edu.ucar.opensky::articles:16527 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T03:17:57.433801 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7416z7q Are we unnecessarily constraining the agility of complex process-based models? 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7416z7q https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015820 Mendoza, Pablo author Clark, Martyn P. author Barlage, Michael J. author Rajagopalan, B. author Samaniego, L. author Abramowitz, G. author Gupta, H. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher In this commentary we suggest that hydrologists and land-surface modelers may be unnecessarily constraining the behavioral agility of very complex physics-based models. We argue that the relatively poor performance of such models can occur due to restrictions on their ability to refine their portrayal of physical processes, in part because of strong a priori constraints in: (i) the representation of spatial variability and hydrologic connectivity, (ii) the choice of model parameterizations, and (iii) the choice of model parameter values. We provide a specific example of problems associated with strong a priori constraints on parameters in a land surface model. Moving forward, we assert that improving hydrological models requires integrating the strengths of the "physics-based" modeling philosophy (which relies on prior knowledge of hydrologic processes) with the strengths of the "conceptual" modeling philosophy (which relies on data driven inference). Such integration will accelerate progress on methods to define and discriminate among competing modeling options, which should be ideally incorporated in agile modeling frameworks and tested through a diagnostic evaluation approach. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright 2015 American Geophysical Union. None eng geoscientificInformation