Biotic and abiotic interactions between the riparian zone and the river determine relevant hydrological processes and exert control over riparian and bordering upland vegetation types. Vegetation growth and development are mainly controlled by water availability on semi-arid regions so the closeness to the river yields a moisture gradient which clearly determines the boundaries between exuberant riparian zone and semi-arid upland. A mathematical model named RibAV is presented. Its conceptualization is based on the main worldwide ecosystem modelling approaches and field expertise. The implementation of RibAV that is proposed in this paper allows the simulation of the vegetation functional types distribution in riparian zones. An evapotranspiration index (E idx ) obtained through RibAV is used as criterion for long-term plant absence/presence prediction. Two permanent river reaches of semi-arid Mediterranean basins, the Terde reach (Mijares River, Spain) and the Lorcha reach (Serpis River, Spain), have been selected as case studies for the evaluation of the model performance. Several criteria based on the confusion matrix were used to analyze the efficiency of RibAV on the prediction of plant distribution. The model outstanding performance to establish riparian vegetation types distribution and the limit between this zone and the bordering upland is demonstrated in this paper; the strength of the E idx to classify plant functional types in riparian semi-arid environments is additionally proved. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF version following peer review of the article: García-Arias A., Francés F., Morales-de la Cruz M., Real J., Vallés-Morán F., Martínez-Capel F., Garófano-Gómez V. 2014. Riparian evapotranspiration modelling: model description and implementation for predicting vegetation spatial distribution in semi-arid environments. Ecohydrology, 7: 659-677.
The Biosphere Reserve "Sierra de las Minas" is part of the Guatemalan System of Protected Areas and contains the largest cloud forests of Guatemala. Its southern slopes flow into the Motagua Valley, one of the more active zones in the country and paradoxically, the most arid and driest zone of Central America. We have studied the hydrology of the Teculután Basin on a daily time step, by estimating its hydrological characteristics and using the conceptual distributed model Tetis v. 7.2 developed at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. We applied a new split-parameter structure coupled with the SCE-UA automatic optimization algorithm to obtain the set of optimal correction factors of the model. Among the results we have completed a precipitation spatial and sensitive analysis. The model has shown a high sensitivity to changes in the parameter, which characterizes the precipitation increment due to the difference in altitude. In an attempt to capture seasonal variability produced by the presence of the cloud forest in the upper portion of the basin, we studied the horizontal precipitation and the sensitivity to changing the correction factor for evaporation and the vegetation cover index.
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