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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Evaluating the use of “goodness-of-fit” Measures in hydrologic and hydroclimatic model validation

David R. Legates, +1 more
- 01 Jan 1999 - 
- Vol. 35, Iss: 1, pp 233-241
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TLDR
In this paper, the goodness-of-fit or relative error measures (including the coefficient of efficiency and the index of agreement) that overcome many of the limitations of correlation-based measures are discussed.
Abstract
Correlation and correlation-based measures (e.g., the coefficient of determination) have been widely used to evaluate the “goodness-of-fit” of hydrologic and hydroclimatic models. These measures are oversensitive to extreme values (outliers) and are insensitive to additive and proportional differences between model predictions and observations. Because of these limitations, correlation-based measures can indicate that a model is a good predictor, even when it is not. In this paper, useful alternative goodness-of-fit or relative error measures (including the coefficient of efficiency and the index of agreement) that overcome many of the limitations of correlation-based measures are discussed. Modifications to these statistics to aid in interpretation are presented. It is concluded that correlation and correlation-based measures should not be used to assess the goodness-of-fit of a hydrologic or hydroclimatic model and that additional evaluation measures (such as summary statistics and absolute error measures) should supplement model evaluation tools.

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Citations
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Model Evaluation Guidelines for Systematic Quantification of Accuracy in Watershed Simulations

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present guidelines for watershed model evaluation based on the review results and project-specific considerations, including single-event simulation, quality and quantity of measured data, model calibration procedure, evaluation time step, and project scope and magnitude.
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Decomposition of the mean squared error and NSE performance criteria: Implications for improving hydrological modelling

TL;DR: A diagnostically interesting decomposition of NSE is presented, which facilitates analysis of the relative importance of its different components in the context of hydrological modelling, and it is shown how model calibration problems can arise due to interactions among these components.
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Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the PRISM (Parameter-elevation relationships on independent slopes model) interpolation method to develop data sets that reflected, as closely as possible, the current state of knowledge of spatial climate patterns in the United States.
Journal ArticleDOI

Comparison of different efficiency criteria for hydrological model assessment

TL;DR: In this paper, the utility of several efficiency criteria is investigated in three examples using a simple observed streamflow hydrograph, and the selection and use of specific efficiency criteria and interpretation of the results can be a challenge for even the most experienced hydrologist since each criterion may place different emphasis on different types of simulated and observed behaviours.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

The continuing search for an anthropogenic climate change signal: Limitations of correlation-based approaches

TL;DR: The authors argue that the results of such studies are inappropriate because of limitations and biases in these statistics which leads them to conclude that many studies employing these statistics may be erroneous and, in fact, show little evidence of a human fingerprint in the observed records.
Journal ArticleDOI

A proposed index for comparing hydrographs

TL;DR: In this paper, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient is adjusted by using a ratio of the standard deviations of the two hydrographs being compared, and the resulting index is numerically the same as the regression of the hydrogrogram with the smaller variance on the hydrogram having the larger variance.
Journal ArticleDOI

Evaporation‐maps of the United States

TL;DR: The monthly and annual numbers of Climatological Data of the United States contain monthly evaporation data at United States Weather Bureau Class-A-evaporation-stations as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

Hydrological effects of hypothetical climate change in the East River basin, Colorado, USA

TL;DR: In this article, the sensitivity of annual and seasonal runoff in the East River basin, a sub-basin of the Gunnison River basin to changes in temperature and precipitation was examined.
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