rechaRge – a package for integrated groundwater recharge modelling in R

[9:56 AM] Emmanuel Dubois

The project introduces the new R package, rechaRge, dedicated to open-source groundwater recharge (GWR) models. The goal is to facilitate the simulation of GWR estimates for researchers, professionals, and stakeholders, for both hydrogeologists and non-hydrogeologists, by providing all the tools for state-of-art modelling and the available GWR models in a single R package. The package includes functions for data preparation (utility functions), automatic calibration, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty analysis, all integrated directly in the R environment. A first open-source GWR model, the HydroBudget model, is also incorporated in the package. The model’s excellent performance allowed for the simulation of large datasets of spatially distributed and transient GWR in several projects in Canada, ranging from small watershed scale (few km2) to regional scale (thousands of km2). Sensitivity analysis, calibration, and uncertainty for the models were greatly facilitated by the utility functions of the package. At the region scale, GWR was simulated within a global change context with a spatial resolution of a 500 m x 500 m and a monthly time step for up to 150 years and 24 scenarios. Moreover, the rechaRge package is a collaborative effort and developers of open-source GWR modelling codes are warmly invited to publish their models in this package and take advantage of the existing functions.