| Session Details | |
| Section | HS - Hydrological Sciences |
| Session Title | Challenges in Hydrologic Modeling |
| Main Convener | Prof. Bellie Sivakumar (University of New South Wales, Australia) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Shie-Yui Liong (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Dr. Ji Chen (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR) |
| Session Description | Hydrology has witnessed a tremendous growth during the past few decades, largely facilitated by our technological and methodological advances. Despite this growth, there still remain numerous challenges in performing hydrologic teaching, research, and practice. Among others, the following issues are currently dominating debates and discussions: (1) most current hydrologic models are highly complex, but they do not perform well even for the same situations they are developed; (2) there are significant gaps between hydrologic models and real catchments; (3) there are far too many models and comparisons for small-scale problems, but very little emphasis on large-scale hydrologic challenges; (4) hydrologic modeling is impeded by the absence of an integrated and generalization framework; and (5) our knowledge of the interactions between hydrologic systems and the other earth systems (e.g. climate system, ecosystem) is very limited. These issues are being addressed in many different forms in the hydrologic literature: parameter estimation and uncertainty, remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) for data measurements, scaling and downscaling, dominant processes concept (DPC) and model simplification, model integration, catchment classification framework, and predictions in ungaged basins (PUB). Despite the advances in each of these areas, cohesive efforts to bring these largely disparate forms together towards finding common grounds in hydrologic teaching, research, and practice are clearly lacking. This session is intended to provide a collective perspective on these issues. Abstracts that address the supplementary and complementary role of each of these issues with respect to the others and also their integration are particularly encouraged. |