Calculation of Ecosystem Services related to hydrology (Aquifer recharge and surface runoff) with the hydrological model WiMMed in Sierra Nevada (Spain) for a specific period.
WiMMed is a hydrological model, fully distributed and physically based, that simulates the whole water cycle. It starts with meteorological modules to interpolate the meteorological variables in space (meters) and time (hourly). Then it simulates interception, snow accumulation, snowmelt, infiltration, surface runoff, soil water movement, evapotranspiration, aquifer recharge, aquifer discharge, river flow, sediment production, and sediment transport.
In the included example (Example_2007-2008), we simulate the whole Sierra Nevada (Spain) at 90x90 m for a complete water year (from Sep 2007 to Aug 2008) to calculate the final maps of Ecosystem Services related to hydrology (Aquifer recharge and surface runoff). For that, the project (zipped in the file <data.zip>) provides all the files with the input data related to:
- topography (DEM, from which the rest of topographical properties are automatically calculated),
- meteorology (precipitation, temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, relative humidity) measured in meteorological stations,
- soil properties (physical and hydrological properties as saturated hydraulic conductivity, depth, soil moisture saturation..., in two different layers),
- and vegetation cover (vegetation fraction cover, vegetation maximum storage capacity, transpiration capacity). For a detailed information about the number of files and formats, please refer to the User manual (https://www.ugr.es/~herrero/wimmed/download.html)
Once the simulation finishes, a number of output files will be generated and stored in the file <output.zip>:
- Accumulated surface runoff generated in each cell, which is an Ecosystem Service of water regulation, as it represents the excess of water that will directly flow into the rivers, what makes it susceptible to generate floods (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Exp.asc>, units in mm).
- Accumulated aquifer recharge, an Ecosytem Service of water provisioning. The ground water provision in Sierra Nevada is highly related with the available water for drinking and cropping in low-elevation places during the summer periods. (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Per.asc>, in mm).
- Rest of hydrometeorological variables generated by WiMMed: accumulated precipitation as rainfall+snowfall (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Pre.asc>, in mm), accumulated snowfall (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_P_n.asc>, in mm), mean temperature (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_T_m.asc> in C degrees), accumulated potential evapotranspiration (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_ET0.asc>, in mm), accumulated solar radiation (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Rad.asc> in MJ/m2), accumulated vegetation interception (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Int.asc>, in mm), accumulated soil surface infiltration (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_Inf.asc>, in mm), accumulated evaporation/sublimation from the snowcover (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_EvN.asc>, in mm) and accumulated evapotranspiration from the soil (file <Tot_2007-09-01--2008-08-31_EvS.asc>, in mm)
The complete simulation of the example (Example_2007-2008) takes 3 h 16' in an Intel i5-4460 3.20 GHz, with 8 GB RAM, on Fedora 22, 64 bits. The execution can be stop using CTRL+C in the bash shell.
A second example (Example_Storm), simulates a made-up 2-days single storm with constant rain for the whole Sierra Nevada. It uses the same inputs and produces the same kind of outputs. The execution time of this second example is only a few minutes.
All the input and output maps use ED50 UTM zone 30-North projection (EPSG:23030). The format of these rasters is ESRI ASCII Grid.
The included executable (WiMMed) has been compiled in a Fedora 22 OS. To run an example, just copy in the same directory the following files: run.sh, WiMMed, and the data.zip of the selected example. Then execute run.sh from the bash shell. This executable is compiled for Fedora and it will only run on that OS.
WiMMed can be also executed through a virtual laboratory developed by ECOPOTENTIAL project (http://ecopotential-project.eu/). Files under "VLAB" folder enable this functionality. The virtual laboratory can be accessed at: https://vlab.geodab.eu/
WiMMed application is a free software and the complete Windows version with a GIS-based frontend can be freely downloaded from www.uco.es/dfh