GEO-CWB: GIS-Based Algorithms for Parametrising the Responses of Catchment Dynamic Water Balance Regarding Climate and Land Use Changes

Abstract

Parametrising the spatially distributed dynamic catchment water balance is a critical factor in studying the hydrological system responses to climate and land use changes. This study presents the development of a geographic information system (GIS)-based set of algorithms (geographical spatially distributed water balance model (GEO-CWB)), which is developed from integrating physical, statistical, and machine learning models. The GEO-CWB tool has been developed to simulate and predict future spatially distributed dynamic water balance using GIS environment at the catchment scale in response to the future changes in climate variables and land use through a user-friendly interface. The tool helps in bridging the gap in quantifying the high-resolution dynamic water balance components for the large catchments by reducing the computational costs. Also, this paper presents the application and validation of GEO-CWB on the Shannon catchment in Ireland as an example of a large and complicated hydrological system. It can be concluded that climate and land use changes have significant effects on the spatial and temporal patterns of the different water balance components of the catchment.