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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH,
VOL. 43,
W07301,
doi:10.1029/2006WR005467,
2007
Moving beyond heterogeneity and process complexity: A new vision for watershed hydrology
J. J. McDonnell
Water Resources Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
M. Sivapalan
Department of Geography and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana, Illinois, USA
K. Vaché
Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany
S. Dunn
Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, UK
G. Grant
United States Forest Service, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
R. Haggerty
Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
C. Hinz
School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
R. Hooper
Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Sciences, Inc., Washington, D. C., USA
J. Kirchner
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
M. L. Roderick
Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
J. Selker
Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
M. Weiler
Department of Forest Resources Management and Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada
Abstract
Field studies in watershed hydrology continue to characterize and catalogue the enormous heterogeneity and complexity of rainfall
runoff processes in more and more watersheds, in different hydroclimatic regimes, and at different scales. Nevertheless, the
ability to generalize these findings to ungauged regions remains out of reach. In spite of their apparent physical basis and
complexity, the current generation of detailed models is process weak. Their representations of the internal states and process
dynamics are still at odds with many experimental findings. In order to make continued progress in watershed hydrology and
to bring greater coherence to the science, we need to move beyond the status quo of having to explicitly characterize or prescribe
landscape heterogeneity in our (highly calibrated) models and in this way reproduce process complexity and instead explore
the set of organizing principles that might underlie the heterogeneity and complexity. This commentary addresses a number
of related new avenues for research in watershed science, including the use of comparative analysis, classification, optimality
principles, and network theory, all with the intent of defining, understanding, and predicting watershed function and enunciating
important watershed functional traits.
Received 28
August
2006;
accepted 15
March
2007;
published 26
July
2007.
Keywords: hydrological cycles and budgets;
catchment;
ungauged basins.
Index Terms: 1836 Hydrology: Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655); 1804 Hydrology: Catchment; 1874 Hydrology: Ungaged basins.
Read Full Article (file size: 104092 bytes) Cited by
Citation: McDonnell, J. J., et al.
(2007),
Moving beyond heterogeneity and process complexity: A new vision for watershed hydrology,
Water Resour. Res.,
43,
W07301,
doi:10.1029/2006WR005467.
Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
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