LISFLOOD hydrological model
overview
main purpose
summary
The LISFLOOD model is a grid-based hydrological rainfall-runoff-routing model that is capable of simulating the hydrological processes that occur in a catchment. LISFLOOD is used in large and transnational river basins - and at continental and global scale- for a variety of applications, including flood forecasting, water resources assessments and the balance between water demand, consumption and availability, and assessing the effects of river regulation and conservation measures, land-use changes and climate change.
LISFLOOD is a complex model built-up by several modules, simulating surface and subsurface processes at a grid scale, and arranging transport of water in horizontal and vertical directions through the landscape and soil. It takes also into account of lakes, reservoirs and groundwater storage.
LISFLOOD forms the core modelling of the flood and drought simulation systems developed at JRC, i.e. the European Flood Awareness System EFAS (Thielen et al., 2009), the Global Flood Awareness System GloFas (Alfieri et al., 2013), and the European Drought Observatory EDO (Vogt et al., 2011). The model includes water demand from various sectors, included irrigated agriculture. LISFLOOD is being further developed to include crop yield and energy production, to serve as a model in the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus project.
The model is designed to support water policies and humanitarian aid, and can be used to support each phase of the policy cycle, from anticipation to evaluation. Example applications for anticipation and formulation cover (see appendix to this document): water resources modelling in the Water-Energy-Food-Ecology Nexus and European and Global climate impact studies, and the support to the DG ENV Blueprint of Europe’s water resources assessment (De Roo et al., 2012). Examples for its use in policy implementation are the operational flood (EFAS, GloFAS) and drought (EDO) forecasting within the COPERNICUS programme. Furthermore, LISFLOOD has been used in the various PESETA climate change impact studies (Feyen et al., 2020). At present LISFLOOD is used for the BLUE2 assessment of freshwater and marine water resources (De Roo et al., 2020).
model type
ownership
licence
- Licence type
- Free Software licence
homepage
details on model structure and approach
LISFLOOD is built up from several modules:
- A sub model calculating potential and actual evapotranspiration
- A sub model calculation snow cover and snow melt
- A 3-layer soil water balance sub model
- Groundwater and subsurface flow sub model
- Routing of channel flow sub model
- Irrigation water requirement sub model
- Embedded water abstraction and consumption sub models
- A sub model calculating various indicators and economic impacts
The processes that are simulated by the model include snow melt, infiltration, interception of rainfall, leaf drainage, evaporation and water uptake by vegetation, surface runoff, preferential flow (bypass of soil layer), exchange of soil moisture between the two soil layers and drainage to the groundwater, sub-surface and groundwater flow, flow through river channels, lakes, reservoir operations, polders.
LISFLOOD uses spatio-temporal dynamic input of precipitation and other relevant meteorological variables to simulate water resources, and simulates how this water propagates through the landscape, taking into account temporal storages (snow, snowmelt; groundwater, lakes, reservoirs, soil water storages), water demand and consumption for natural vegetation growth, rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture (incl paddy rice), manufacturing industry, energy production (hydropower and thermal cooling), livestock and public water consumption. Remaining water is then routed through the rivers until it arrives at the coast.
LISFLOOD is very (input) data demanding, and limited quality input data will limit its output quality. If good quality daily input is provided, LISFLOOD will deliver state-of-the-art results. The simulation of groundwater is simplified, so it should not be used to carry out detailed groundwater studies. LISFLOOD can use a MODFLOW subroutine though (Trichakis et al., 2017), by which it could be used for detailed groundwater assessments. MODFLOW is a MODular Hydrologic FLOW model developed by the USGS.
LISFLOOD is a water quantity model only; water temperature is being added, as are modules for crop yield simulation. Nutrient and water quality sub-routines are currently not included but maybe envisaged for later development.
model inputs
Main inputs to LISFLOOD are:
-
Topography
- Map local drain direction map
- Map Slope gradient
- Map Elevation range
- Land use
- Map with land use classes
- Map forest fraction for each cell
- Map fraction urban area for each cell
- Look-up tables:
- Crop coefficient for each land use class
- Crop group number for each land use class
- Rooting depth for each land use class
- Manning’s roughness for each land use class
- Water demand from various economic sectors
- Fraction of irrigated area
- Fraction of paddy rice irrigation
- Daily water demand for manufacturing industry
- Daily water demand for energy production
- Daily water demand for public water supply
- Daily water demand for livestock
- Minimum flow required for ecological purposes
- Map of water regions (intake areas of water; regions of water management)
- Soil
- Map Soil texture
- Map Soil depth
- Channel geometry
- Meteorological variables
- Precipitation rate
- Average daily temperature
- Daily potential evaporation rate
- Leaf area index
LISFLOOD now also uses input on water demand from various economic sectors.
- Fraction of irrigated area
- Fraction of paddy rice irrigation
- Daily water demand for manufacturing industry
- Daily water demand for energy production
- Daily water demand for public water supply
- Daily water demand for livestock
- Minimum flow required for ecological purposes
- Map of water regions (intake areas of water; regions of water management)
PARAMETERISATION: LISFLOOD is typically calibrated on a number of parameters influencing infiltration, groundwater fluxes, and river channel roughness. This parameterisation is specific for each sub-river basin.
model outputs
LISFLOOD default output time series
- RATE VARIABLES AT GAUGES
- channel discharge
- NUMERICAL CHECKS
- cumulative mass balance error
- cumulative mass balance error, expressed as mm water slice (average over catchment)
- number of sub-steps needed for gravity-based soil moisture routine
LISFLOOD optional series of output maps
- Discharge
- Discharge
- Water level
- Meteorological input variables
- Precipitation
- Potential reference evapotranspiration
- Potential evaporation from soil
- Potential open water evaporation
- Average daily temperature
- State variables:
- Deptyh of water on soil surface
- Depth of snow cover on soil surface
- Depth of interception storage
- Soil moisture content upper layer
- Soil moisture content lower layer
- Storage in llower groundwater zone
- Number of days since last rain
- Frost index
- Rate variables:
- Rain (excluding snow)
- Snow
- Snow melt
- Actual evaporation
- Actual transpiration
- Rainfall interception
- Evaporation of intercepted water
- Leaf drainage
- Infiltration
- preferential (bypass) flow
- percolation upper to lower soil layer
- percolation lower soil layer to subsoil
- surface runoff
- outflow from upper zone
- outflow from lower zone
- total runoff
- percolation upper to lower zone
- loss from lower zone
LISFLOOD default state variable output maps. These maps can be used to define the initial conditions of another simulation:
- waterdepth at last time step
- channel cross-sectional area at last time step
- days since last rain variable at last time step
- snow cover zone A at last time step
- snow cover zone B at last time step
- snow cover zone C at last time step
- frost index at last time step
- cumulative interception at last time step
- soil moisture upper layer at last time step
- soil moisture lower layer at last time step
- water in lower zone at last time step
- water in upper zone at last time step
LISFLOOD optional output time series
- METEOROLOGICAL INPUT VARIABLES
- precipitation
- potential reference evapotranspiration
- potential evaporation from soil
- potential open water evaporation
- average daily temperature
- STATE VARIABLES
- depth of water on soil surface
- depth of snow cover on soil surface (pixel-average)
- depth of interception storage
- soil moisture content upper layer
- soil moisture content middle layer
- soil moisture content lower layer
- storage in upper groundwater zone
- storage in lower groundwater zone
- frost index
- RATE VARIABLES
- river discharge
- rain (excluding snow)
- snow
- snow melt
- actual evaporation
- actual transpiration
- rainfall interception
- evaporation of intercepted water
- leaf drainage
- infiltration
- preferential (bypass) flow
- percolation percolation upper to middle soil layer
- percolation middle soil layer to lower soil layer
- groundwater recharge
- surface runoff
- outflow from upper zone to surface waters (baseflow)
- outflow from lower zone to surface waters (baseflow)
- total runoff (local)
- percolation from upper to lower groundwater zone
- water abstraction for irrigation
- water consumption by irrigation
- water abstraction for livestock
- water consumption by for livestock
- water abstraction for manufacturing industry
- water consumption by for manufacturing industry
- water abstraction for public water supply
- water consumption by public water supply
- water abstraction for cooling thermal powerplants
- water consumption by cooling thermal powerplants
- water inflow to hydropower reservoirs
- water inflow into lakes and reservoirs
LISFLOOD miscellaneous optional output
- average inflow into lower zone [mm day-1]
- average inflow into lower zone [mm day-1]
- average inflow into lower zone [mm day-1]
- number of days since last rain
- water level in river channel
In addition to these, LISFLOOD now also outputs several indicators, such as.
- Water Exploitation Index (WEI) (abstraction versus availability)
- Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+) (consumption versus availability)
- Water Demand Index (WD) (demand versus availability)
- Water Dependency Index (WDI) (dependency of water from upstream regions/countries)
- Falkenmark index (Fk) (water availability per capita)
- Soil water stress indicator (RWS)
- Water security index (WSI)
- Water sustainability index (WTI)
- Crop yield (absolute and anomalies) (focussed on water limited growth)
model spatial-temporal resolution and extent
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Spatial Extent/Country Coverage | EU Member states 27ALL countries of the WORLD The spatial extent is user-defined (any grid size from 100m until 50km can be used) The model is designed to be universal, although local adaptations to local hydrology might be needed Current applications: pan-European, spatial distributed, 5*5km; pan-African, spatial distributed, 0.1*0.1 degree; Global, spatial distributed, 0.1*0.1 degree |
| Spatial Resolution | Regular Grid 1km - 10km The model is designed to be universal, although local adaptations to local hydrology might be needed. Current applications: pan-European, spatial distributed, 5*5km; pan-African, spatial distributed, 0.1*0.1 degree; Global, spatial distributed, 0.1*0.1 degree. |
| Temporal Extent | Very short-term (less than 1 year)Short-term (from 1 to 5 years)Medium-term (5 to 15 years)Long-term (more than 15 years) The model typically covers a historic reference periods (typically 1990-2016 or 1979-2016) and scenario runs 2010-2100. In a forecasting mode the model simulates 14 days, a month or 6 months ahead. |
| Temporal Resolution | HoursDaysMonths The model is typically run at daily time-step. A 6-hourly version is in final testing. The model can also be run at hourly timescales with minor adaptations. |