About project

Title: Connectivity and flood runoff dynamics in headwater catchments of Slovakia

Project ID: APVV 19-0340

Acronym of the project: CONTROL

Duration of the project: 07/2020 - 06/2024

Key words: hydrological connectivity, small catchments, flood runoff dynamics, process-oriented modelling

Project abstract:

Hydrological connectivity of subsurface and surface storages or different catchment elements within a landscape is a crucial factor in the complex process of flood flow generation on hillslopes. The project aims to develop modelling systems, which respects observed connectivity patterns based on experimental monitoring of runoff generation in pilot headwater catchments in four typical forested and agricultural hydrological environments. Instead of building complex representations of structural connectivity elements in 3D as in conventional distributed models, innovative hybrid distributed conceptual modelling representations of the governing processes and controls will be sought.
Typical patterns of the observed dynamics of processes will be conceptually represented in a two-level distributed modelling framework. At the first level of spatial variability, based on the monitored processes, observed source areas and connectivity patterns, the hydrological response unit (HRU) concept will be used with spatially homogeneous parameterization, which will be allowed to change in time. To respect the spatial variability of state of the catchment, within these units, grid-based conceptual models will be driven by spatially distributed inputs.