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The Validity and Credibility of Models for Badly Defined Systems

  • Chapter
Uncertainty and Forecasting of Water Quality

Abstract

If the dictionary definition were the sole criterion, a model would be considered valid if it was found to be well grounded, sound, cogent, logical, and incontestable. Similarly, a model would be deemed credible if it was deserving of or entitled to belief, or if it was plausible, tenable, or reasonable. All of these characteristics are, of course, desirable in a mathematical model of a physical system; but when used as the basis for the definition of model adequacy, they are clearly too subjective to provide useful and rigorous criteria for model evaluation.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Peter Young

    Present address: Department of Environmental Science, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Peter Young

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  1. Peter Young
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, SW 7 2 BU, England

    M. B. Beck

  2. Department of Chemical Technology, Twente University of Technology, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands

    G. van Straten

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© 1983 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg/Austria

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Young, P. (1983). The Validity and Credibility of Models for Badly Defined Systems. In: Beck, M.B., van Straten, G. (eds) Uncertainty and Forecasting of Water Quality. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82054-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82054-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-82056-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-82054-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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