Authors: Ehsan Ebrahimi, Pin Shuai – Utah State University; Enrique Triana, Sophia Bakar – RTI
Title: Enhancing Water Management Modelling through Extended Hydrofabric
Presentation Type: Lightning Talk
Abstract: Geospatial fabrics (or hydrofabric), commonly used in hydrologic models to route streamflow across landscapes, lack critical water management infrastructure, which is essential for accurately simulating the interactions between natural and human systems. To address these gaps, we aim to extend the hydrofabric for water management modeling, with schemas for standardized inputs, and automated workflows to create water management models (WMMs). Key infrastructure, such as points of diversion and reservoirs, and associated data have been successfully linked with the hydrofabric at a pilot basin in the Colorado River Headwaters within the state of Colorado. This integration uses spatial associations and unique IDs to link added points with hydrofabric elements in a standardized relational database, facilitated by automated workflows. The relational database was developed with a generalized schema to support different sources of data and levels of detail. Using the automated workflows, fully parametrized MODSIM models are generated by incorporating USGS data inputs or coupled with NHM-simulated inflows. The models are tested to simulate streamflow at the outlet, comparing against USGS gage observations and NHM-simulated flow, exhibiting the effect of water management components on simulating streamflows. This analysis highlights the value of extended hydrofabric in improving the accessibility of WMMs and the potential for coupling hydrologic-WMMs through automated workflows.