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Diagnostic calibration and cross‐catchment transferability of a simple process‐consistent hydrologic model
Author(s) -
Smith Tyler,
Hayes Kaitlin,
Marshall Lucy,
McGlynn Brian,
Jencso Kelsey
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.10955
Subject(s) - hydrograph , hydrological modelling , streamflow , environmental science , transferability , hydrology (agriculture) , drainage basin , catchment hydrology , fidelity , water table , calibration , computer science , geology , groundwater , geography , statistics , climatology , mathematics , cartography , machine learning , telecommunications , geotechnical engineering , logit
The transferability of hydrologic models is of ever increasing importance for making improved hydrologic predictions and testing hypothesized hydrologic drivers. Here, we present an investigation into the variability and transferability of the recently introduced catchment connectivity model (Smith et al. , [Smith T, 2013]). The catchment connectivity model was developed following extensive experimental observations identifying the key drivers of streamflow in the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (Jencso et al. , [Jencso KG, 2009]; Jencso et al. , [Jencso KG, 2010]), with the goal of creating a simple model consistent with internal observations of catchment hydrologic connectivity patterns. The model was applied across seven catchments located within Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest to investigate spatial variability and transferability of model performance and parameterization. The results demonstrated that the model resulted in historically good fits (based on previous studies at the sites) to both the hydrograph and internal water table dynamics (corroborated with experimental observations). The impact of a priori parameter limits was also examined. It was observed that enforcing field‐based limits on model parameters resulted in slight reductions to streamflow hydrograph fits, but significant improvements to model process fidelity (as hydrologic connectivity), as well as moderate improvement in the transferability of model parameterizations from one catchment to the next. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.