How does spatial scale affect SPARROW model predictions?
|Back to Top| SPARROW models are generally designed to be scale independent, meaning that the model predictions are considered to be valid across a wide range of spatial scales, corresponding approximately to the scale of the geospatial data used to calibrate the model. Typically, the models can be used to simulate water-quality conditions over scales ranging from single stream reach catchments (ranging from a few square kilometers to tens of square kilometers) up to the size of large watersheds and river basins that span thousands of square kilometers. Thus, SPARROW models are flexible and can be used to perform various types of assessments that span a range of basin sizes. There are, however, scale-related limitations to using the model for water-quality management. These include: 1) increased uncertainty at locations and scales that differ from those of the existing monitoring data used for model calibration; and 2) the possibility of differing model results for models developed at
