Consolidating ecohydrological modelling advances to translate science into action

Ecohydrological models have progressively advanced in complexity by incorporating the latest knowledge from hydrology, ecology, and related disciplines. Recent developments include coupling hydrological processes with detailed dynamic vegetation responses to environmental cues, soil biogeochemical dynamics, and the integration of human activities. These activities range from the management of forests and croplands to the operation of built infrastructure such as reservoirs. Advancements in mechanistic approaches offer significant opportunities to translate fundamental knowledge into actionable strategies for a sustainable future, encompassing infrastructure planning and resilient water resource management. However barriers in their implementation include lack of a unified computational framework and lack of data to support the development of such a framework.

In this study, we present a unified computational framework demonstrating how ecohydrological modeling can inform the design of a sustainable future. Our applications address key areas such as forest and cropland management, sustainable agriculture, climate-resilient infrastructure, and sustainable water resource management. Specifically, we introduce multiple new mechanistic hydrological, plant physiological, and infrastructure processes into the ecohydrological and ecosystem model T&C. We also address challenges related to model application in data-scarce contexts and propose a roadmap for leveraging mechanistic ecohydrological modeling to develop actionable design principles for achieving a sustainable, net-zero future.