Title: Data-model files associated with the manuscript "Modeling the Effects of Wetland Restoration on Coastal Hydrology: A Case Study of Elkhorn Slough Watershed, California"

Abstract

This package contains the data, simulation setups, notebooks and figures used in “Modeling the Effects of Wetland Restoration on Coastal Hydrology: A Case Study of Elkhorn Slough Watershed, California” (Xu et al., 2025). In this study, we selected Elkhorn Slough, a tidal estuary, in California, to investigate the impact of wetland restoration and sea level rise on coastal hydrology using the process-based coastal hydrologic model, Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS), informed by site-specific data. We designed a novel modeling workflow for incorporating wetland restoration features into land cover and soil properties for the model parameterization. The validation results demonstrate a strong agreement between modeled and observed data. We studied the characteristics of coastal watershed hydrology, then focused on the surface water dynamics at two wetland sites within Elkhorn Slough, a reference site and a restored site. Our simulation results indicate that the restored site successfully maintains surface elevation, resulting in reduced surface inundation. We also examined the impact of wetland restoration under expected sea level rise over the next few decades. The low-lying Yampah Marsh, the reference site, is likely to be inundated due to future sea level rise when highest tides arrive; while a higher percentage of Hester Marsh, themore » restored site, would retain marsh vegetation in coming decades, regardless of tidal conditions. Our study provides important information for examining the outcome of restoration practices that include surface elevation in tidal wetlands under climate changes.Several files can be found from this data package.1. README.md: This file describes the title, journal, co-authors, abstract, repository structure and model version.2. Simulation_Setups.zip: The file contains the model configuration files (XML format) for ATS. 3. Notebooks.zip: The file contains the Jupyter notebooks for generating the pre- and post-restoration meshes and the meshes of future scenarios. 4. Figures.zip: The file contains the figures used in the manuscript.5. Data.zip: The file contains the data used to drive the model simulations, including watershed and wetlands boundaries, mesh files and references to additional datasets (e.g., meteorological forcing, tidal dataset, DEMs, land cover, soil properties). Also, it contains water level observations at the restored wetland.« less

Authors:

Xu, Yi ;

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Zhang, Yu; Moulton, J. David; Brereton, Ashley; Mekonnen, Zelalem A.; Arora, Bhavna; Endris, Charlie; Haskins, John; Paytan, Adina

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. University of California Santa Cruz
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
4. San Jose State University
5. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Publication Date:

Fri Nov 14 04:00:00 UTC 2025

DOE Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231

Research Org.:

Coastal Wetland Restoration a Nature Based Decarbonization Multi-Benefit Climate Mitigation Solution

Sponsoring Org.:

UC Lab Fees Research Program Award number L22CR4529

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS); ESS-DIVE CSV File Formatting Guidelines Reporting Format; ESS-DIVE File Level Metadata Reporting Format; ESS-DIVE Hydrologic Monitoring Reporting Format; ESS-DIVE Model Data Archiving Guidelines; coastal hydrologic modeling; coastal wetland restoration; hydrological processes; sea level rise

OSTI Identifier:

2588510

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15485/2588510