Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Freeze and Harlan (1969) Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model
Author(s)
Simmons, Craig T.
Therrien, René
Sudicky, Edward A.
Date issued
November 2020
In
Journal of Hydrology
No
584
From page
124309
To page
124322
Reviewed by peer
1
Subjects
Freeze and Harlan (1969) Blueprint Integrated hydrologic modelling Blueprint Hydrologic response model Groundwater Surface water Historical note
Abstract
The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of a pioneering publication in hydrology. Allan Freeze and Richard
Harlan published their Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model (Freeze and
Harlan, 1969) in this journal. Their vision was for a futuristic model that would integrate key processes and
compartments in the hydrologic cycle: precipitation, evapotranspiration, overland runoff, infiltration and
groundwater exchange (into and out of) surface water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. Today, the original
Blueprint is a reality. Our paper commemorates the 50 year anniversary of the original Blueprint paper. Through
personal communications with Allan Freeze, we document the history and genesis of this paper for the first time.
We reflect on the uptake of the Blueprint into modern hydrology, the development of numerical models that
enabled this, and the range of challenges being tackled by these models. Finally, we consider challenges and
opportunities for the future of this area of modelling and hydrologic science.
Harlan published their Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model (Freeze and
Harlan, 1969) in this journal. Their vision was for a futuristic model that would integrate key processes and
compartments in the hydrologic cycle: precipitation, evapotranspiration, overland runoff, infiltration and
groundwater exchange (into and out of) surface water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. Today, the original
Blueprint is a reality. Our paper commemorates the 50 year anniversary of the original Blueprint paper. Through
personal communications with Allan Freeze, we document the history and genesis of this paper for the first time.
We reflect on the uptake of the Blueprint into modern hydrology, the development of numerical models that
enabled this, and the range of challenges being tackled by these models. Finally, we consider challenges and
opportunities for the future of this area of modelling and hydrologic science.
Publication type
journal article
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