Dear Colleagues,

Water system models and ecological models both have a long history. Nevertheless, the practical use of water ecosystem models for decision-making in water management remains very limited and confined to specific applications. The main reasons for this are a high model uncertainty, the focus on too-specific subparts (e.g., merely hydrological, chemical or biological), the high complexity of the (use of the) models, the irrelevance of the possible simulations, or a combination of these elements. Therefore, this Special Issue is seeking success stories in which models have been developed that integrate relevant key components, and/or simplified the models or the user-interface in such a way that these become more relevant and convenient to be used by water managers.

Contributions are most welcome that present ecological water system models that are based on the integration of various components of the water system, including its uses and impact sources (e.g., relation with land use, urban development and infrastructure implementation, as well as ecosystem services). Moreover, the integration of different methods (combining modeling techniques, integration of optimization tools, use of stakeholders and users during model development and validation) and sources of data and information (field data with expert knowledge for instance) can be main topics of contributions. In addition, tools that enhance the understanding by the users (transparency), or the user convenience of the interface and the ease for the execution and comparison of simulations are explicitly part of this call. Finally, more conceptual approaches and reviews that can contribute to the overall improvement of the analysis of uncertainty, model development and general applicability in water management are moreover highly relevant for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Peter Goethals
Dr. Marie Anne Eurie Forio
Guest Editors

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• Ecological water system modeling
• Integrated models
• Modelling of ecosystem services
• Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem Nexus
• Hybrid models
• Integration of field data and expert knowledge
• Integration of datadriven and process-based approaches
• User-oriented model development
• Lean model development
• Model simplification
• Model transparancy
• Model relevance
• Model uncertainty analysis and assessment
• Model quality control and certification
• User interface design
• Model simulation
• Model evaluation
• Decision-support in water management

Title: An integrated water-resources model for assessing fish community response to alternative management scenarios
Author: Jennifer Cartwright, Casey Caldwell, Rodney Knight and Steve Nebiker
Affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Nashville, TN 37211, USA
Abstract: Integration of empirically derived ecological flow equations into a hydrologic accounting framework proved useful in evaluating predicted hydrologic and fish community responses to various water-management scenarios. This proof-of-concept study was conducted in a regulated river system at a local watershed scale to simulate effects on streamflow of management scenarios based on dam operation protocols, withdrawals for municipal water supply, effluent discharges from wastewater treatment, and inter-basin water transfer. Modeled streamflow was integrated with ecological limit functions relating hydrologic departure from reference conditions to fish species richness, stratified by trophic and habitat characteristics. This approach enables spatially explicit predictions of fish community responses to hydrologic departure from reference conditions, such that hydro-ecological effects of water-management scenarios can be compared. Because water-resource managers must balance multiple competing socioeconomic and environmental priorities, the framework presented here can serve as a decision-support system to enable the conservation of riverine fish biodiversity while optimizing water availability for human use.