ABSTRACT
The global water cycle is driven by a multiplicity of complex processes and interactions between and within the Earth’s atmosphere, lands, oceans, and biological systems over a wide range of space and time scales. Horizontally, the water cycle ranges from hill slopes and headwater streams, through river basins and regional aquifers, to the whole continent and the globe. Under the assumption of stationary water resource systems, the challenges of hydrologic predictability have been historically categorized as model structure, input data including initial and boundary values, and parameter optimization problems. In order to advance the science of hydrologic prediction under environmental and human-induced changes, it is essential that an integrated as well as quantitative method of remote sensing at the system science level is applied for investigating the dynamics of coupled natural systems and the built environment.
