An “Umbrella Perspective” of Water: The Hermeneutics of Hydrology

Understanding the water phenomena that we encounter requires interpretation. Scientists must interpret some view of water and the circumstances framing that view. A “view of water” can come in many forms: empirical measurements, model outputs, an intuition or thought, or a personal observation. We piece together each of these views of water, what Hans-Georg Gadamer called “finite presentations,” to form and test the theory. But we must occasionally pause and reassess how these finite presentations of water have been interpreted. This notion invites the application of a “hermeneutic” approach, or the science or art of interpretation (beyond the interpretation of statistics).