Overton, W. Scott; White, Curtis. 1981. On constructing a hierarchical model in the flex paradigm, illustrated by structural aspects of a hydrology model. International Journal of General Systems. Great Britain: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc. 6: 191-216.
A general strategy for constructing hierarchical models of complex systems is introduced and compared with a pureanalytic and pure synthetic approach. The strategy is a formalization of standard scientific procedures for gainingunderstanding of systems. The strategy is stated and demonstrated in terms of the FLEX modelling approach andparadigm. Some details of the FLEX hierarchical structure, especially coupling specifics, are elaborated.
The actual demonstration of the strategy spans two papers. The first covers the evolutionary development andelaboration of a single level hydrology model, including the elaboration of considerable mechanistic detail.' Thepresent paper completes the example by exhibiting how the structure implicit in the elaborated single level model isexplicitly identified within the REFLEX hierarchical structure.
INDEX TERMS: Hierarchical model, FLEX modelling, hydrology model, REFLEX structure