N. Drost

Comment on “Most computational hydrology is not reproducible, so is it really science?” by Christopher Hutton et al.: Let hydrologists learn the latest computer science by working with Research Software Engineers (RSEs) and not reinvent the waterwheel ourselves

The suggestions by Hutton et al. might not be enough to guarantee reproducible computational hydrology. Archiving software code and research data alone will not be enough. We add to the suggestion of Hutton et al. that hydrologists not only document their (computer) work, but that hydrologists use the latest best practices in designing research software, most notably the use of containers and open interfaces. To make sure hydrologists know of these best practices we urge close collaboration with Research Software Engineers (RSEs).

The eWaterCycle project

Water related catastrophes such as floods are putting more and more people at risk. Moreover this has a large economic impact as well. For example, in 2011 a flood in Bangkok wiped out a large number of harddrive manufacturing plants, leading to a global shortage and increase in price for a two year period. We have a decent grasp on forecasting the weather, especially on the short to medium term (a few days to a week). We have no such grasp for flood forecasting, especially not on the global scale.