1.   Purpose and objectives

     To present reports from a broad spectrum of work on hydrologic comparisons from study sites across Europe with a range of methodologies.

2.   Description

     This report consists of 21 papers grouped under broad methodological headings. The general section contains a brief history of experimental basins; a discussion on data quality; a description of the Inventory of Catchments for Research in Europe (ICARE); a review of recent UK experience of using new methods to measure hydrological variables.

     The section on basin comparisons contains 7 papers which cover such topics as sites in mountainous areas; the effects of tree-felling and increased agriculture; the problems of weather variability and scaling up from point measurement to whole basins; using chemical data to determine 
catchment types.

     Model applications include two lumped black box rainfall-runoff models with few parameters and three that are physically based and more complex. The latter are applied to snow accumulation and melt, the effect of artificial terraces and the behaviour of paired basins under different climatic conditions.

     The remaining papers cover regional studies on groups of basins and the application of Geographical Information Systems techniques.

     A number of themes are identified as emerging from this set of papers and are summarised in the introduction to the report.

3.   Input

     Not applicable

4.   Output

     Not applicable

5.   Operational requirements and restrictions

     Not applicable

6.   Form of presentation

     Report in English. 198 pages, 101 figures and 26 tables.

7.   Operational experience

     Not applicable.

8.   Originator and technical support

     Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8BB, UK.

9.   Availability

     Normally available free as a HOMS component from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, formerly the Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8BB, UK.

10.  Conditions on use

     None.