Scientific Results

This catalogue is obtained by conducting a systematic literature review of scientific studies and reviews related to monitoring, forecasting, and simulating the inland water cycle. The analysis maps scientific expertise across research groups and classifies findings by the type of inland water studied, application focus, and geographical scope. A gap analysis will identify missing research areas and assess their relevance to policymaking.

ID â–Č Type Year Authors Title Venue/Journal DOI Research type Water System Technical Focus Abstract Link with Projects Link with Tools Related policies ID
publications-2191 Peer reviewed articles 2021 Jianchu Shi, Xun Wu, Mo Zhang, Xiaoyu Wang, Qiang Zuo, Xiaoguang Wu, Hongfei Zhang, Alon Ben-Gal Numerically scheduling plant water deficit index-based smart irrigation to optimize crop yield and water use efficiency Agricultural Water Management 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106774 Uncategorized Precipitation & Ecological Systems No abstract available 773903
publications-2192 Peer reviewed articles 2021 Ignacio Buesa, José M. Mirås-Avalos, José M. De Paz, Fernando Visconti, Felipe Sanz, Antonio Yeves, Diego Guerra, Diego S. Intrigliolo Soil management in semi-arid vineyards: Combined effects of organic mulching and no-tillage under different water regimes European Journal of Agronomy 10.1016/j.eja.2020.126198 Data Management & Analytics Groundwater No abstract available 773903
publications-2193 Peer reviewed articles 2022 Winterova, J; Krasa, J; Bauer, M; Noreika, N; Dostal, T Using WaTEM/SEDEM to Model the Effects of Crop Rotation and Changes in Land Use on Sediment Transport in the Vrchlice Watershed Sustainability 10.3390/su14105748 Data Management & Analytics Groundwater The Czech landscape has undergone various changes over the last 100 years and has been mainly adapted agriculturally for economic purposes. This has resulted, among other things, in reservoirs being clogged with sediment. The Vrchlice Reservoir was built in 1970 to supply drinking water for around 50,000 inhabitants, and increased sedimentation has been detected in the reservoir in recent years. Water erosion and sediment transport were modeled with WaTEM/SEDEM. Sediment volumes were measured in eight ponds across the watershed for calibration purposes. Modeled results from ponds in watersheds covered mostly with arable lands generally corresponded with the measured values. Although in forested watersheds, the measured sediment volumes greatly exceeded modeled sediment yields, indicating high uncertainty in using USLE-based models in non-agricultural watersheds. The modeled scenarios represented pre-Communist, Communist, and post-Communist eras. For these periods WaTEM/SEDEM was used to evaluate three isolated effects: the effects of various crops on arable lands, the effects of farmland fragmentation, and finally the effects of changes in land use. The change in crops proved to be an important factor causing high siltation rate (potential 23% reduction in sediment yield for historical periods), and land fragmentation played the second important role (potential 15% reduction in sediment yield can be reached by land fragmentation). Across all scenarios, the lowest sediment yield and reservoirs siltation rates were obtained from the pre-Communist and Communist crop share under current land use conditions, and current land use with farmland fragmentation implemented, as it was re-constructed for the pre-Communist era. This supports the idea that the introduction of green areas within arable lands are beneficial to the landscape and can help reduce soil erosion and reservoir siltation. 773903
publications-2194 Peer reviewed articles 2021 Noreika, N; Winterova, J; Li, TL; Krasa, J; Dostal, T The Small Water Cycle in the Czech Landscape: How Has It Been Affected by Land Management Changes Over Time? Sustainability 10.3390/su132413757 Simulation & Modeling Precipitation & Ecological Systems For the Czech Republic to recover from the effects of past mismanagement, it is necessary to determine how its landscape management can be improved holistically by reinforcing the small water cycle. We conducted a scenario analysis across four time periods using SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) to determine the effects of land use, land management, and crop rotation shifts since the 1800s in what is now the Czech Republic. The 1852 and 1954 land-use scenarios behaved the most similarly hydrologically across all four scenarios, likely due to minimal landscape transformation and the fact that these two scenarios occur prior to the widespread incorporation of subsurface tile drainages across the landscape. Additionally, the crop rotation of 1920–1938 reinforces the small water cycle the most, while that of 1950–1989 reinforces the small water cycle the least. Diversified crop rotations should be incentivized to farmers, and increasing the areas of forest, brush, and permanent grassland should be prioritized to further reinforce the small water cycle. It is necessary to foster relationships and open communication between watershed managers, landowners, and scientists to improve the small water cycle and to pave the way for successful future hydrological modeling in the Czech Republic. 773903
publications-2195 Peer reviewed articles 2022 Wu, Xun; Shi, Jianchu; Zhang, Ting; Zuo, Qiang; Wang, Lichun; Xue, Xuzhang; Ben-Gal, Alon Crop yield estimation and irrigation scheduling optimisation using a root-weighted soil water availability based water production function Field Crops Research 10.1016/j.fcr.2022.108579 Data Management & Analytics Groundwater No abstract available 773903
publications-2196 Peer reviewed articles 2022 Aslam, MM; Okal, EJ; Idris, AL; Qian, Z; Xu, WF; Karanja, JK; Wani, SH; Yuan, W Rhizosphere microbiomes can regulate plant drought tolerance Pedosphere 10.1016/s1002-0160(21)60061-9 Simulation & Modeling River Basins No abstract available 773903
publications-2197 Peer reviewed articles 2019 Sami Domisch, Karan Kakouei, Javier MartĂ­nez-LĂłpez, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Ainhoa Magrach, Stefano Balbi, Ferdinando Villa, Andrea Funk, Thomas Hein, Florian Borgwardt, Virgilio Hermoso, Sonja C. JĂ€hnig, Simone D. Langhans Social equity shapes zone-selection: Balancing aquatic biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services delivery in the transboundary Danube River Basin Science of The Total Environment 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.348 Uncategorized Precipitation & Ecological Systems No abstract available 748625
publications-2198 Peer reviewed articles 2018 Simone D. Langhans, Sami Domisch, Stefano Balbi, Gonzalo DelacĂĄmara, Virgilio Hermoso, Mathias Kuemmerlen, Romina Martin, Javier MartĂ­nez-LĂłpez, Peter Vermeiren, Ferdinando Villa, Sonja C. JĂ€hnig Combining eight research areas to foster the uptake of ecosystem-based management in fresh waters Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 10.1002/aqc.3012 Simulation & Modeling Natural Water Bodies AbstractFreshwater ecosystems are under a constant risk of being irreversibly damaged by human pressures that threaten their biodiversity, the sustainability of ecosystem services (ESs), and human well‐being. Despite the implementation of various environmental regulations, the challenges of safeguarding freshwater assets have so far not been tackled successfully.A promising way forward to stop the loss of freshwater biodiversity and to sustain freshwater‐based ESs is by implementing ecosystem‐based management (EBM), an environmental planning and adaptive management approach that jointly considers social and ecological needs. Responsible for considerable recent success in sustainably managing and conserving marine ecosystems, EBM has not yet been championed for fresh waters.A major reason for the delayed uptake of EBM in fresh waters is likely to be its complexity, requiring planners to be familiar with the latest developments in a range of different research areas. EBM would therefore benefit from becoming more tangible to receive attention on the ground.To facilitate uptake, eight core research areas for EBM and their innovations are introduced, and the way in which they feed into the workflow that guides the EBM planning stage is explained.The workflow links biodiversity distributions with ES supply‐and‐demand modelling and SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) target planning, including scenario‐ and cross‐realm perspectives, the prioritization of management alternatives, spatial prioritization of biodiversity conservation and ES areas, and the quantification of uncertainties. Given the extensive resources, time, and technical capacity required to implement the full workflow, a light and an ultralight version of the workflow are also provided.Applied in concert, the eight well‐known research areas allow for better planning and operationalizing, and eventually for implementing EBM in freshwater ecosystems. EBM has great potential to increase public acceptance by introducing the consideration of human needs and aspirations into typically biodiversity‐driven conservation and management approaches. This will ultimately improve the integrity of freshwater ecosystems. 748625
publications-2199 Peer reviewed articles 2019 Sami Domisch, Martin Friedrichs, Thomas Hein, Florian Borgwardt, Annett Wetzig, Sonja C. JĂ€hnig, Simone D. Langhans Spatially explicit species distribution models: A missed opportunity in conservation planning? Diversity and Distributions 10.1111/ddi.12891 Data Management & Analytics Uncategorized AbstractAimSystematic conservation planning is vital for allocating protected areas given the spatial distribution of conservation features, such as species. Due to incomplete species inventories, species distribution models (SDMs) are often used for predicting species’ habitat suitability and species’ probability of occurrence. Currently, SDMs mostly ignore spatial dependencies in species and predictor data. Here, we provide a comparative evaluation of how accounting for spatial dependencies, that is, autocorrelation, affects the delineation of optimized protected areas.LocationSoutheast Australia, Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf, Danube River Basin.MethodsWe employ Bayesian spatially explicit and non‐spatial SDMs for terrestrial, marine and freshwater species, using realm‐specific planning unit shapes (grid, hexagon and subcatchment, respectively). We then apply the softwaregurobito optimize conservation plans based on species targets derived from spatial and non‐spatial SDMs (10%–50% each to analyse sensitivity), and compare the delineation of the plans.ResultsAcross realms and irrespective of the planning unit shape, spatially explicit SDMs (a) produce on average more accurate predictions in terms of AUC, TSS, sensitivity and specificity, along with a higher species detection probability. All spatial optimizations meet the species conservation targets. Spatial conservation plans that use predictions from spatially explicit SDMs (b) are spatially substantially different compared to those that use non‐spatial SDM predictions, but (c) encompass a similar amount of planning units. The overlap in the selection of planning units is smallest for conservation plans based on the lowest targets and vice versa.Main conclusionsSpecies distribution models are core tools in conservation planning. Not surprisingly, accounting for the spatial characteristics in SDMs has drastic impacts on the delineation of optimized conservation plans. We therefore encourage practitioners to consider spatial dependencies in conservation features to improve the spatial representation of future protected areas. 748625
publications-2200 Peer reviewed articles 2018 Simone D. Langhans, Sonja C. JĂ€hnig, Marc Schallenberg On the use of multicriteria decision analysis to formally integrate community values into ecosystem-based freshwater management River Research and Applications 10.1002/rra.3388 Uncategorized Precipitation & Ecological Systems AbstractFreshwater ecosystems are essential to peoples' economic, cultural, and social well‐being, yet are still among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Consequently, a plethora of recent regulations and policies seek to halt the loss of restore or safeguard freshwaters, their biodiversity, and the ecosystem services they provide. Ecosystem‐based management (EBM), an approach that considers human society as an integral part of ecosystems, is increasingly being promoted to help meet this challenge. EBM involves an overarching regulatory framework and local solutions with trade‐offs and compromises—factors that not only make decision processes complex but also provide the means for combining top–down regulation with bottom‐up priorities into collaborative management strategies. Although stakeholder participation is encouraged in most modern freshwater management, community values are often largely neglected. Here, we introduce a well‐known participatory decision support framework based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to operationalize EBM and promote community‐inclusive decision making in freshwater management. We explain the different steps that this approach comprises, which lead to the prioritization of a management strategy in a collaborative way. We also show how cultural values that inherently embed strong links between the environment and people can be used together with typical ecological and socio‐economic values. We illustrate the MCDA‐based EBM‐approach for New Zealand, one of the few countries in which regional freshwater management is mandated to uphold environmental quality standards, while safeguarding local community values and ecosystem services. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges, which are increasingly emerging as a result of mandated community collaboration in environmental management. 748625