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Universität Potsdam

Challenges of regional hydrological modelling in the Elbe River basin : investigations about model fidelity on sub-catchment level

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Within a research project about future sustainable water management options in the Elbe River basin, quasi-natural discharge scenarios had to be provided. The semi-distributed eco-hydrological model SWIM was utilised for this task. According to scenario simulations driven by the stochastical climate model STAR, the region would get distinctly drier. However, this thesis focuses on the challenge of meeting the requirement of high model fidelity even for smaller sub-basins. Usually, the quality of the simulations is lower at inner points than at the outlet. Four research paper chapters and the discussion chapter deal with the reasons for local model deviations and the problem of optimal spatial calibration. Besides other assessments, the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is applied to show whether evapotranspiration or precipitation should be corrected to minimise runoff deviations, principal component analysis is used in an unusual way to evaluate local precipitation alterations by land cover changes, and remotely sensed surface temperatures allow for an independent view on the evapotranspiration landscape. The overall insight is that spatially explicit hydrological modelling of such a large river basin requires a lot of local knowledge. It probably needs more time to obtain such knowledge as is usually provided for hydrological modelling studies.

Degree

thesis:*
Level thesis:degree_level
thesis.doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher
Universität Potsdam
Year
2013

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Conradt, Tobias
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Bronstert, Axel

Subjects

dc:subject × 10

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Creative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0 Unported

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:6285

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Universität Potsdam - Diss
Base URL
publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/oai
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Conradt, Tobias. Challenges of regional hydrological modelling in the Elbe River basin : investigations about model fidelity on sub-catchment level. thesis.doctoral thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2013. https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6285