HESS Hydrology and Earth System Sciences HESS Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 1607-7938 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/hess-5-13-2001 A framework for development and application of hydrological models Wagener T. 4 1 Boyle D. P. 3 2 Lees M. J. 1 Wheater H. S. 1 Gupta H. V. 2 Sorooshian S. 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, SW7 2BU, UK. Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Now at Desert Research Institute, UCCSN, Reno, NV 89512, USA. email for corresponding author: t.wagener@ic.ac.uk, Tel.: 0207 594 6120, Fax.: 0207 594 6124 31 03 2001 5 1 13 26 Copyright: © 2001 T. Wagener et al. 2001 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This article is available from https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/5/13/2001/hess-5-13-2001.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/5/13/2001/hess-5-13-2001.pdf

Many existing hydrological modelling procedures do not make best use of available information, resulting in non-minimal uncertainties in model structure and parameters, and a lack of detailed information regarding model behaviour. A framework is required that balances the level of model complexity supported by the available data with the level of performance suitable for the desired application. Tools are needed that make optimal use of the information available in the data to identify model structure and parameters, and that allow a detailed analysis of model behaviour. This should result in appropriate levels of model complexity as a function of available data, hydrological system characteristics and modelling purpose. This paper introduces an analytical framework to achieve this, and tools to use within it, based on a multi-objective approach to model calibration and analysis. The utility of the framework is demonstrated with an example from the field of rainfall-runoff modelling.</p> <p style="line-height: 20px;"><b>Keywords: </b>hydrological modelling, multi-objective calibration, model complexity, parameter identifiability