Pseudo-Spatially-Distributed Modeling of Water Balance Components in the Free State of Saxony

Thanh Thi Luong,Ivan Vorobevskii,Judith Pöschmann,Stefan Wiemann,Rico Kronenberg,Christian Bernhofer

doi:10.3390/hydrology7040084

Abstract

Highly-resolved data on water balance components (such as runoff or storage) are crucial to improve water management, for example, in drought or flood situations. As regional observations of these components cannot be acquired adequately, a feasible solution is to apply water balance models. We developed an innovative approach using the physically-based lumped-parameter water balance model BROOK90 (R version) integrated into a sensor network platform to derive daily water budget components for catchments in the Free State of Saxony. The model is not calibrated, but rather uses available information on soil, land use, and precipitation only. We applied the hydro response units (HRUs) approach for 6175 small and medium-sized catchments. For the evaluation, model output was cross-evaluated in ten selected head catchments in a low mountain range in Saxony. The mean values of Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) for the period 2005–2019 to these catchments are 0.63 and 0.75, for daily and monthly discharge simulations, respectively. The simulated evapotranspiration and soil wetness are in good agreement with the SMAP_L4_GPH product in April 2015–2018. The study can be enhanced by using different data platforms as well as available information on study sites.

Highlights

Spatiotemporal information of water balance components is important for many aspects of water management, hydrological modeling, and forest management [1,2,3]
This study presents an approach to simulate spatially distributed water balance components with a plot-scale model
The comparison of simulated and observed water balance components are shown with the example

Summary

Introduction

Spatiotemporal information of water balance components is important for many aspects of water management, hydrological modeling, and forest management [1,2,3]. Information on precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture (SM) on a regional scale are increasingly important for assessing droughts as well [6,7,8]. This is especially the case in Europe, which has suffered in various economic and social sectors in recent years due to ongoing droughts, even though it is considered a water-rich continent [9,10]. Main driver of the water balance, and discharge (Q)

Methods

Results

Conclusion