Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Freeze and Harlan (1969) Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model

Abstract

<p>The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of a pioneering publication in hydrology. Allan Freeze and Richard Harlan published their <em>Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model</em> (Freeze and Harlan, 1969) in <em>Journal of Hydrology</em>. 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.</p><p>We recently published a paper in <em>Journal of Hydrology</em> to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the original Blueprint paper (Simmons et al., 2019). In this talk, we present an overview of, and highlights from, this paper.</p><p>Through personal communications with Allan Freeze, we present the history and genesis of the Blueprint paper. 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.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Reference</strong></p><p>Simmons, C.T., Brunner, P., Therrien, R., and Sudicky, E.A., 2019. <em>Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Freeze and Harlan (1969) Blueprint for a physically-based, digitally-simulated hydrologic response model</em>, Journal of Hydrology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124309  </p>