Jiang et al. (2026) Structure–Function Coherent Coarsening for Cross‐Resolution Ecohydrological Modeling

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water Resources Research
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-01
• Authors: Long Jiang, Yang Yang, Morgan Thornwell, Robert McKane, Sonali Chokshi, Huan‐Feng Duan, Tiantian Yang, Hoshin V. Gupta
• DOI: 10.1029/2025wr042963

Research Groups

• University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• University of California, Berkeley Department of Earth and Planetary Science

Short Summary

This study proposes the Structure–Function Coherent Coarsening (SFCC) framework to improve ecohydrological model application at different spatial resolutions by preserving hydrological structure and functional heterogeneity. The SFCC framework is evaluated using the VELMA model in 24 subbasins of the Salish Sea Basin, USA.

Objective

• To develop a method for improving the preservation of hydrological structure and functional heterogeneity during model input coarsening

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional scale (Salish Sea Basin, USA) with focus on sub-basin level
• Temporal Scale: Long-term simulations (years to decades)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: VELMA ecohydrological model
• Data sources: DEMs, land cover and soil type data sets, initial conditions

Main Results

• The Hydro-Aware method preserves watershed morphology and yields more consistent runoff and nitrate loss predictions across resolutions than mean-based coarsening.
• Function-preserving methods (Auto-Weight and Auto-Reassign) reduce the dominant-class bias of majority aggregation in basins with small, high-impact patches driving nitrogen export.

Contributions

• The SFCC framework provides a scalable foundation for regional scenario analysis by improving integration of multi-source data sets while retaining high-resolution information.
• This study contributes to the development of more accurate and efficient ecohydrological models that can be applied at different spatial resolutions.

Funding

• National Science Foundation (NSF) grant number [not specified]
• University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering research funds

Citation

@article{Jiang2026StructureFunction,
  author = {Jiang, Long and Yang, Yang and Thornwell, Morgan and McKane, Robert and Chokshi, Sonali and Duan, Huan‐Feng and Yang, Tiantian and Gupta, Hoshin V.},
  title = {Structure–Function Coherent Coarsening for Cross‐Resolution Ecohydrological Modeling},
  journal = {Water Resources Research},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2025wr042963},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025wr042963}
}