Hydrologic and Water Quality Models: Use, Calibration, and Validation

Abstract

To provide a common background and platform for consensual development of calibration and validation guidelines, model developers and/or expert users of the commonly used hydrologic and water quality models globally were invited to write technical articles recommending calibration and validation procedures specific to their model. This article introduces a special collection of 22 research articles that present and discuss calibration and validation concepts in detail for 25 hydrologic and water quality models. The main objective of this introductory article is to introduce and summarize key aspects of the hydrologic and water quality models presented in this collection. The models range from field to watershed scales for simulating hydrology, sediment, nutrients, bacteria, and pesticides at temporal scales varying from hourly to annually. Individually, the articles provide model practitioners with detailed, model-specific guidance on model calibration, validation, and use. Collectively, the articles in this collection present a consistent framework of information that will facilitate development of a proposed set of ASABE model calibration and validation guidelines.

Hydrologic and Water Quality Models: Key Calibration and Validation Topics

“…Each topic is introduced with its description and relevance to model C/V before presenting key recommendations. The main components of these articles are: (1) a clear statement of why the topic is important with respect to model C/V, (2) a synthesis of the Moriasi et al (2012) special collection and other relevant literature with respect to the topic of focus, and (3) recommendations based on previous work summarized by Moriasi et al (2012) as well as personal experience. For some topics, a case study is provided to demonstrate the application of the topic-specific C/V recommendations.…”

“…Moriasi et al (2012) summarized model-specific C/V approaches for commonly used H/WQ models as part of the efforts initiated by ASABE in 2010 with the goal of developing calibration, validation, and documentation recommendations. The proposed follow-up phases were to identify critical C/V topics, synthesize the articles in the Moriasi et al (2012) special collection along with other relevant information from existing literature, and provide topic-specific recommendations. The authors of the present collection identified key C/V topics from the prior collection and addressed each in a separate article.…”

Impact of the Agricultural Research Service Watershed Assessment Studies on the Conservation Effects Assessment Project Cropland National Assessment

“…Building on lessons learned in the previous RCA projects, the CEAP Cropland National Assessment used the best concepts from both the 1985 and 1997 assessments. A detailed field and hill slope assessment was performed using the Agricultural Policy/ Environmental eXtender model (APEX; Williams and Izaurralde 2006), while the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT; Arnold et al 1998Arnold et al , 2012 model was used to integrate the information at the watershed scale, using the US Geological Survey (USGS) developed eight-digit watersheds.…”

Simulation and Prediction of Climate Variability and Assessment of the Response of Water Resources in a Typical Watershed in China

“…The SWAT model also provides several software tools, which include the pre-and post-processing software, automatic and manual calibration procedures, and an ArcGIS SWAT interface, as well as abundant theoretical and technical documentation, which consist of theoretical documentation, a user's manual and guide, a developer's manual, etc. [36][37][38]. Most of the software and documentation are conveniently and freely obtainable from [39].…”