LISFLOOD
Source: Commission modelling inventory and knowledge management system (MIDAS)
Date of Report Generation: Mon Jan 12 2026
Dissemination: Public
© European Union, 2026
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Overview
Acronym
LISFLOOD
Full title
LISFLOOD hydrological model
Main purpose
LISFLOOD is a model that simulates the full water cycle from rainfall to water in rivers, lakes and groundwater. The model simulates large areas such as river basins, continents or the entire globe. The model simulates the combined effects of weather and climate changes, land use, socio-economic changes on water demand, as well as policy measures for water savings or flood control. The model is used for water and climate studies, as well as flood and drought forecasting.
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 categories
Environment
Model keywords
irrigationfloodhydrological modelingwater resources simulationwater supplywater demandcrop yielddroughtwater nexusRainfall-runoff-routing model
Model homepage
Ownership and Licence
Ownership
EU ownership (European Commission)
Ownership details
Licence type
Free Software licence
The license grants freedom to run the programme for any purpose; freedom to run the program for any purpose; freedom to study (by accessing the source code) how the program works, and change it so it does enable computing; freedom to redistribute copies; and freedom to distribute copies of modified versions to others.
Details
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.
Input and parametrization
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.
Main output
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)
Spatial & Temporal extent
The output has the following 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. |
Quality & Transparency
Quality
Model uncertainties
Models are by definition affected by uncertainties (in input data, input parameters, scenario definitions, etc.). Have the model uncertainties been quantified? Are uncertainties accounted for in your simulations?
- response
- yes
- details
- Ensemble runs to account for weather and climate uncertainty; parameter uncertainty runs are executed ad-hoc. The model has now been used so frequently for scenario analysis and has been found to react logically/plausible.
- url
Sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis helps identifying the uncertain inputs mostly responsible for the uncertainty in the model responses. Has the model undergone sensitivity analysis?
- response
- yes
- details
- On a routine basis since 1998.
- url
Have model results been published in peer-reviewed articles?
- response
- yes
- details
- The model has been published in peer review literature and has since been used in many peer-reviewed publications; Also the model has been part of several model intercomparisons.
- url
Has the model formally undergone scientific review by a panel of international experts?
Please note that this does not refer to the cases when model results were validated by stakeholders.
- response
- no
- details
- url
Model validation
Has model validation been done? Have model predictions been confronted with observed data (ex-post)?
- response
- yes
- details
- On a routine basis since 1998.
- url
Transparency
To what extent do input data come from publicly available sources?
This may include sources accessible upon subscription and/or payment
- response
- Based on both publicly available and restricted-access sources
Is the full model database as such available to external users?
Whether or not it implies a specific procedure or a fee
- response
- no
- details
- 98%. Some rainfall data used for Europe are copyright material of memberstate authorities, used with permission.
- url
Have model results been presented in publicly available reports?
Note this excludes IA reports.
- response
- yes
- details
- documents
For details please refer to the 'peer review for model validation' documents in the bibliographic references
Have output datasets been made publicly available?
Note this could also imply a specific procedure or a fee.
- response
- yes
- details
- JRC Water portal, Eurpean Flood Awareness System (EFAS), European Drought Observatory (EDO), Global Flood Alert System (GloFAS), DispaSET, CAPRI.
- url
Is there any user friendly interface presenting model results that is accessible to the public?
For instance: Dashboard, interactive interfaces...
Has the model been documented in a publicly available dedicated report or a manual?
Note this excludes IA reports.
- response
- yes
- details
- LISFLOOD is an open source model available on Github
Is there a dedicated public website where information about the model is provided?
- response
- yes
Is the model code open-source?
- response
- yes
Can the code be accessed upon request?
- response
- not applicable
- details
The model’s policy relevance and intended role in the policy cycle
The model is designed to contribute to the following policy areas
- Climate action
- Environment
- Humanitarian aid and civil protection
The model is designed to contribute to the following phases of the policy cycle
- Anticipation – such as foresight and horizon scanning
- Evaluation – such as ex-post evaluation
- Formulation – such as ex-ante Impact Assessments
- Implementation – this also includes monitoring
The model’s potential
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.
The model is in use in the context of water policies, climate impact analysis and humanitarian aid:
- Water Policies: Water Resources Assessment Simulations, Flood and Drought simulations, Scenario simulations on the impact of climate change on water resources and its extremes (floods and droughts & water scarcity); Balancing water demand and supply studies within the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem nexus (BLUE2, Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s water resources)
- Humanitarian Aid: Flood Forecasting (EFAS, see https://www.efas.eu/, GloFas; see https://www.globalfloods.eu/, Drought (EDO, global drought, see https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000 ) Water Policies: Water Resources Assessment
- Climate Impact Studies: The model has also been used in various climate change impact studies (PESETA I, II, III, IV, Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s water resources, BLUE2)
Previous use of the model in ex-ante impact assessments of the European Commission
Use of the model in ex-ante impact assessments since July 2017.
2018SWD/2018/249 final/2
Impact assessment accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council: on minimum requirements for water reuse
- Lead by
- ENV
- Run by
- European Commission
- Contribution role
- problem definition (indirect)
- Contribution details
- Documented in study :
LISFLOOD supported the problem definition through the study "Impact of a changing climate, land use, and water usage on Europe’s water resources". The 2 degree assessment includes projections of land use change (using JRC’s LUISA system, see Jacobs-Crisioni et al. 2017) until 2050, GDP projections, population projections and water demand projections until 2100.