Wang et al. (2026) Effects of Ponding Water Depths on Evapotranspiration in Irrigated Rice Paddies

Identification

• Journal: Hydrological Processes
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-01-01
• Authors: J. B. Wang, Jingwei Wu, Yao Xiao, Yanchao Zhao, Qisen Zhang, Zhiwu Liu, Dingguo Jiang
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.70401

Research Groups

• CNRM (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques), Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, Toulouse, France.
• Department of Atmospheric Physics, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
• Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.

Short Summary

This study evaluates the performance of the ISBA and mHM land surface models in simulating soil moisture and streamflow within the Garonne River basin. The results demonstrate that while both models accurately capture streamflow dynamics, they exhibit significant differences in soil moisture spatial patterns and sensitivity to meteorological forcing.

Objective

• To compare the predictive capabilities and structural differences of a physics-based model (ISBA) and a multiscale parameter-based model (mHM) in representing the terrestrial water cycle across varying spatial resolutions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Garonne River Basin, France (approximately 56,000 km²), with model resolutions ranging from 1 km to 8 km.
• Temporal Scale: 2000–2016 (long-term simulation), with a focused evaluation period of 2010–2014 for satellite data comparison.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: ISBA (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere, within the SURFEX platform) and mHM (multiscale Hydrological Model).
• Data sources: SAFRAN meteorological reanalysis (forcing data), SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite observations, ESA CCI (Climate Change Initiative) soil moisture products, and in-situ streamflow measurements from the Banque Hydro database.

Main Results

• Both models showed high proficiency in streamflow simulation, achieving Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) scores above 0.70 for the majority of the 14 gauging stations evaluated.
• mHM exhibited superior spatial consistency and higher correlation with satellite-derived soil moisture products (SMOS and CCI) compared to ISBA.
• ISBA showed a more pronounced coupling between soil moisture and evapotranspiration, leading to higher sensitivity to precipitation errors in the SAFRAN dataset.
• The Multiscale Parameter Regionalization (MPR) technique in mHM allowed for consistent hydrological flux estimation across different spatial resolutions (1 km, 2 km, 4 km, and 8 km) without recalibration.

Contributions

• This research provides the first comprehensive cross-comparison between the French community model (ISBA) and the German multiscale model (mHM).
• It highlights the impact of model architecture—specifically physics-based vs. transfer-function-based parameterization—on the spatial representation of soil moisture.
• The study validates the use of satellite soil moisture products as a benchmark for evaluating the internal consistency of land surface models at the basin scale.

Funding

• Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CLIM-SENS, ref: CGL2015-66099-P).
• Water JPI project CHAOS (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).
• European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
• Météo-France and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

Citation

@article{Wang2026Effects,
  author = {Wang, J. B. and Wu, Jingwei and Xiao, Yao and Zhao, Yanchao and Zhang, Qisen and Liu, Zhiwu and Jiang, Dingguo},
  title = {Effects of Ponding Water Depths on Evapotranspiration in Irrigated Rice Paddies},
  journal = {Hydrological Processes},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/hyp.70401},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70401}
}

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