Introduction
CIROH is proud to host the 3rd annual Developers Conference at the University of Vermont in Burlington Vermont. The conference will be held from May 28th to May 30th, 2025. The training tracks for this year’s conference are Machine Learning, NextGen, Flood Inundation Mapping, Hydroinformatics, and Social Science.
Who should attend?
The conference will focus on a wide range of topics relating to hydrological forecasting, particularly of extreme events – in line with CIROH’s current research and development emphasis. These include hydrological modeling (NextGen), flood inundation mapping, hydroinformatics, social science, and community engagement. The conference will offer participants an opportunity to engage with the CIROH community and its federal partners, learn about recent research and development activities, and get hands-on training on emerging models, tools, and services.
Agenda
Details coming soon!
Career-Building and Educational Field Activity
Details coming soon!
Keynote Presentations
Training Tracks
Machine Learning in Hydrology: The ML track will provide hands-on workshop sessions exemplifying ML methods using current CIROH modeling projects seeking to advance the application of ML in operational hydrology. CIROH will provide the CIROH Cloud workspace to ensure environmental stability; workshop leads will provide the material on GitHub and tentatively cover LSTM, XGBoost, and MLP modeling algorithms. Track attendees can expect to leave with greater knowledge of data processing, ML models and their respective applications, training and evaluation procedures, result visualization, and a stronger foundation to apply the workflows to their unique hydrological modeling objectives.
Lead: Ryan C. Johnson, University of Utah
Community NextGen: The “Community NextGen” track will focus on using the Next Generation Water Resources Modeling framework (NextGen) and will give participants hands-on experience with NextGen In A Box (NGIAB), a streamlined deployment solution for NextGen. Workshops will cover the use of tools to quickly prepare NextGen simulations, the TEEHR Evaluation Tool, and the Tethys Data Visualizer. The track will also explore advanced capabilities, including NextGen DataStream, providing insights into building and validating input packages for reproducible modeling workflows. Finally, the track will emphasize opportunities to contribute to the CIROH NextGen datastream, a baseline simulation of CONUS hydrology. Sessions will highlight best practices for community development and collaborative efforts within the NextGen platform.
Leads: Arpita Patel and James Halgren, University of Alabama
Flood Inundation Mapping: The track will provide well-rounded training on Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM), focusing on the operational OWP HAND-FIM framework as well as other FIM models and supporting tools. The workshop lineup and schedule are designed to follow the FIM application and development schema: compilation, evaluation, development, and application. Workshops will include an introduction session, software setup, OWP HAND-FIM and remote sensing application, evaluation against benchmark datasets, dissemination, and tool development.
Lead: Sagy Cohen, University of Alabama
Social Science and Communication Track: The track will focus on 1) sharing the importance and contribution of social science research to flood forecasting and information sharing and 2) enhancing researchers’ ability to effectively communicate and translate their findings to diverse audiences. Participants will explore strategies to align research with audience needs from the outset, ensuring maximum impact and accessibility. Workshops will cover critical skills such as applying cognitive principles to improve how information is interpreted, bridging the gap between complex research findings and public understanding, and tailoring scientific messaging to underserved and vulnerable communities. Attendees will gain practical experience in audience tailoring, inclusive communication strategies, and techniques for simplifying scientific narratives without compromising accuracy. This track is ideal for those looking to expand their reach, foster trust, and create meaningful connections between research and the communities it serves.
Lead: Jill Brown, RTI International
Hydroinformatics and Data Science: The track will include workshops that will train participants on the expanding spectrum of water data science tools and technologies being developed and offered to enhance the research-to-operations initiatives of NOAA and CIROH. Collectively presented under the theme of “hydroinformatics,” the workshops will cover hydrologic data science, collaboration and data sharing through HydroShare, cloud computing using CIROH Cloud resources, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing applications, web applications for National Water Model data visualization and decision support using Tethys Platform and other web technologies, application programming interfaces (APIs) through Google Cloud BigQuery and Amazon Web Services, containerized NextGen Framework through NextGen In A Box (NGIAB), among other related topics.
Lead: Dan Ames, Brigham Young University
Poster and Lightning Talk Presentations
Important Dates
February 8: Registration, abstract submission and workshop signup opens
February 16: Nomination deadline for the Student Developer Award and Early Career Paper Award
March 15: Notifications about the Awards
April 11 – May 6: Hotels’ block reservation closes (see Housing)
May 27: Pre-conference networking activities
May 28 – 30: CIROH Developers Conference
Registration
Details coming soon!
Student Developer Award
Details coming soon!
Venue
Details coming soon!
Organizing Committee
Sagy Cohen – University of Alabama
Dan Ames – Brigham Young University
Jill Brown – RTI International
Ryan Johnson – University of Utah
Arpita Patel – University of Alabama
James Halgren – University of Alabama
Rebecca Diehl – University of Vermont
Beverley Wemple – University of Vermont
Hannah Fischer – University of Vermont
Lanna Nations – University of Alabama
Gabbrielle Steele – University of Alabama