The Regional Hydrologic Extremes Assessment System: A software framework for hydrologic modeling and data assimilation

PLoS One. 2017 May 18;12(5):e0176506. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176506. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The Regional Hydrologic Extremes Assessment System (RHEAS) is a prototype software framework for hydrologic modeling and data assimilation that automates the deployment of water resources nowcasting and forecasting applications. A spatially-enabled database is a key component of the software that can ingest a suite of satellite and model datasets while facilitating the interfacing with Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. The datasets ingested are obtained from numerous space-borne sensors and represent multiple components of the water cycle. The object-oriented design of the software allows for modularity and extensibility, showcased here with the coupling of the core hydrologic model with a crop growth model. RHEAS can exploit multi-threading to scale with increasing number of processors, while the database allows delivery of data products and associated uncertainty through a variety of GIS platforms. A set of three example implementations of RHEAS in the United States and Kenya are described to demonstrate the different features of the system in real-world applications.

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Factual
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Hydrology
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Software*

Grants and funding

The research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Support was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Research & Technology Development program (JBF), and by NASA’s SERVIR program NNH11ZDA001N-SERVIR (SG).