WATcycle: A software for terrestrial water cycle and budget analysis with case studies on the Amazon and Mississippi Basins

The complexity, heterogeneity, and uncertainties implicit in multisource data make the terrestrial water cycle and water budget analyses challenging across scales. Further, a dilemma in selecting the objective-specific best dataset makes the process difficult and time-consuming. Here, we introduce “WATcycle”, an open-access generalized UI/UX-based Python software, available on GitHub https://github.com/ronikianji/WATcycle, with five main steps: (1) data downloading, (2) data pre-processing, (3) multi-scalar spatiotemporal analysis, (4) validation of 13 precipitation datasets with in-situ records, (5) residual error and physically consistent water budget closure using Proportional Redistribution. Our findings of a case study in the Amazon and Mississippi River Basin using 79 multi-source meteo-hydrological datasets are coherent with the literature, with added insights into the recent variability in the basin's hydrological cycle. The results discern the performance, accuracy, and capability of the newly developed software. It will play a crucial role in skillful inferences for water resource management, risk assessment, and infrastructure planning in the basins globally.