Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12.16. Accumulation of knowledge by
concerted research effort and presentation of the
findings in the literature others can build upon.
clipartof.com.
publications are made useful to the reader by providing
some degree of higher-level analysis of the results, both
comparative (with other work) and synthetic (in terms of
understanding).
So how can hydrological publications be made more
useful to the reader? There are a number of possibilities/
suggestions: As is good practice in most sciences, it would
be useful if the publication mechanism made it possible for
all of the relevant information to be accessible (both data and
model codes), so that others can repeat the experiment(s) or to
test other hypotheses using the same data. With increasingly
larger data sets that cannot be printed within the size of a
paper, reference to a data repository containing the data on
which the analysis was based would also be very useful.
Some journals have data appendices. For the comparative
assessment reported in this topic we approached the authors
of the publications individually to send us their data. A data
repository linked to the papers would have circumvented this
step and thus would have been extremely useful. Also, for a
comparative approach to succeed, the papers should provide
not only aggregate information (e.g., average catchment size,
average precipitation etc.) but also information on climate,
geology and other characteristics that would enable a hydro-
logical interpretation of their results and conclusions. The
requirement for more specific information applies also to
performance measures; what are required are not only hydro-
logically more useful measures (Gupta et al.,
2008
; Schaefli
and Gupta,
2007
), but also that measures be constructed and
reported at a more detailed and consistent level, e.g., using
units of specific discharge rather than discharge.
Ultimately, this is a call for a new protocol, to be agreed
upon by the hydrology community (including journal
editors) that will provide standards and guidelines for
presenting the outcomes of modelling studies. Basic
reporting guidelines that recommend the presentation of
critical information (including the outcomes of modelling
studies) in a consistent way would substantially enhance
the ability to perform comparative assessments, and
thereby speed up the accumulation of knowledge. To be
of use in comparative assessments across gradients of
processes, places and scales, a minimum requirement is
that basic information such as climate, geology, size of
catchment and the dominant processes must be presented
in a clear and obvious way.
The invoking of co-evolution and complex systems in
this topic confirms what is already well recognised: that
hydrology is becoming a true earth system science. To
accumulate knowledge and generate understanding must
be the ultimate goals of our discipline. Enhanced commu-
nication between disciplines, and people in different
places, is the only way that hydrology as an earth science
and as an applied science can benefit from its practice
globally. For this, hydrology must become one truly global
science, and comparative hydrology and the synthesis of
the Newtonian and Darwinian worldviews will be the
vehicles that will help achieve this.
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