HR: 1340h
AN: H13A-0977 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Towards a Dynamic Digital Observatory: Synthesizing Community Data and Model Development in the Susquehanna River Basin and Chesapeake Bay
AU: * Dressler, K A
EM: kxd13@psu.edu
AF: Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AU: Piasecki, M
EM: Michael.Piasecki@drexel.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Drexel University, Philadephia, PA 19104, United States
AU: Bhatt, G
EM: gxb913@psu.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AU: Duffy, C J
EM: cxd11@psu.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AU: Reed, P M
EM: preed@engr.psu.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AB: Physically-based fully-distributed hydrologic models simulate hydrologic state variables spatiotemporally using information on forcing (climate) and landscape (topography, land use, hydrogeology) heterogeneities. Incorporating physical data layers in the hydrologic model requires intensive data development. Traditionally, GIS has been used for data management, data analysis and visualization; however, proprietary data structures, platform dependence, isolated data model and non-dynamic data-interaction with pluggable software components of existing GIS frameworks, makes it restrictive to perform sophisticated numerical modeling. In this effort we present a "tightly-coupled" GIS interface to Penn State Integrated Hydrologic Model (PIHM; www.pihm.psu.edu) called PIHMgis which is open source, platform independent and extensible. The tight coupling between GIS and the model is achieved by developing a shared data-model and hydrologic-model data structure. Domain discretization is fundamental to the approach and an unstructured triangular irregular network (e.g. Delaunay triangles) is generated with both geometric and parametric constraints. A local prismatic control volume is formed by vertical projection of the Delaunay triangles forming each layer of the model. Given a set of constraints (e.g. river network support, watershed boundary, altitude zones, ecological regions, hydraulic properties, climate zones, etc), an "optimal" mesh is generated. Time variant forcing for the model is typically derived from time series data available at points that are transferred onto a grid. Therefore, the modeling environment can use the Observations Database model developed by the Hydrologic Information Systems group of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc. (CUAHSI). As part of a initial testbed series the database has been implemented in support for the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay watersheds and is now being populated by national (USGS-NWIS; EPA- STORET), regional (Chesapeake Information Management System, CIMS; National Air Deposition Program, NADP), and local (RTH-Net, Burd Run) datasets. The data can be searched side by side in a one-stop-querying- center, www.hydroseek.org , another application developed as part of the CUAHSI HIS effort. The ultimate goal is to populate the observations database with as many catalogues (i.e. collections of information on what data sources contain) as possible including the build out of the local data sources, i.e. the Susquehanna River Basin Hydrologic Observatory System (SRBHOS) time series server.
DE: 1804 Catchment
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1848 Monitoring networks
DE: 1879 Watershed
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting