Scale and model resolution effects on the distributions of advective solute travel times in catchments

Abstract

Abstract Advective solute travel times and their distributions in hydrological catchments are useful descriptors of the dynamics and variation of the physical mass transport among and along the different source‐to‐recipient pathways of solute transport through the catchments. This article investigates the scale dependence and the effects of model and data resolution on the quantification of advective travel times and their distributions in the Swedish catchment areas of Norrström and Forsmark. In the surface water networks of the investigated (sub)catchments, the mean advective travel time increases with (sub)catchment scale, whereas the relative travel time variability around the mean value (coefficient of variation, CV) is scale‐invariant and insensitive to model resolution. In the groundwater and for the whole (sub)catchments, both the mean value and the CV of travel times are scale‐invariant, but sensitive to model resolution and accuracy. Such quantifications and results of advective travel times constitute important steps in the development of improved understanding and modelling of nutrient, pollutant and tracer transport through catchments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.