HILAM: a spatially consistent framework for bidirectional hydroeconomic land-use modelling

The authors present a way to make water and land-use models “talk to each other” in space, so that what farmers decide to plant and how much they irrigate is directly linked to how aquifers and rivers respond, and vice versa.

Their HILAM framework creates common map units that both the economic model (which simulates farmers’ crop choices under constraints) and the hydrological model (which simulates flows, soil moisture, irrigation needs, and stress) can use, allowing information to flow back and forth over time instead of being imposed through static scenarios.

In a test case on an intensively irrigated aquifer in central Spain, this tighter spatial coupling leads to quite different projections of water use, crop patterns, and groundwater stress than more aggregated, one-way approaches, underscoring the need for spatially consistent tools when designing water and climate adaptation policies.