oa Land & Water: an Interactive Web Cartography Platform for Hydrological Research in Ukraine

Web technologies have rapidly evolved, transforming the way we design maps to be more interactive, responsive, and engaging for users. This study aimed to harness these innovations to create an online platform, “Land & Water” ( https://landwater.uhmi.org.ua/ ), representing hydrological spatiotemporal variations across Ukraine at subbasin scale. Utilizing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), the platform visualizes hydrological and climate parameters across 96% of Ukraine’s territory, encompassing 2,991 small-scale river basins for the period 1980–2020. Users can access a comprehensive dataset, including water runoff, river discharge, soil water, temperature, and precipitation. The platform provides geospatial information like land cover, soil types, and crop rotations. The platform’s design, rooted in communication principles, ensures intuitive navigation. The platform operates within a client-server architecture, utilizing technologies like the Vue JavaScript framework for user interface and Python-based backend with the FastAPI framework for backend server. For stakeholders, “Land & Water” emerges as a pivotal tool, offering insights into water availability trends and the impacts of various environmental factors. Furthermore, its potential integration with weather forecasts promises transformative capabilities in predicting droughts and other water-related challenges in Ukraine.