Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: . This paper addresses the problem of uniqueness of catchment areas in relation to model representations of flow processes. The uniqueness of field measurements as a limitation on model representations is discussed. The treatment of uniqueness as a residual from a modelled relationship may conceal information about the uniqueness of catchments, while the treatment of uniqueness as a set of parameter values within a particular model structure is problematic due to the equifinality of model structures and parameter sets. The analysis suggests that a fully reductionist approach to describe the uniqueness of individual catchment areas by the aggregation of descriptions of small scale behaviour will be impossible given current measurement technologies. A suggested strategy for the representation of uniqueness of place as a fuzzy mapping of the landscape into a model space is suggested. This will lead to a quantification of the uncertainty in predictions of any particular location in a way that allows a conditioning of the mapping on the basis of the available data. This process can incorporate a hypothesis testing approach to model evaluation but the problem of multiple behavioural models may provide an ultimate limitation on the realism of process representations: not on the principle of realism but on the possibility of unambiguous process representations.
Author: K. J. Beven
Institution: Lancaster University
Language: English
Subfield: Water Science and Technology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,725
OpenAlex ID: W2016952331