TY - JOUR A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Hesse, Fabienne A1 - Rao, P. Srinivasa A1 - Musolff, Andreas A1 - Jawitz, James A1 - Sarrazin, Francois A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Fleckenstein, Jan H. A1 - Rakovec, Oldrich A1 - Thober, S. A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Strong hydroclimatic controls on vulnerability to subsurface nitrate contamination across Europe JF - Nature Communications N2 - Subsurface contamination due to excessive nutrient surpluses is a persistent and widespread problem in agricultural areas across Europe. The vulnerability of a particular location to pollution from reactive solutes, such as nitrate, is determined by the interplay between hydrologic transport and biogeochemical transformations. Current studies on the controls of subsurface vulnerability do not consider the transient behaviour of transport dynamics in the root zone. Here, using state-of-the-art hydrologic simulations driven by observed hydroclimatic forcing, we demonstrate the strong spatiotemporal heterogeneity of hydrologic transport dynamics and reveal that these dynamics are primarily controlled by the hydroclimatic gradient of the aridity index across Europe. Contrasting the space-time dynamics of transport times with reactive timescales of denitrification in soil indicate that similar to 75% of the cultivated areas across Europe are potentially vulnerable to nitrate leaching for at least onethird of the year. We find that neglecting the transient nature of transport and reaction timescale results in a great underestimation of the extent of vulnerable regions by almost 50%. Therefore, future vulnerability and risk assessment studies must account for the transient behaviour of transport and biogeochemical transformation processes. KW - travel time distributions KW - groundwater vulnerability KW - flux tracking KW - transit-time KW - water age KW - nitrogen KW - model KW - dynamics KW - pollution KW - patterns Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19955-8 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Nature Publishing Group UK CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schweppe, Robert A1 - Thober, Stephan A1 - Müller, Sebastian A1 - Kelbling, Matthias A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Attinger, Sabine A1 - Samaniego, Luis T1 - MPR 1.0: a stand-alone multiscale parameter regionalization tool for improved parameter estimation of land surface models JF - Geoscientific model development : an interactive open access journal of the European Geosciences Union N2 - Distributed environmental models such as land surface models (LSMs) require model parameters in each spatial modeling unit (e.g., grid cell), thereby leading to a high-dimensional parameter space. One approach to decrease the dimensionality of the parameter space in these models is to use regularization techniques. One such highly efficient technique is the multiscale parameter regionalization (MPR) framework that translates high-resolution predictor variables (e.g., soil textural properties) into model parameters (e.g., porosity) via transfer functions (TFs) and upscaling operators that are suitable for every modeled process. This framework yields seamless model parameters at multiple scales and locations in an effective manner. However, integration of MPR into existing modeling workflows has been hindered thus far by hard-coded configurations and non-modular software designs. For these reasons, we redesigned MPR as a model-agnostic, stand-alone tool. It is a useful software for creating graphs of NetCDF variables, wherein each node is a variable and the links consist of TFs and/or upscaling operators. In this study, we present and verify our tool against a previous version, which was implemented in the mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM; https://www.ufz.de/mhm, last access: 16 January 2022). By using this tool for the generation of continental-scale soil hydraulic parameters applicable to different models (Noah-MP and HTESSEL), we showcase its general functionality and flexibility. Further, using model parameters estimated by the MPR tool leads to significant changes in long-term estimates of evapotranspiration, as compared to their default parameterizations. For example, a change of up to 25 % in long-term evapotranspiration flux is observed in Noah-MP and HTESSEL in the Mississippi River basin. We postulate that use of the stand-alone MPR tool will considerably increase the transparency and reproducibility of the parameter estimation process in distributed (environmental) models. It will also allow a rigorous uncertainty estimation related to the errors of the predictors (e.g., soil texture fields), transfer function and its parameters, and remapping (or upscaling) algorithms. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-859-2022 SN - 1991-959X SN - 1991-9603 VL - 15 IS - 2 SP - 859 EP - 882 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Al-Mashaikhi, K. A1 - Oswald, Sascha A1 - Attinger, Sabine A1 - Büchel, G. A1 - Knöller, K. A1 - Strauch, G. T1 - Evaluation of groundwater dynamics and quality in the Najd aquifers located in the Sultanate of Oman JF - Environmental earth sciences N2 - The Najd, Oman, is located in one of the most arid environments in the world. The groundwater in this region is occurring in four different aquifers A to D of the Hadhramaut Group consisting mainly of different types of limestone and dolomite. The quality of the groundwater is dominated by the major ions sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulphate, and chloride, but the hydrochemical character is varying among the four aquifers. Mineralization within the separate aquifers increases along the groundwater flow direction from south to north-northeast up to high saline sodium-chloride water in aquifer D in the northeast area of the Najd. Environmental isotope analyses of hydrogen and oxygen were conducted to monitor the groundwater dynamics and to evaluate the recharge conditions of groundwater into the Najd aquifers. Results suggest an earlier recharge into these aquifers as well as ongoing recharge takes place in the region down to present day. Mixing of modern and submodern waters was detected by water isotopes in aquifer D in the mountain chain (Jabal) area and along the northern side of the mountain range. In addition, delta H-2 and delta O-18 variations suggest that aquifers A, B, and C are assumed to be connected by faults and fractures, and interaction between the aquifers may occur. Low tritium concentrations support the mixing assumption in the recharge area. The knowledge about the groundwater development is an important factor for the sustainable use of water resources in the Dhofar region. KW - Environmental isotopes KW - Groundwater KW - Najd aquifer KW - Oman KW - Recharge KW - Water quality Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1331-2 SN - 1866-6280 VL - 66 IS - 4 SP - 1195 EP - 1211 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - GEN A1 - Heße, Falk A1 - Comunian, Alessandro A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Uncertainty BT - Toward a Unified, Data-Driven Framework for Uncertainty Characterization in Hydrogeology T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 754 KW - Bayesianism KW - uncertainty analysis KW - hydrogeology KW - data science KW - opinion KW - prior derivation Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-436582 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 754 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jing, Miao A1 - Heße, Falk A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Wang, Wenqing A1 - Fischer, Thomas A1 - Walther, Marc A1 - Zink, Matthias A1 - Zech, Alraune A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Kolditz, Olaf A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Improved regional-scale groundwater representation by the coupling of the mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM v5.7) to the groundwater model OpenGeoSys (OGS) T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Most large-scale hydrologic models fall short in reproducing groundwater head dynamics and simulating transport process due to their oversimplified representation of groundwater flow. In this study, we aim to extend the applicability of the mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM v5.7) to subsurface hydrology by coupling it with the porous media simulator OpenGeoSys (OGS). The two models are one-way coupled through model interfaces GIS2FEM and RIV2FEM, by which the grid-based fluxes of groundwater recharge and the river-groundwater exchange generated by mHM are converted to fixed-flux boundary conditions of the groundwater model OGS. Specifically, the grid-based vertical reservoirs in mHM are completely preserved for the estimation of land-surface fluxes, while OGS acts as a plug-in to the original mHM modeling framework for groundwater flow and transport modeling. The applicability of the coupled model (mHM-OGS v1.0) is evaluated by a case study in the central European mesoscale river basin - Nagelstedt. Different time steps, i.e., daily in mHM and monthly in OGS, are used to account for fast surface flow and slow groundwater flow. Model calibration is conducted following a two-step procedure using discharge for mHM and long-term mean of groundwater head measurements for OGS. Based on the model summary statistics, namely the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), and the interquartile range error (QRE), the coupled model is able to satisfactorily represent the dynamics of discharge and groundwater heads at several locations across the study basin. Our exemplary calculations show that the one-way coupled model can take advantage of the spatially explicit modeling capabilities of surface and groundwater hydrologic models and provide an adequate representation of the spatiotemporal behaviors of groundwater storage and heads, thus making it a valuable tool for addressing water resources and management problems. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 851 KW - travel-time distributions KW - surface-water KW - land-surface KW - surface/subsurface flow KW - parameter-estimation KW - subsurface flow KW - transport model KW - climate-change KW - river-basins KW - catchment Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427030 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 851 SP - 1989 EP - 2007 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jing, Miao A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Heße, Falk A1 - Thober, Stephan A1 - Rakovec, Oldrich A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Assessing the response of groundwater quantity and travel time distribution to 1.5, 2, and 3 °C global warming in a mesoscale central German basin T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Groundwater is the biggest single source of high-quality freshwater worldwide, which is also continuously threatened by the changing climate. In this paper, we investigate the response of the regional groundwater system to climate change under three global warming levels (1.5, 2, and 3 ∘C) in a central German basin (Nägelstedt). This investigation is conducted by deploying an integrated modeling workflow that consists of a mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM) and a fully distributed groundwater model, OpenGeoSys (OGS). mHM is forced with climate simulations of five general circulation models under three representative concentration pathways. The diffuse recharges estimated by mHM are used as boundary forcings to the OGS groundwater model to compute changes in groundwater levels and travel time distributions. Simulation results indicate that groundwater recharges and levels are expected to increase slightly under future climate scenarios. Meanwhile, the mean travel time is expected to decrease compared to the historical average. However, the ensemble simulations do not all agree on the sign of relative change. Changes in mean travel time exhibit a larger variability than those in groundwater levels. The ensemble simulations do not show a systematic relationship between the projected change (in both groundwater levels and travel times) and the warming level, but they indicate an increased variability in projected changes with adjusting the enhanced warming level from 1.5 to 3 ∘C. Correspondingly, it is highly recommended to restrain the trend of global warming. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1402 KW - climate change impacts KW - hydrological models KW - coupled surface KW - water fluxes KW - catchment KW - recharge KW - dynamics KW - aquifer KW - flow KW - parameterization Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-509343 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schmidt, Lennart A1 - Heße, Falk A1 - Attinger, Sabine A1 - Kumar, Rohini T1 - Challenges in applying machine learning models for hydrological inference: a case study for flooding events across Germany T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Machine learning (ML) algorithms are being increasingly used in Earth and Environmental modeling studies owing to the ever-increasing availability of diverse data sets and computational resources as well as advancement in ML algorithms. Despite advances in their predictive accuracy, the usefulness of ML algorithms for inference remains elusive. In this study, we employ two popular ML algorithms, artificial neural networks and random forest, to analyze a large data set of flood events across Germany with the goals to analyze their predictive accuracy and their usability to provide insights to hydrologic system functioning. The results of the ML algorithms are contrasted against a parametric approach based on multiple linear regression. For analysis, we employ a model-agnostic framework named Permuted Feature Importance to derive the influence of models' predictors. This allows us to compare the results of different algorithms for the first time in the context of hydrology. Our main findings are that (1) the ML models achieve higher prediction accuracy than linear regression, (2) the results reflect basic hydrological principles, but (3) further inference is hindered by the heterogeneity of results across algorithms. Thus, we conclude that the problem of equifinality as known from classical hydrological modeling also exists for ML and severely hampers its potential for inference. To account for the observed problems, we propose that when employing ML for inference, this should be made by using multiple algorithms and multiple methods, of which the latter should be embedded in a cross-validation routine. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1193 KW - machine learning KW - inference KW - floods Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-523843 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 5 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Hesse, Fabienne A1 - Rao, P. Srinivasa A1 - Musolff, Andreas A1 - Jawitz, James A1 - Sarrazin, Francois A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Fleckenstein, Jan H. A1 - Rakovec, Oldrich A1 - Thober, S. A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Strong hydroclimatic controls on vulnerability to subsurface nitrate contamination across Europe T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Subsurface contamination due to excessive nutrient surpluses is a persistent and widespread problem in agricultural areas across Europe. The vulnerability of a particular location to pollution from reactive solutes, such as nitrate, is determined by the interplay between hydrologic transport and biogeochemical transformations. Current studies on the controls of subsurface vulnerability do not consider the transient behaviour of transport dynamics in the root zone. Here, using state-of-the-art hydrologic simulations driven by observed hydroclimatic forcing, we demonstrate the strong spatiotemporal heterogeneity of hydrologic transport dynamics and reveal that these dynamics are primarily controlled by the hydroclimatic gradient of the aridity index across Europe. Contrasting the space-time dynamics of transport times with reactive timescales of denitrification in soil indicate that similar to 75% of the cultivated areas across Europe are potentially vulnerable to nitrate leaching for at least onethird of the year. We find that neglecting the transient nature of transport and reaction timescale results in a great underestimation of the extent of vulnerable regions by almost 50%. Therefore, future vulnerability and risk assessment studies must account for the transient behaviour of transport and biogeochemical transformation processes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1352 KW - travel time distributions KW - groundwater vulnerability KW - flux tracking KW - transit-time KW - water age KW - nitrogen KW - model KW - dynamics KW - pollution KW - patterns Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-549875 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nguyen, Tam A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Musolff, Andreas A1 - Lutz, Stefanie R. A1 - Sarrazin, Fanny A1 - Attinger, Sabine A1 - Fleckenstein, Jan H. T1 - Disparate Seasonal Nitrate Export From Nested Heterogeneous Subcatchments Revealed With StorAge Selection Functions JF - Water resources research N2 - Understanding catchment controls on catchment solute export is a prerequisite for water quality management. StorAge Selection (SAS) functions encapsulate essential information about catchment functioning in terms of discharge selection preference and solute export dynamics. However, they lack information on the spatial origin of solutes when applied at the catchment scale, thereby limiting our understanding of the internal (subcatchment) functioning. Here, we parameterized SAS functions in a spatially explicit way to understand the internal catchment responses and transport dynamics of reactive dissolved nitrate (N-NO3). The model was applied in a nested mesoscale catchment (457 km(2)), consisting of a mountainous partly forested, partly agricultural subcatchment, a middle-reach forested subcatchment, and a lowland agricultural subcatchment. The model captured flow and nitrate concentration dynamics not only at the catchment outlet but also at internal gauging stations. Results reveal disparate subsurface mixing dynamics and nitrate export among headwater and lowland subcatchments. The headwater subcatchment has high seasonal variation in subsurface mixing schemes and younger water in discharge, while the lowland subcatchment has less pronounced seasonality in subsurface mixing and much older water in discharge. Consequently, nitrate concentration in discharge from the headwater subcatchment shows strong seasonality, whereas that from the lowland subcatchment is stable in time. The temporally varying responses of headwater and lowland subcatchments alternate the dominant contribution to nitrate export in high and low-flow periods between subcatchments. Overall, our results demonstrate that the spatially explicit SAS modeling provides useful information about internal catchment functioning, helping to develop or evaluate spatial management practices. KW - catchment nitrate export KW - StorAge Selection function KW - travel time distribution KW - mesoscale heterogeneous catchment KW - subcatchment response Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030797 SN - 0043-1397 SN - 1944-7973 VL - 58 IS - 3 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jing, Miao A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Heße, Falk A1 - Thober, Stephan A1 - Rakovec, Oldrich A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Assessing the response of groundwater quantity and travel time distribution to 1.5, 2, and 3 °C global warming in a mesoscale central German basin JF - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences N2 - Groundwater is the biggest single source of high-quality freshwater worldwide, which is also continuously threatened by the changing climate. In this paper, we investigate the response of the regional groundwater system to climate change under three global warming levels (1.5, 2, and 3 ∘C) in a central German basin (Nägelstedt). This investigation is conducted by deploying an integrated modeling workflow that consists of a mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM) and a fully distributed groundwater model, OpenGeoSys (OGS). mHM is forced with climate simulations of five general circulation models under three representative concentration pathways. The diffuse recharges estimated by mHM are used as boundary forcings to the OGS groundwater model to compute changes in groundwater levels and travel time distributions. Simulation results indicate that groundwater recharges and levels are expected to increase slightly under future climate scenarios. Meanwhile, the mean travel time is expected to decrease compared to the historical average. However, the ensemble simulations do not all agree on the sign of relative change. Changes in mean travel time exhibit a larger variability than those in groundwater levels. The ensemble simulations do not show a systematic relationship between the projected change (in both groundwater levels and travel times) and the warming level, but they indicate an increased variability in projected changes with adjusting the enhanced warming level from 1.5 to 3 ∘C. Correspondingly, it is highly recommended to restrain the trend of global warming. KW - climate change impacts KW - hydrological models KW - coupled surface KW - water fluxes KW - catchment KW - recharge KW - dynamics KW - aquifer KW - flow KW - parameterization Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1511-2020 SN - 1607-7938 SN - 1027-5606 VL - 24 IS - 3 SP - 1511 EP - 1526 PB - Copernicus Publ. CY - Göttingen ER -