HR: 15:10h
AN: H33H-05 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: Uniqueness, closure and uncertainty in multi-scale hydrological networks
AU: * Beven, K J
EM: k.beven@lancaster.ac.uk
AF: Keith Beven, Environmental Science/Lancaster Environment Centre
Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ
United Kingdom
AB:
All practical applications of hydrological science have to deal with two fundamental problems. All catchment areas are
unique and the water balance cannot be closed by measurement. These problems have important implications for how much can be
learned from multi-scale nested observatory networks in that, although it may be possible to demonstrate simple scale
dependencies, it will not be easy to explain those dependencies or use them to predict the response of particular parts of
the landscape. There will be inherent uncertainties in the landscape space to model space mapping. Indeed, it is not
actually clear what that model space should look like. REW theory has provided a structure for looking at this problem
across scales in terms of balance equations for mass, energy and momentum. However, closure of those equations when applied
at any useful scale, integrating over spatial heterogeneities and temporal nonsationarities, requires the specification of
unmeasured (and unmeasurable) fluxes. An initial examination of what that closure should look like is explored using data
from a large weighing lysimeter. Implications for closure at large scales will be discussed.
DE: 1839 Hydrologic scaling
DE: 1843 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 3322)
DE: 1865 Soils (0486)
DE: 1873 Uncertainty assessment (3275)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques: modeling
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005