ASTERIX: Module for modelling the water flow on vegetated hillslopes

TL;DR

This paper introduces ASTERIX, an open-source module that models water flow on vegetated hillslopes using an extended Saint-Venant approach, emphasizing the influence of vegetation and soil gradients on runoff and flooding.

Contribution

The paper presents a simplified, accessible numerical tool for simulating water flow on vegetated hillslopes, incorporating physical principles and addressing vegetation and soil surface effects.

Findings

ASTERIX effectively models water flow influenced by vegetation.

Vegetation and soil gradients significantly impact runoff dynamics.

The model is suitable for large-scale hydrological simulations.

Abstract

The paper presents an open source software for numerical integration of an extended Saint-Venant model used as a mathematical tool to simulate the water flow from laboratory up to large-scale spatial domains applying physically-based principles of fluid mechanics. Many in-situ observations have shown that vegetation plays a key role in controlling the hydrological flux at catchment scale. In case of heavy rains, the infiltration and interception processes cease quickly, the remaining rainfall gives rise to the Hortonian overland flow and the flash flood is thus initiated. In this context, we also address the following problem: how do the gradient of soil surface and the vegetation influence the water dynamics in the Hortonian flow? The mathematical model and ASTERIX were kept as simple as possible in order to be accessible to a wide range of stakeholders interested in understanding the complex processes behind the water flow on hillslopes covered by plants.