David L. Price

Improvement of Ecological Projections by Improved Hydrological Dynamics in an Ecological Model

Ecological models are used to make accurate, long-term ecological projections to assist in the decision making process. Hydrology directly affects ecological dynamics, therefore it is important to have an accurate hydrological component. This project was developed from a desire to improve the hydrological dynamics of an existing ecological model, Ecological Dynamic Simulation (EDYS) Model, in order to provide more accurate ecological projections. The processes that will be improved are infiltration, soil water redistribution and overland flow. In addition, channel flow will be added. After all the hydrological components have been incorporated successfully, the improved EDYS model and the original EDYS model will be compared using an existing application of the model, in order to determine not only the improvement in the hydrology, but the improved results in determining the ecological impacts as well. Infiltration and soil water redistribution have already been coded and validated and are currently being incorporated into EDYS. The infiltration and redistribution processes were evaluated by comparing them to the results from an established model that calculates infiltration and water content using a numerical solution of the Richard’s equation and performed well. The next step will be to code and validate the overland flow component. It is believed that the improvements in the hydrology will cascade to all the other components of the model and result ultimately in a significant improvement of ecological predictions of the model.