Hydro-JULES

Next generation land surface and hydrological prediction

Hydro-JULES video
by CEH (Mar 2019)

My current paper in review (since March 2021) is here.

Global wetlands and other inundated areas: why are they important?

Wetlands are the largest single natural source of atmospheric methane (CH4) and form a key link between the water and carbon cycles at regional scales.
Wetland ecosystems mediate large land-atmosphere transfers of heat, water and trace gases at both local and regional scales.
Global warming resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentrations will likely lead to a 78% increase in wetland emissions of CH4, most of which is expected to come from tropical regions (Shindell et al. 2004, Gedney et al. 2019).

Wetlands are generally considered peripheral land use units because for the majority of humans they are: you can't build on them and they are too wet for agriculture, so they are ignored. It is only relatively recently that we are realising they play a key role in many ecosystems and the global climate system (e.g. see WWT). However, for me it is climate change that really makes wetlands crucial: that 78% figure above is enormous and we must find a way to mitigate this.

The lack of robust information on the ways in which wetlands fluctuate and function (not just tropical ones) is hampering progress in predicting the effects of global environmental change. We urgently need a better understanding of how wetlands function in the Earth system, which is why I am working to add that functionality as part of Hydro-JULES.

Hydro-JULES project website

This project is a collaborative effort to improve the representation of water cycle dynamics in land surface models, funded under the LTSM stream of NERC National Capability funding.

Hydro-JULES Open Meetings:
     2018: See here for slides from the meeting held at CEH Wallingford on September 10th 2018
     2019: Meeting was held 11-SEP-19 at the Royal Society, Carlton Sq., London
     2020: Meeting was held online as a webinar on 9-SEP-20 (see here).
     2021: Meeting scheduled to be online 13-17th September

My part in Hydro-JULES is:
     (1) to develop and improve the river routing and overbank inundation routines within the various Hydro-JULES models (including, but not limited to, JULES itself). Please see other project pages (Menu bar -> Projects -> Inundation above) for more specifics.
     (2) I am also task leader of Task 1.4 and I will be coordinating the Hydro-JULES Summer School 2021 during 12-16th September.

See also the CEH wiki pages for Hydro-JULES (CEH access required).