HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Fully integrated and physically-based approach for simulating water flows in a large-scale, heavily agricultural and low-instrumented watershed
This study is an excellent example of how a physics-based approach to simulating integrated hydrology with HydroGeoSphere allows researchers to overcome the limitations of data scarcity. Allowing water to flow naturally (or as ‘naturally’ as possible for a digital environment) also simplifies the calibration process, as a well conceptualized watershed scale model should be able to accurately represent the integrated hydrology of the watershed inherently.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Estimation of groundwater contributions to Athabasca River, Alberta, Canada
This paper evaluates surface water-groundwater interactions within the Athabasca River Basin (ARB). The fully integrated nature of HydroGeoSphere was a key contributor to this study, as these simulations allowed for clear accounting of the interaction between groundwater and surface water, while also incorporating influential hydrologic mechanisms like snowmelt/accumulation and evapotranspiration over a very large area.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Mine rock stockpile reclamation trial, Detour Lake Mine
HydroGeoSphere is a powerful tool for evaluating the hydrology of open pit mining operations. HGS modelling at mine sites is typically at the site scale, and presents a perfect use case for short-term real-time hydrologic forecasting. But HGS can also be a great tool at smaller scales. In this study the authors use 1D column HGS models to evaluate the hydrology of a simple unengineered reclamation cover overlying mine waste rock from the Detour Lake Mine in Northern Ontario. 2D cross sectional HGS models were also constructed to ensure the 1D column models were producing accurate results.
Aquanty Staff Research Highlight – Saturated hydraulic conductivity in northern peats inferred from other measurements
Morris et al. 2022 is a meta-analysis of 2507 peatland soil samples across Northern Canada and parts of Europe, which relates saturated hydraulic conductivity to depth and more commonly measured parameters like bulk density or the Van Post Humification Scale.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Simulating fully-integrated hydrological dynamics in complex Alpine headwaters: potential and challenges
Alpine areas are inherently difficult to model, with large elevation gradients (steep, rugged terrain), complex geology and highly variable weather conditions, but nevertheless a satisfactory model calibration was achieved. The model incorporated fully integrated surface/groundwater flow, evapotranspiration processes, and dynamic snowmelt (using an energy balance-based representation of snow processes), all underpinned by a detailed 3D geological model.