WBM: A scalable gridded global hydrologic model with water tracking functionality

Abstract. This paper describes the University of New Hampshire Water Balance Model, WBM, a process-based gridded global hydrologic model that simulates the land surface components of the global water cycle and includes water extraction for use in agriculture and domestic sectors. WBM has a long publication history; here we describe the first fully open source WBM version. This version includes a suite of water source tracking modules that enable analysis of flow-path histories on water supply. Earlier descriptions of WBM methods provide the foundation of the most recent model version detailed here. WBM is available here: https://github.com/wsag/WBM. WBM is written in the perl data programming language (PDL), making use of several open-source perl libraries. As a convenience we also provide a Singularity container that simplifies installation of dependencies. We present an overview of the model functionality, utility, and validation of global river discharge and irrigation water use using data from the Global Runoff Data Centre and FAO statistics. A key feature of WBM is the ability to identify the partitioning of sources for each stock or flux within the model. Therefore, users can determine what proportion of any flux consists of each of the primary inputs of water to the surface of the terrestrial hydrologic cycle, previously extracted water for human uses, or runoff generated from any place on the Earth’s surface. Such component tracking provides both a more fully transparent model in that users can identify the underlying mechanisms generating the simulated behavior, as well as perform model experiments in new ways.