Michael Crisp

Biography

Michael conducted his honours research in the field of hydrology, working to improve the assessment and calibration of rainfall-runoff models through metrics that reflect the physical processes represented within a model. This is opposed to generic 'goodness of fit' metrics commonly used in practice. The work produced and validated a new series of metrics representing high and low catchment flows, flow losses, rainfall seasonality, and ground water. Each is normalized for values to range between 0-1, where the values that can be directly interpreted for physical meaning. These metrics have actively demonstrated key limitations in various models. Furthermore, the metrics were used for catchment classification for over 200 catchments around Australia, whereby catchments with similar metric values are grouped together. The classification was deemed successful in that it was consistent with other classifications, with the advantage that the only information required is a history of daily rainfall and runoff data, as opposed to more complicated climatic data other classification systems utilize. The metrics were subsequently able to recommend different models and different model calibration schemes to different catchment groups in order to maximize model performance within each group. This leads to better water management, including allocation, design of infrastructure, and flood risk analysis.

Research Interest

Medicine,Medical Education,Research,etc