WaterGAP
Global freshwater model / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The global freshwater model WaterGAP calculates flows and storages of water on all continents of the globe (except Antarctica), taking into account the human influence on the natural freshwater system by water abstractions and dams. It supports understanding the freshwater situation across the world's river basins during the 20th and the 21st centuries, and is applied to assess water scarcity, droughts and floods and to quantify the impact of human actions on e.g. groundwater, wetlands, streamflow and sea-level rise. Modelling results of WaterGAP have contributed to international assessment of the global environmental situation including the UN World Water Development Reports, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the UN Global Environmental Outlooks as well as to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. WaterGAP contributes to the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project ISIMIP,[1] where consistent ensembles of model runs by a number of global hydrological models are generated to assess the impact of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on freshwater resources world-wide.
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WaterGAP (Water Global Assessment and Prognosis)[2][3] was developed at the University of Kassel (Germany)[4] since 1996, while later on development has continued at Goethe University Frankfurt[5] and Ruhr University Bochum. It consists of both the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM)[6][7] and five water use models for the sectors irrigation,[8] livestock, households, manufacturing and cooling of thermal power plants.[9] An additional model component computes the fractions of total water use that are abstracted from either groundwater or surface waters (rivers, lakes and reservoirs).[10] The model runs with a temporal resolution of 1 day; WaterGAP 2 has a spatial resolution of 0.5 degree geographical latitude × 0.5 degree geographical longitude (equivalent to 55 km × 55 km at the equator)[3] and WaterGAP 3 a spatial resolution of 5 arc minutes x 5 arc minutes (9 km x 9 km).[11] Model input includes time series of climate data (e.g. precipitation, temperature and radiation) and information such as characteristics of surface water bodies (lakes, reservoirs and wetlands), land cover, soil type, topography and irrigated area.