Performance Evaluation of Surface Water Transport and Dispersion Models

The objective of this paper is to identify, collate, and define the procedures required to evaluate the performance of an analytical or numerical surface water model. The essential elements are: Identification of the problem; relationship of the model to the problem; solution scheme examination, model response studies, model calibration; and model validation. Codification is not attempted, rather literature examples are used to define the techniques that have been used to address each of the elements above. Emphasis in the six elements is placed on moving the evaluation of models, particularly those in journal publications, towards more quantitative or objective measures of calibration and validation. Also recognized, however, is that such objective measures can only be meaningful when placed in context with all the performance elements.