WaterGAP examples

At this page, some WaterGAP output examples are given to show the monthly variation of selected outputs. The version which is used to create the animations is described in Müller Schmied et al. (2014) as STANDARD version (WFD/WFDEI climate forcing).

River discharge is on the one hand an important model result as e.g. water scarcity indicators are based on this output. On the other hand, WaterGAP is calibrated to long term average observed discharges. Displayed are mean monthly discharges, showing the global dynamics.

Groundwater recharge is a part from the runoff from land which contributes to groundwater storage and is hence an indicator for renewable groundwater ressources. Displayed are monthly rates of groundwater recharge.

The total water storages (sum of water in canopy, snow, soil, groundwater, wetland, lakes and rivers) is an output which is used in particular within the GRACE community to analyze the gravity measurements of the Earth. Displayed are deviations from the long term average total water storage which gives an idea of the dynamics of those storages.

Further information and resources

Introductory information about WaterGAP can be found ath the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WaterGAP. A list of WaterGAP publications is displayed at www.watergap.de. In the second reference below, you can download a poster describing the WaterGAP 2.2 version (which was presented at the EGU 2014).

Müller Schmied, H., S. Eisner, D. Franz, M. Wattenbach, F. T. Portmann, M. Flörke & P. Döll (2014): Sensitivity of simulated global-scale freshwater fluxes and storages to input data, hydrological model structure, human water use and calibration. Hyerology and Earth System Sciences Discussion, 11, 1583-1649, doi:10.5194/hessd-11-1583-2014.

Müller Schmied, H., L. Adam, P. Döll, S. Eisner, M. Flörke, A. Güntner, E. Kynast, F. T. Portmann, C. Riedel, C. Schneider, Q. Song, M. Wattenbach & J. Zhang (2014): Modelling the global freshwater resources using WateRGAP 2.2 - model overview, selected results and applications. Poster presentation at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly, 27.4.-2.5.2014, Vienna, Austria. Download the poster (4 MB).