Report on catchment-scale spatially distributed models for the 6 European focal DRNs
Résumé
Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) account for more than half of the world’s river
networks and are considered to increase under climate change and growing anthropogenic water use.
However, the hydrological mechanisms that control the spatio-temporal flow patterns in IRES and their
effects on the expansion and contraction of stream segments are not fully understood. Aiming to
overcome this problem, DRYvER developed a hybrid hydrological modeling approach to simulate daily
flow conditions and provide flow intermittence indicators in 6 European Drying River Networks (DRNs).
The JAMS/J2000 process-based hydrological model forced with the ERA5-land reanalysis is used to
simulate daily discharges at high spatial resolution, which includes the scale of small reaches (about 50
ha catchment size). As the JAMS/J2000 does not allow to reproduce accurately the periods with no
flow, a Random Forest classification model (RF) was used to predict the flow condition (dry or flowing)
at the reach scale in the DRNs, using hydrological variables simulated with JAMS/J2000 as explanatory
variables, and observed flow intermittence data (e.g. data from field measurements, citizens science
application) to train the RF model.
Results show that the hybrid hydrological modeling approach (JAMS/J2000 and RF) enables to
reproduce accurately the spatio-temporal patterns of flow intermittence in the Albarine (France),
Bukkosdi (Hungary), Lepsämänjoki (Finland), and Velička (Czech Republic) DRNs. Additional observed
flow intermittence data would be needed in the Genal (Spain) DRN in order to improve the simulation
results. The prediction of flow conditions could not be produced for the Butižnica (Croatia) DRN due
to a lack of observed flow intermittence data.