Multi-scale modeling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems
for Athabasca River Basin
Narayan Shrestha and Junye Wang, Athabasca River Basin Research Institute
Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB T9S 3A3 junyew@athabascau.ca
Background
• Athabasca oil sands issues : economy, environment and society (Fig.
1).
• Main pollution source: agriculture and oil industries
• Development of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems.
Methods
• The multi-scale modelling framework is based on SWAT model for
hydrological modelling coupling with nitrification and denitrification
model of DayCent (Fig. 2)
• Upscaling nutrient, water, pollutants, energy cycling through grid
box by grid box at the GIS grid at each daily time step
• Input data of soil, vegetation and weather are stored, inputted and
exported according to the GIS database for visualization, mapping
and hydrological flux calculation.
• The model simulates dynamics of nutrients, water, pollutants,
vegetation and soils at a local scale at daily time step.
Fig1. ARB, environment and economy
Results
Objectives
• Identify key parameters to control nutrients, water and pollutants in
systems.
• Develop a modeling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic
systems
• Simulate dynamics of nutrients, GHGs, water and pollutants using
the coupling biogeochemical and hydrological processes.
• Apply the modeling framework to Athabasca River Basin (ARB) to
assess the impact of different scenarios on the environment and
economy.
• Help design more effective monitoring systems and experiments, and
manage cumulative effects.
Soils
Land use and
vegetation
Weather
Fertilizer and
manuring
Pesticid
Input
Database
Athabasca River Water Quality Index As per formulation of Alberta
Environment and Parks (AEP, 2017), river reaches just downstream of
agricultural areas have rather poor water quality (Fig. 4)
SWAT with Daycent
captures trend of
N2O emission under
climate changes (Fig.
5)
CH4
CO2
Biogeochemical
Model
N2O
Evapotranspiratio
n
---------------------Single grid cell
e
Conclusion
Soil water,
soil nutrient
Run off and
Leaching
Forecasting
Production
GHGs and
pollution
Scenarios
Ecosystem Service
Hydrological
Model
-------------------Transport on grid
River, lake and
reservoir
Fig. 2 Model structure of water and nutrient cycling in watershed
Fig. 3. Water temperature, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen
demand (CBOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), total nitrogen (TN)
and total phosphorus (TP) with 95% total predictive
uncertainty bands at Athabasca river Fort McMurray
Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP)
• A modelling framework has been developed for assessment of GHGs
emission and water quality for ARB.
• Improve understanding of nutrient runoff and fertilization
• Different scenarios were used for assessment of mitigation options.
• Compare different scenarios and assess different mitigation option.
References
Shrestha and Wang, 2020, J. of Environmental Informatics 35 (1), 56-80
Wang et al., 2020.. Science of The Total Environment 739, 139092