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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Maricopa, Arizona » U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center » Water Management and Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #359694
Research Project: Advancing Water Management and Conservation in Irrigated Arid Lands

Location: Water Management and Conservation Research

Title: Advancing the application of a model-independent open-source geospatial tool for large spatiotemporal simulations

Author
item HUANG, JING - University Of Science And Technology Of China
item SCHERER, LAURA - Leiden University
item LAN, KANG - University Of Science And Technology Of China
item CHEN, FU - China Agricultural University
item Thorp, Kelly

Submitted to: Environmental Modelling & Software
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/6/2019
Publication Date: 7/8/2019
Citation: Huang, J., Scherer, L., Lan, K., Chen, F., Thorp, K.R. 2019. Advancing the application of a model-independent open-source geospatial tool for large spatiotemporal simulations. Environmental Modelling & Software. 119:374-378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.07.003.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.07.003

Interpretive Summary: Many environmental simulation models are designed for use at singular locations on the Earth’s surface. With rapid advances in geospatial data collection technologies, tools are needed to extend these models spatially while incorporating measurements of crop and soil spatial heterogeneity. Geospatial Simulation (GeoSim) is an open-source geospatial modeling tool for use within the Quantum geographic information system (QGIS). Previously, GeoSim was demonstrated to analyze precision agriculture scenarios at the field-scale in Texas and Arizona. The present study demonstrated how GeoSim is useful for simulation analyses at the national scale, by using the AquaCrop model to simulate wheat yield and irrigation requirements across China. The study provides important verification on the utility and flexibility of the GeoSim tool. Results will benefit researchers, scientists, and agency personnel who require simulation tools for field- to national-scale simulation analyses on water and climate issues.

Technical Abstract: The growing demand for geospatial application of environmental models has led to the development of tools for conducting simulations spatially. A model-independent and open-source tool named Geospatial Simulation (GeoSim) has been developed previously. Based on previous applications at field scale, this study advances GeoSim application for national-scale and multi-year simulations. The widely-applied FAO AquaCrop model was implemented by GeoSim to simulate wheat yield and irrigation requirements on a daily timestep across China from 2000 to 2009. The spatial inputs required by AquaCrop were minimized to four attributes in GeoSim’s base shapefile. A total of 6,915 unique response units were identified among the primary 116,801 polygons. Approximately 20 hours were required to perform 69,150 simulations (10 years). Post-processing of simulation outputs permitting mapping at the original resolution of 5 arc-minutes. The novel methods developed in this study demonstrate new opportunities for efficiently managing environmental simulations for large scales and multiple years with high resolution.