Overview of Ecohydrological Models and Systems at the Watershed Scale

Abstract

In the context of global change exacerbating the water crisis, it is difficult to solve the new problems of water resource management based on traditional hydrology without considering other aspects of water circulation, such as biotic dynamics. Vegetation, which once was thought to play only a relatively minor role and was ignored or treated as a static component in models, has now been recognized as one of the most important factors in water circulation. Ecohydrology has been promoted as a concept that links ecological and hydrological processes and considers interactions between water resources and ecosystems. Ecohydrological models are not only important tools for studying the mechanisms of ecological patterns and processes but also essential tools to assess the effects of environmental change on hydrological and ecological processes, providing solutions to issues of water management. This paper: 1) analyzes the characteristics of the interactions between terrestrial vegetation and hydrological processes; 2) summarizes the categories of existing watershed ecohydrological models for analysis and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of ecohydrological models; 3) reviews the typical achievements of the application of ecohydrological models; and 4) illustrates the key issues of ecohydrological models at the watershed scale.