Hydrologic Process Synthesis across Diverse Landscapes: Towards a hierarchical classification of North American hydrology

Hydrologic processes are often highly place specific, yet many large-scale water resources models rely on generalizations across regions. In this talk, Prof. McMillan and Dr. Knoben will present a community-driven synthesis effort that brings together hydrologic expertise from across North America to develop a hierarchical classification of hydrologic domains and dominant processes. The seminar will discuss how such syntheses can help bridge detailed process understanding from research basins with large-scale applications relevant for water management and the assessment of water-related risks.

The seminar will be of particular interest to students working in hydrology, environmental sciences, geography, and related fields.

Speaker bios

Hilary McMillan is Professor of Water Resources in the Department of Geography at San Diego State University. Her research focuses on hydrology and water resources across a wide range of landscapes, from pristine mountain headwaters to highly modified urban catchments. She works on integrating diverse hydrologic data to improve process understanding and to build quantitative models for predicting river flow, soil moisture, groundwater recharge, and related variables.

Wouter Knoben is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Calgary. He holds a PhD in hydrology and works on understanding where, why, and under which conditions hydrological models perform well. His research includes hydroclimatic classification, model development, and comparative model evaluation, with the goal of strengthening the theoretical foundations of large-scale hydrologic predictions.