HR: 17:45h
AN: H34C-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Interdisciplinary synthesis - a catalyst or a stumbling block for advancing predictability?
AU: * Bloeschl, G
EM: bloeschl@hydro.tuwien.ac.at
AF: Institute for Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13/222, Vienna, 1040, Austria
AB: Most hydrologists will agree that synthesis is needed for both solving numerous real world problems and for advancing the science. However, it is also true that a clever choice of limited system boundaries has always been the hallmark of scientific progress as it allows to isolate problems one can understand with the data and concepts at hand. Operational challenges in conducting interdisciplinary research projects include communication, lack of leadership and difficulties with integrating sub-projects, and also issues with breadth versus depth of enquiry - the further you spread it, the shallower it gets. The main scientific challenge in interdisciplinary synthesis is how to represent complex interacting dynamic systems including feedbacks between system components. This talk will discuss examples taken from real time flood forecasting and flood estimation where process understanding and process representations from the atmospheric sciences, geomorphology and hydrology are merged. In the examples, feedbacks between different scales will be analysed with a focus on interactions and emergent properties: feedbacks between event and long term scales (storm runoff and landform evolution); and feedbacks between local and regional scales (local runoff generation and regional water balance). It is argued that one of the keys to advancing predictability in an interdisciplinary setting is - similar to the disciplinary case - a prudent choice of system boundaries. Similarly important is the willingness of individuals to move outside their "comfort zone", to represent processes they would not usually attempt to represent in a quantitative way.
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects (4802, 4902)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting