Hydrogeomorphic Approach to Assessing Wetland Functions: Guidelines for Developing Regional Guidebooks. Chapter 7. Verifying, Field Testing, and Validating Assessment Models

Assessment models developed for use under the Hydrogeomorphic HGM Approach to assessing wetland functions should be verified, field tested, and validated to ensure that they meet the Assessment Teams goals for accuracy, consistency, and ease of application. Verification is a check of model logic and sensitivity to changes in the input variables. Field testing ensures that users can apply the model efficiently and with consistent results. Validation is the testing of model accuracy by comparing its output against an independent measure of function. This report provides guidance for each of these steps in model testing.