Abstract
Field observation of hydrological processes is the most direct and unambiguous method we have for scientific learning in hydrology. The generalisation of that knowledge is a key scientific step for any natural science, but, like many environmental sciences, knowledge transfer to other places and times remains extremely challenging. Which places and times are similar to, or different from, the environment where we gained our knowledge? Are all places and times unique? Surely not! Scientific tools such as classification and similarity have key roles to play in knowledge transfer. In this talk I will present the principles and applications from a long-term programme of research to discover (or impose?) order and structure in the global diversity of hydrology. I begin from the ideas of simplification of climate into idealised annual patterns forcing highly simplified hydrological systems, based on classification of hydrological systems into those where storage is dominated by either pore water, frozen water, or open water bodies. I will then show examples of large sample comparative hydrology that exploits these similarity concepts. Next, I will discuss the implications of these results for understanding how we might use similarity to make a synthesis of the detailed knowledge at key field sites around the world into a common scientific hydrological framework for knowledge transfer. I will close with some suggestions for how we as a community might crystallise our diverse perceptions of the hydrological cycle into a more structured set of competing and testable hypotheses, through the sharing of perceptual models of hydrological processes.
Bio
Ross Woods was born and grew up in a small farming community in New Zealand, just south of Christchurch. He graduated from the University of Canterbury with degrees in Mathematics and Operations Research. In 1986 he joined the Hydrology Centre of the Ministry of Works as a research scientist. From 1993-6 he studied for a PhD at the University of Western Australia, under Dr Siva Sivapalan. In 1996 he returned to what was now the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and remained there until 2013, working on hydrological research and consulting projects, including national hydrological modelling, operational flood forecasting, and developing practical methods for water resource assessment in ungauged basins. Ross played an active role in the global Prediction of Ungauged Basins initiative during 2003-2012. Ross joined the University of Bristol in January 2013, where he is an Associate Professor in Water and Environmental Engineering. His research interests can be broadly characterised as global classification and similarity for hydrology, and currently include aspects of hydrological theory, long term and seasonal water balance, flood hydrology, the hydrology of snow-dominated catchments, and catchment hydrological modelling.