Choosing appropriate upscaling and downscaling methods for environmental research

A decision support instrument is presented that allows the users of models and data for environmental studies to: (a) to identify the temporal and spatial scales involved in the research project, and (b) to identify the most appropriate upscaling and downscaling methods in the given context. The instrument is applied to an operational research chain consisting of several models and independent data sources. Conclusions are: (a) both temporal and spatial scales strongly differ between the models in the research chain, (b) some of these differences are avoidable, (c) though upscaling and downscaling methods are partially integrated in the research chain, some of these methods are still rather primitive. Improvements are possible but may involve extension of the research chain with an upscaling algorithm applied to model outputs.