Exploring Land Use and Soil Management Impacts on Water Resources in a Small Austrian Catchment.

Water scarcity and availability represent two critical and interconnected facets of the challenges posed to agriculture by climate change. Among the components most affected by these changes are land use and landscape dynamics. The construction and intelligent management of the retention basins, reservoirs, drainage systems or water-saving soil management can mitigate water shortages during drought periods by enhancing storage and flow regulation.

This study uses the Wflow_sbm hydrological model, a distributed-parameter framework, to investigate how climatic condition and landscape factors influence water dynamics in a 60-ha experimental catchment in Lower Austria. By integrating comprehensive datasets from 2007 to 2024 and emphasizing key soil and land use characteristics, we aim to simulate the water balance across this historical change in land use, soil management, and crop rotation.

Previous investigations in this catchment lead us to assume that shifts in land use and agricultural practices will substantially impact runoff, infiltration, and evapotranspiration patterns. Furthermore, evolving rainfall regimes and rising temperatures driven by climate change are expected to increase challenges related to water availability. By analyzing these factors, the model scenario investigation seeks to highlight historical land use and structural changes and their effects on the water balance. This includes examining how past agricultural practices, and the landscape, and drainage systems have influenced runoff patterns, and evapotranspiration rates. Additionally, the study seeks to correlate these changes with historical climate data to identify long-term trends and thresholds in water availability.

This model application provides valuable insights into effective water resource management strategies amidst environmental changes. Future work will focus on quantifying the agrohydrological potential of further water-saving practices and extending the analysis to explore the broader ecological and community-level of land use and climate transformations.

Keywords: Wflow_sbm, hydrological modeling, land use change, climate change, water resources, experimental catchment