Congratulations to Dana Lapides, Cy David, Anneliese Sytsma and David Dralle on the publication of their paper Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification in Hydrological Processes.
This paper is so cool -- it has everything. It starts with clever mathematics to makes simple predictions about flow on curved hillslopes. Then it uses a complex model (PARFLOW) to test these predictions. But best of all - as shown in the picture below - Dana machined small, experimental hillslopes to have particular mathematical shapes, coated them with sand, and made a rainfall simulator to rain on them and test the flow predictions experimentally. The predictions worked out really well - and we were stoked to respond to calls to do more experimental work in hydrology! Well done Dana and co-authors!
You can read this fun study here.
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