Claudia Young Omar I. Abdul-Aziz Devendra Dahal Min Feng Shuguang Liu Shengli Huang 2013 <p><span>Hydrological processes of the wetland complex in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) are difficult to model, partly due to a lack of wetland morphology data. We used Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data sets to derive wetland features; we then modelled rainfall, snowfall, snowmelt, runoff, evaporation, the “fill-and-spill” mechanism, shallow groundwater loss, and the effect of wet and dry conditions. For large wetlands with a volume greater than thousands of cubic metres (e.g. about 3000 m</span>³<span>), the modelled water volume agreed fairly well with observations; however, it did not succeed for small wetlands (e.g. volume less than 450 m</span>³<span>). Despite the failure for small wetlands, the modelled water area of the wetland complex coincided well with interpretation of aerial photographs, showing a linear regression with R</span>²<span> of around 0.80 and a mean average error of around 0.55 km</span>²<span>. The next step is to improve the water budget modelling for small wetlands.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1080/02626667.2013.831419 en Taylor & Francis Simulating the water budget of a Prairie Potholes complex from LiDAR and hydrological models in North Dakota, USA article