WP4: Developing Plant- and Plot-Level Ecohydrological Models Using Remote Sensing Information

Lead: Giulia Vico (SLU)

Participate: Uni. Naples, Uni. Twente, UPV

WP4 intercompares different models, soil and vegetation parametrizations and parameters. Analysis of water flow processes will be made, with the different models used in the different sites, e.g. in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere (SVA) system making use of the detailed field observations available in ARHO and integration of the data into a process-based ecohydrological model, considering also validation and output uncertainties. To facilitate the integration of models into the iAqueduct toolbox (Task 4.2), particular attention will be devoted to identify models that provide robust realistic results, while at the same time having low parameter requirements and easy transferability across sites. To this aim, a minimalist soil-vegetation-atmosphere model will be developed and its applicability across sites assessed, employing the data collated within this project. The model will be based on the coupling of the soil moisture dynamics and plant activities (chiefly transpiration and carbon fixation; Manzoni et al, 2013). For crops, yield will be determined from the total accumulated crop biomass employing the harvest index, with biomass growth rate depending on the growing conditions (Vico and Porporato, 2013 WRR; Manzoni et al., 2013 AWR). For more computationally-intensive models, machine leaning algorithms will be experimented to speed up the usually computational intensive process-based computations.

Deliverables:

D4.1. Intercomparison of models, soil and vegetation parametrizations and soil parameters (month 16-18);

Implementation Plan:

(to be updated)