Articles | Volume 29, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5371-2025
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5371-2025
Opinion article
 | 
21 Oct 2025
Opinion article |  | 21 Oct 2025

HESS Opinions: Reflecting and acting on the social aspects of modeling

Janneke O. E. Remmers, Rozemarijn ter Horst, Ehsan Nabavi, Ulrike Proske, Adriaan J. Teuling, Jeroen Vos, and Lieke A. Melsen

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Cited articles

Addor, N. and Melsen, L.: Legacy, rather than adequacy, drives the selection of hydrological models, Water Resources Research, 55, 378–390, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022958, 2019. a
Agrawal, T., Pompoes, R., Verzijl, A., Srinivasan, V., Nair, J., Huijbens, E., Kannadhasan, K., Chokkalingam, K., and Murugan, V.: Creating Kaveri Delta beneath our feet: An experiment in grounding socio-hydrology in Tamil Nadu, India, Journal of Hydrology, 644, 131896, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.131896, 2024. a
Alba, R., Krueger, T., Melsen, L., and Venot, J.: Modelling water worlds, Water Alternatives, 18, 214–239, 2025a. a
Alba, R., ter Horst, R., Tran, B., Klein, A., Godinez-Madrigal, J., Unverzagt, K., Verzijl, A., Rusca, M., Vos, J., Venot, J., Zwarteveen, M., and Krueger, T.: Situating hydrological modelling: a proposal for engaging with the power of models, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 12, e70030, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.70030, 2025b. a, b, c
Babel, L., Vinck, D., and Karssenberg, D.: Decision-making in model construction: unveiling habits, Environmental Modelling & Software, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.07.015, 2019. a
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Hydrological models are generally seen as neutral, despite acknowledged uncertainties. This notion has several, possibly harmful, consequences. In critical social sciences, non-neutrality in methods and results is an established topic of debate. We propose that in order to deal with it in hydrological modelling, the hydrological modelling network can learn from, and with, critical social sciences. The main lesson, from our perspective, is that responsible modelling is a shared responsibility.
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