Understanding how surface and subsurface waters are affected by drought, fire, warming, and increased human demand requires computer models that can represent complex environments. Predictions are especially difficult for what scientists call patterned land cover. In Arctic permafrost landscapes, this patterning is caused by intense freezing and subsequent thawing. This can also overturn soil layers, resulting in a pattern of raised polygons of organic-rich soil and vegetation with surface water between the polygons. A team of scientists developed a new mathematical formulation that enables models to predict water runoff in these complex polygonal landscapes.
Click here for original story, Using math to significantly improve modeling of surface and subsurface water flow in complex landscapes
Source: Phys.org