Global BROOK90 R Package: An Automatic Framework to Simulate the Water Balance at Any Location

Abstract

The number of global open-source hydrometeorological datasets and models is large and growing. However, with a constantly growing demand for services and tools from stakeholders, not only in the water sector, we still lack simple solutions, which are easy to use for nonexperts. The new R package incorporates the BROOK90 hydrologic model and global open-source datasets used for parameterization and forcing. The aim is to estimate the vertical water fluxes within the soil–water–plant system of a single site or of a small catchment (<100 km2). This includes data scarce regions where no hydrometeorological measurements or reliable site characteristics can be obtained. The end-user only needs to provide a location and the desired period. The package automatically downloads the necessary datasets for elevation (Amazon Web Service Terrain Tiles), land cover (Copernicus: Land Cover 100 m), soil characteristics (ISRIC: SoilGrids250), and meteorological forcing (Copernicus: ERA5 reanalysis). Subsequently these datasets are processed, specific hydrotopes are created, and BROOK90 is applied. In a last step, the output data of all desired variables on a daily scale as well as time-series plots are stored. A first daily and monthly validation based on five catchments within various climate zones shows a decent representation of soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff components. A considerably better performance is achieved for a monthly scale.

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

“…Thus, water, which is lost to an aquifer, is eventually accumulated at the catchment outlet. A similar conclusion was drawn by Vorobevskii et al [30], which also applied a similar approach.…”

“…Zink et al [1] established highly-resolved water fluxes at 4 km*4 km resolution for entire Germany. Last but not least, Vorobevskii et al [30] upscaled it globally using global data sets. Even though the regional simulation approach can provide water balance components spatially, the current achieved resolution is not adequate or limited for applying to hydrology, particularly in spatial distributed hydrological modeling.…”

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

“…The categories are static; in other words, land cover aging is neglected. To date, there is no common way of translating land use characteristics into the mentioned parameters [30,41,42]. We simplified the 31 land cover categories into the five most common (dominated types in the study area) to reduce the associated uncertainties when considering more types.…”

“…Zink et al [1] established highly-resolved water fluxes at a 4 km × 4 km resolution for the entirety of Germany. Last, but not least, Vorobevskii et al [30] upscaled it globally using global data sets. Even though the regional simulation approach can provide water balance components spatially, the current achieved resolution is not adequate or limited for hydrological applications, particularly in spatially-distributed hydrological modeling.…”

Water Regulation Ecosystem Services Following Gap Formation in Fir-Beech Forests in the Dinaric Karst

“…Karst aquifers are unique because, unlike other aquifers, they are characterized by a threefold permeability: a. matrix porosity due to pore spaces, formed within the rocks by constitutive minerals (sub-millimeter scale); b. secondary or fracture porosity formed by orogenic processes (millimeter scale), and c. tertiary or conduit porosity where cavities and integrated conduits are formed by chemical dissolution, which is a characteristic feature of karst areas [51]. Soil water fluxes in karst areas are therefore very complex [18], and hydrologic fluxes are often estimated by eddy covariance [52][53][54], tree sap flow measurements [55][56][57][58], or simulated by hydrological models [37,48,[59][60][61][62][63][64]. In our study, the Brook90 hydrological model was used to simulate indicators of hydrologic fluxes (drainage flux-DF; canopy interception-I; transpiration-TRAN and soil evaporation-SE) in gaps and forests over a 13-year period.…”