The two component mixing model derived from the simple mixing equation for a conservative tracer together with a mass constraint [1,2] has been widely used up to now for hydrograph separation in various natural basins over the world since the first separation was performed in the 1970s [3]. However, our field experiments from several experimental and representative basins distributed over different climatic regions of China lead to the conclusion that this technique is unacceptable for natural basins and may give misleading results due to the unreasonableness of most of the assumptions involved and of the unrealistic operation procedures as follows.
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