High‐resolution modeling of human and climate impacts on global water resources

By Yoshihide Wada, Inge E. M. de Graaf, L. V. van Beek. 2016

182 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A number of global hydrological models [GHMs) have been developed in recent decades in order to understand the impacts of climate variability and human activities on water resources availability. The spatial resolution of GHMs is mostly constrained at a 0.5° by 0.5° grid [∼50km by ∼50km at the equator). However, for many of the water‐related problems facing society, the current spatial scale of GHMs is insufficient to provide locally relevant information. Here using the PCR‐GLOBWB model we present for the first time an analysis of human and climate impacts on global water resources at a 0.1° by 0.1° grid [∼10km by ∼10km at the equator) in order to depict more precisely regional variability in water availability and use. Most of the model input data (topography, vegetation, soil properties, routing, human water use) have been parameterized at a 0.1° global grid and feature a distinctively higher resolution. Distinct from many other GHMs, PCR‐GLOBWB includes groundwater representation and simulates groundwater heads and lateral groundwater flows based on MODFLOW with existing geohydrological information. This study shows that global hydrological simulations at higher spatial resolutions are feasible for multi‐decadal to century periods.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Water Science and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/744bd2f7af4d14ef35092109d71d6529760659bc

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In Global and Planetary Change

In Water Science and Technology

Citations in the corpus

Human impact parameterizations in global hydrological models improve estimates of monthly discharges and hydrological extremes: a multi-model validation study (2018, methodology): “Newer versions of several of the GHMs now operate at higher resolutions; for example WaterGAP and PCR-GLOBWB have recently been published in 5 m/6 m versions respectively (Verzano et al 2012, Wada et al 2016b).”
PCR-GLOBWB 2: a 5 arcmin global hydrological and water resources model (2017, methodology): “As discharge data are commonly used in hydrological model performance evaluation, the simulated river discharge of PCR-GLOBWB 2 is compared to in situ 1Note that Wada et al. (2016) made a preliminary version of the model that operates at 6 arcmin.”
Review and classification of indicators of green water availability and scarcity (2015, methodology): “Nunez et al. (2013) Green Water Stress Index GrWSI Eact/Epot Eact/Epot Wada (2013) HESSD 12, 5519–5564, 2015 Review and classification of indicators of green water availability and scarcity J. F. Schyns et al. Title Page Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures J I J I Back…”