© Peter Haas

The aim of the 2015 Symposium was to demonstrate the role of a forensic approach for understanding how river and groundwater systems function.

The forensic approach encourages hydrologists to collect, examine and combine clues left by past events and processes and then use deductive reasoning to determine how they took place. This is in contrast to the calibration approach where processes and events are first conceptualised and then parameters are calibrated to fit model results to measured observations.

During the symposium, we heard from three speakers who apply a deductive (forensic) approach to their research. Marco Borga spoke about how deductive reasoning can be used to understand hydrological and societal responses to flash floods. Andreas Farnleitner discussed how nucleic acid analysis can be used to trace the source of fecal DNA in groundwater and so determine pollution risks. While Harihar Rajaram presented some ideas from ongoing research on subsurface processes that contribute to widespread “signature observations” or “clues” of a geochemical or biogeochemical nature, and how they can be explained.