Abstract for: A simple and scalable module for semi-distributed hydrological simulation

System dynamics is frequently used for hydrological and water resources management purposes. However, overly simplified representation of hydrological processes and high level of spatial aggregation limits the accuracy and transportability of SD models. In this WIP, we explore how the existing resource base of physically based hydrological models be utilized to address these limitations and improve the accuracy and scalability of hydrological process representation in system dynamics research We present a scalable hydrological model that has been purposefully developed to integrate seamlessly with existing open-source databases developed for the S-HYPE model (Swedish HYdrological Predictions for the Environment) [7], a semi-distributed physically-based hydrological model for catchment-level simulation developed by the Swedish Hydrological and Meteorological Institute (SMHI). We apply the model to ten randomly selected sub-catchments in Sweden to simulate daily surface flow, baseflow and groundwater levels and we benchmark our results to S-HYPE simulations of the same catchments. The set up presented provides a relatively simple and scalable approach to simulate watershed hydrology at varying levels of spatial disaggregation. By utilizing existing information and data sources from the physically based hydrological modeling domain we believe that this work can help overcome documented weaknesses in SD-based hydrological modeling.