A continuous coupled hydrological and water resources management model

Human exploitation of water resources is widespread and its impact on hydrological fluxes is expected to increase in the future. Water use interacts in a complex manner with the hydrological system causing severe alterations of the hydrological fluxes with multifaceted feedbacks. Implementing this coupling within hydrological models is essential when dealing with the impact of human activities on water resources at all relevant scales. We contribute to the effort in developing models coupling natural and human systems with a distributed continuous model, named GEOTRANSF. The model allows to quantify, within the same framework, alterations in the natural regime and constraints and limitations to water resources availability. After presenting GEOTRANSF, an example of application to a medium-size Alpine catchment with streamflow modified by hydropower and distributed uses is discussed, followed by the analysis of the effect of suitable water uses scenarios in the same catchment. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.