385–4408, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4385-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4385-2023, 2023
Short summary
Evaluating an Earth system model from a water user perspective
Mari R. Tye, Ming Ge, Jadwiga H. Richter, Ethan D. Gutmann, Allyson Rugg, Cindy L. Bruyère, Sue Ellen Haupt, Flavio Lehner, Rachel McCrary, Andrew J. Newman, and Andrew Wood
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2326,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2326, 2023
Short summary
To what extent does river routing matter in hydrological modeling?
Nicolás Cortés-Salazar, Nicolás Vásquez, Naoki Mizukami, Pablo A. Mendoza, and Ximena Vargas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3505–3524, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3505-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3505-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Catchment hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Modelling approaches
Lack of robustness of hydrological models: a large-sample diagnosis and an attempt to identify hydrological and climatic drivers
Léonard Santos, Vazken Andréassian, Torben O. Sonnenborg, Göran Lindström, Alban de Lavenne, Charles Perrin, Lila Collet, and Guillaume Thirel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 683–700, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-683-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-683-2025, 2025
Short summary
Achieving water budget closure through physical hydrological process modelling: insights from a large-sample study
Xudong Zheng, Dengfeng Liu, Shengzhi Huang, Hao Wang, and Xianmeng Meng
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 627–653, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-627-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-627-2025, 2025
Short summary
Heavy-tailed flood peak distributions: what is the effect of the spatial variability of rainfall and runoff generation?
Elena Macdonald, Bruno Merz, Viet Dung Nguyen, and Sergiy Vorogushyn
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 447–463, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-447-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-447-2025, 2025
Short summary
State updating of the Xin'anjiang model: joint assimilating streamflow and multi-source soil moisture data via the asynchronous ensemble Kalman filter with enhanced error models
Junfu Gong, Xingwen Liu, Cheng Yao, Zhijia Li, Albrecht H. Weerts, Qiaoling Li, Satish Bastola, Yingchun Huang, and Junzeng Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 335–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-335-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-335-2025, 2025
Short summary
Improving the hydrological consistency of a process-based solute-transport model by simultaneous calibration of streamflow and stream concentrations
Jordy Salmon-Monviola, Ophélie Fovet, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 127–158, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-127-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-127-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Abbaspour, K. C., Rouholahnejad, E., Vaghefi, S., Srinivasan, R., Yang, H., and Kløve, B.: A continental-scale hydrology and water quality model for Europe: Calibration and uncertainty of a high-resolution large-scale SWAT model, J. Hydrol., 524, 733–752, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.03.027, 2015. 
Abdulla, F. A. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Development of regional parameter estimation equations for a macroscale hydrologic model, J. Hydrol., 197, 230–257, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(96)03262-3, 1997. 
Addor, N. and Melsen, L. A.: Legacy, Rather Than Adequacy, Drives the Selection of Hydrological Models, Water Resour. Res., 55, 378–390, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022958, 2019. 
Addor, N., Nearing, G., Prieto, C., Newman, A. J., Le Vine, N., and Clark, M. P.: A Ranking of Hydrological Signatures Based on Their Predictability in Space, Water Resour. Res., 54, 8792–8812, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022606, 2018. 
Al Nakshabandi, G. and Kohnke, H.: Thermal conductivity and diffusivity of soils as related to moisture tension and other physical properties, Agric. Meteorol., 2, 271–279, https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-1571(65)90013-0, 1965. 
Download
Short summary
This paper characterizes parameter sensitivities across more than 5500 grid cells for a commonly used macroscale hydrological model, including a suite of eight performance metrics and 43 soil, vegetation and snow parameters. The results show that the model is highly overparameterized and, more importantly, help to provide guidance on the most relevant parameters for specific target processes across diverse climatic types.
Share