Abstract
There is an uncontradicted consensus that experimental basin research plays an important role for the understanding of hydrological processes. Based on this, deepened knowledge concepts and hydrological models have been developed, which enable and support water management planning and decision making in all facets of hydrologically driven aspects like floods, climate change impact and environmental research. The following paper starts with a brief introduction to the history of hydrological monitoring and the initiation of hydrological research based on experimental watersheds. It highlights the international activities promoting and disseminating these kind of field research. Due to the personal involvement of the author, a special focus is given to the activities of the Euro-Mediterranean Network of Experimental and Representative Basins ERB and on the recent experimental basins inventory in Austria. As collection and provision of data form an important prerequisite for any further hydrological assessment, it is proposed that data sets and their providers in charge have to be cited and acknowledged in the research papers. These citations should gain the equivalent evaluation and ranking of paper citations and could stimulate the willingness for data provision. As a conclusion it can be stated that experimental basin research is carried out worldwide, but there is a lack of international communication among the stakeholders. A future development should therefore strengthen the communication platforms and foster extended data exchange.
Highlights
Hydrological sciences generally deal with the assessment, analysis and interpretation of water balance components, the processes of water transport within the critical zone, and the interrelation between the regolith, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Aquatic ecosystems, their functioning and relation to water status in quantitative and qualitative terms are of major concern in the frame of hydrological research
The knowledge about the hydrological components, their spatial and temporal evolution and their interrelation to climate change expectations are some of the manifold questions that arise in hydrological studies and can be supportively described my means of process observations and assessment in small experimental basins
The first hydro-meteorological observations in the new age were mainly driven by the attempt to quantify the main water balance components like rainfall, evapotranspiration and runoff, and to support the newly developed physical concepts of hydrology and hydrodynamics
Summary
Hydrological sciences generally deal with the assessment, analysis and interpretation of water balance components, the processes of water transport within the critical zone, and the interrelation between the regolith, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Aquatic ecosystems, their functioning and relation to water status in quantitative and qualitative terms are of major concern in the frame of hydrological research. The collection of real world data and time series of hydrological variables fosters and enables the quantification of behavioural information like means, extremes, frequencies and trends Based on this knowledge, coherent decision making and environmental planning with. The first hydro-meteorological observations in the new age were mainly driven by the attempt to quantify the main water balance components like rainfall, evapotranspiration and runoff, and to support the newly developed physical concepts of hydrology and hydrodynamics
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