1st International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Lugano, Switzerland - June 2002
Keywords
macroscale hydrological validation, ecohydrological modelling, groundwater dynamics, sensitivity, uncertainty
Start Date
1-7-2002 12:00 AM
Abstract
The hydrological validation described in this paper follows a bottom-up approach, when at first 12 mesoscale subbasins, covering the main subregions of the basin, are validated, and then the information gained from the mesoscale is used to validate the hydrological processes of the whole basin. Special attention was paid to the use of spatial information (maps of water table depth) in addition to usual point data (water discharge at gauge stations) to validate the model. While the primary purpose of distributed hydrological models is to reproduce both water fluxes in subbasins and hydrotopes along with river discharge, they are often validated using only observed river discharge. The paper describes a method to reproduce and validate also local hydrological processes such as water table dynamics inside subbasins, using contour maps of the water table and observed groundwater level data as additional input for the validation. The investigation was carried out with the ecohydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model), which integrates hydrology, vegetation, erosion and nutrient dynamics at the watershed scale. It was developed to investigate the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological processes and water quality at the meso- to macroscale. The study area is the German part of the Elbe basin (80,256 km2). It is representative of humid / semi-humid landscapes in Europe, where water availability during the summer season is the limiting factor for plant growth and crop yields.
Multiscale and Multicriterial Hydrological Validation of the Eco-hydrological Model SWIM
The hydrological validation described in this paper follows a bottom-up approach, when at first 12 mesoscale subbasins, covering the main subregions of the basin, are validated, and then the information gained from the mesoscale is used to validate the hydrological processes of the whole basin. Special attention was paid to the use of spatial information (maps of water table depth) in addition to usual point data (water discharge at gauge stations) to validate the model. While the primary purpose of distributed hydrological models is to reproduce both water fluxes in subbasins and hydrotopes along with river discharge, they are often validated using only observed river discharge. The paper describes a method to reproduce and validate also local hydrological processes such as water table dynamics inside subbasins, using contour maps of the water table and observed groundwater level data as additional input for the validation. The investigation was carried out with the ecohydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model), which integrates hydrology, vegetation, erosion and nutrient dynamics at the watershed scale. It was developed to investigate the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological processes and water quality at the meso- to macroscale. The study area is the German part of the Elbe basin (80,256 km2). It is representative of humid / semi-humid landscapes in Europe, where water availability during the summer season is the limiting factor for plant growth and crop yields.
