A geospatial framework to support integrated biogeochemical modelling in the United Kingdom

Anthropogenic impacts on the aquatic environment, especially in the context of nutrients, provide a major challenge for water resource management. The heterogeneous nature of policy relevant management units (e.g. catchments), in terms of environmental controls on nutrient source and transport, leads to the need for holistic management. However, current strategies are limited by current understanding and knowledge that is transferable between spatial scales and landscape typologies. This study presents a spatially-explicit framework to support the modelling of nutrients from land to water, encompassing environmental and spatial complexities. The framework recognises nine homogeneous landscape units, distinct in terms of sensitivity of nutrient losses to waterbodies. The functionality of the framework is demonstrated by supporting an exemplar nutrient model, applied within the Environmental Virtual Observatory pilot (EVOp) cloud cyber-infrastructure. We demonstrate scope for the use of the framework as a management decision support tool and for further development of integrated biogeochemical modelling. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Software availability Title: Geospatial framework to support integrated biogeochemical modelling in the United Kingdom Developers: Greene, S.a, Johnes, P.J., Bloomfield, J.P., Reaney, S.M., Lawley, R., Elkhatib, Y., Freer, J., Odoni, N., MacLeod, C.J.A., Percy, B. Contact corresponding author: Address: aCentre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, United Kingdom Email: [email protected] Tel: þ44 (0) 1491 692495 ; fax: þ44 (0) 1491 692424. r Ltd. This is an open access article Fax: þ44 (0) 1491 692424 First available: 2012 Hardware: Any GIS enabled device Software: GIS software Format: ESRI shapefile (vector polygon) Size: 585 MB Availability: Contact author directly at [email protected]