A web-based integrated Hydrosphere modeling system for scientists and decision-makers

The appropriate management of the water system requires a holistic consideration of the inland waters, the marine ecosystems and their interactions. However, these two systems are monitored, analysed and modelled separately and managed with often non connected policies. This is in part due to the intrinsic characteristics of the two systems and to the complex processes occurring between them, usually understudied. Nowadays modelling offers new opportunities for integrating land-sea interactions, as we show in this study. At the same time, such models are expanding their capabilities in cloud computing environments. However, many existing modelling tools remain fragmented and are limited to either inland or marine components, such as Digital Twin Earth (DTE) Hydrology Next or European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO). To overcome this limitation, the current work presents a virtual research environment (VRE)-based workflow with a single interface for the whole water continuum: from inland water, through coastal water to open oceans. We present a seamlessly connected inland surface hydrological model with a modular ocean circulation modelling system, available into the AquaINFRA VRE in compliance with FAIR principles. It is provided on the web-based Galaxy platform https://aqua.usegalaxy.eu/ to facilitate the integration with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) system.

The developed solution allows to execute the modelling workflow in a pre-prepared specific region with a chain of three components:

• Surface inland model: it allows different scenario simulations at daily or monthly responses through parameterised SWAT+ executions with a previous watershed delineation.
• Inland-marine connector: transform the output in hydrological response units in the neighbouring of the mouth in the sea of the catchment area to needed inputs for the marine model.
• Ocean circulation model: it takes as input for the rivers and computes with the MITgcm modelling code the coastal ocean dynamics.

This workflow is initially developed for a Mediterranean use case but is designed to be reproducible and scalable to other European and global regions. The first study area tested is the Tordera catchment and its neighbouring coastal zone, located on the central Catalan coast in the NW Mediterranean. The Tordera basin features a diverse landscape, including croplands, shrublands, forests, urban areas, and industrial zones. Associated human activities, together with the high variability of climatic events, directly affect the quantity and quality of water in both inland and marine ecosystems. Therefore, integrated information through the water continuum is key for its management.

The proposed system aims to 1) reduce the technical complexity of hydrological and marine model executions, 2) show an innovative connection tool between fresh and ocean water environments, and 3) display clear and useful information of the results. The AquaINFRA project will make this system accessible to a broader research community beyond SWAT and MITgcm experts. Thus, scientists, decision-makers and other stakeholders will be able to simulate and assess different future scenarios and better understand past extreme events with an improved representation of land–sea interactions.

Acknowledgments

The AquaINFRA project received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 101094434