Hydrology under change: an evaluation protocol to investigate how hydrological models deal with changing catchments

• Published in: Hydrological sciences journal Vol. 60; no. 7-8; pp. 1184 - 1199
• Main Authors: Thirel, G, Andréassian, V, Perrin, C, Audouy, J.-N, Berthet, L, Edwards, P, Folton, N, Furusho, C, Kuentz, A, Lerat, J, Lindström, G, Martin, E, Mathevet, T, Merz, R, Parajka, J, Ruelland, D, Vaze, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 03.08.2015; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: atelier AISH; basins; calage; calibration; changing catchments dataset; climate; data collection; Earth Sciences; evaluation; hydrologic models; Hydrology; IAHS workshop; jeu de données de bassins changeants; land cover; motivation; non-stationarity; non-stationnarité; protocol; protocole; Sciences of the Universe; split-sample test; temperature; test de calage-contrôle; testing; watersheds; évaluation; Sweden; atelier AISH; calage; protocole; IAHS workshop; protocol; évaluation; non-stationarity; changing catchments dataset; split-sample test; calibration; jeu de données de bassins changeants; non-stationnarité; test de calage-contrôle
• ISSN: 2150-3435; 0262-6667; 2150-3435
• DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2014.967248

Testing hydrological models under changing conditions is essential to evaluate their ability to cope with changing catchments and their suitability for impact studies. With this perspective in mind, a workshop dedicated to this issue was held at the 2013 General Assembly of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) in Göteborg, Sweden, in July 2013, during which the results of a common testing experiment were presented. Prior to the workshop, the participants had been invited to test their own models on a common set of basins showing varying conditions specifically set up for the workshop. All these basins experienced changes, either in physical characteristics (e.g. changes in land cover) or climate conditions (e.g. gradual temperature increase). This article presents the motivations and organization of this experiment—that is—the testing (calibration and evaluation) protocol and the common framework of statistical procedures and graphical tools used to assess the model performances. The basins datasets are also briefly introduced (a detailed description is provided in the associated Supplementary material).