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The main objective of this study is to quantify the groundwater contamination risk of Songhua River Basin by applying a novel approach of integrating public datasets, web services and numerical modelling techniques. To our knowledge, this study is the first to establish groundwater risk maps for the entire Songhua River Basin, one of the largest and most contamination-endangered river basins in China. Index-based groundwater risk maps were created with GIS tools at a spatial resolution of 30 arc sec by combining the results of groundwater vulnerability and hazard assessment. Groundwater vulnerability was evaluated using the DRASTIC index method based on public datasets at the highest available resolution in combination with numerical groundwater modelling. As a novel approach to overcome data scarcity at large scales, a web mapping service based data query was applied to obtain an inventory for potential hazardous sites within the basin. The groundwater risk assessment demonstrated that < 1% of Songhua River Basin is at high or very high contamination risk. These areas were mainly located in the vast plain areas with hotspots particularly in the Changchun metropolitan area. Moreover, groundwater levels and pollution point sources were found to play a significantly larger impact in assessing these areas than originally assumed by the index scheme. Moderate contamination risk was assigned to 27% of the aquifers, predominantly associated with less densely populated agricultural areas. However, the majority of aquifer area in the sparsely populated mountain ranges displayed low groundwater contamination risk. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that this novel method is valid for regional assessments of groundwater contamination risk. Despite limitations in resolution and input data consistency, the obtained groundwater contamination risk maps will be beneficial for regional and local decision-making processes with regard to groundwater protection measures, particularly if other data availability is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Unified multi-compartment visualisation of hydrological cycle at regional scale. • Concurrent visualisation of observation-, modelling- and simulation data. • Interactive data exploration of heterogeneous data sets in 3D space. • Generalised algorithms for application to any region of interest. • Platform independent implementation for regular computers and virtual reality. We propose a visualisation framework for data exploration, analysis and presentation of complex hydrological studies in large catchments. This furthers a deeper understanding of the interrelations between the included datasets, allows for discussions among researchers from different disciplines and is the basis for illustrating complex phenomena to stakeholders or the interested public. Based on the 162,000 km2 catchment of Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, we developed a Virtual Geographic Environment that combines a wide range of 2D and 3D observation data sets with simulation results from both an OpenGeoSys groundwater model and a COAST2D hydrodynamic model visualising water and solute dynamics within and across hydrologic reservoirs. The system aims for a realistic presentation of the investigation area and implements approaches of scientific visualisation to illustrate interesting aspects of multi-variate data in intuitive ways. It employs easy-to-learn interaction techniques for navigation, animation, and access to linked data sets from external sources, such as time series data or websites, to function as an environmental information system for any region of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a framework for the 3D exploration of heterogeneous environmental data within a geographical region of interest. Based on Unity, the system can be built for a variety of platforms and works both on regular machines as well as in virtual reality environments, where it can be considered a basis for a virtual geographic environment. Focussing on the catchment of the Müglitz River in south-eastern Germany, a large collection of observation data acquired via a wide range of measurement devices has been integrated in a geographical reference frame for the region. Results of area-wide numerical simulations for both groundwater and soil moisture have been added to the scene and allow for the exploration of the delayed consequences of transient phenomena such as heavy rainfall events and their impact on the catchment scale. This study focusses on the concurrent visualisation and synchronised animation of multiple area wide datasets from different environmental compartments. The resulting application allows to explore the region of interest during specific hydrological events for an assessment of the interrelation of processes. As such, it offers the opportunity for knowledge transfer between researchers of different domains as well as for outreach to an interested public. [Display omitted] • Visualisation of a large heterogeneous data collection in a unified geographical context • Concurrent visualisation of time-dependent observation and simulation data • Visual demonstration of multi-compartment analysis from basic input data • Interactive framework for outreach activities and stakeholder information • General framework for creating similar applications for other regions of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]