Norm Jones

A cloud-based MODFLOW service for aquifer management decision support

A framework to publish simplified MODFLOW groundwater modeling capabilities to a web interface for use by water managers and stakeholders is presented. Numerical modeling simulations can assist aquifer management decisions, but the amount of time and professional expertise required to wield modern groundwater models often exceeds the resources of regulating agencies – even for simple modeling tasks that are repetitive in nature. The framework is capable of automating such modeling tasks, accepting user input, executing MODFLOW, and generating specialized results including maps and modeling reports. This framework was used to build a pilot system for an aquifer in central Utah, allowing a user to simulate the effects of proposed well diversions. This prototype system allows a user to input properties for any number of candidate wells, execute an associated MODFLOW model, and view drawdown contours and regions of decreased spring flow on a web map interface. The modeling analysis is cast into a geoprocessing workflow using ArcGIS and Arc Hydro Groundwater tools, and then made accessible from a server. Such automated and accessible modeling systems have promising potential to facilitate efficient groundwater resources management and reduce modeling errors.

Cyberinfrastructure and Web Apps for Managing and Disseminating the National Water Model

Hydrologic modeling can be used to provide warnings before, and to support operations during and after floods. Recent technological advances have increased our ability to create hydrologic models over large areas. In the United States (U.S.), a new National Water Model (NWM) that generates hydrologic variables at a national scale was released in August 2016. This model represents a substantial step forward in our ability to predict hydrologic events in a consistent fashion across the entire U.S. Nevertheless, for these hydrologic results to be effectively communicated, they need to be put in context and be presented in a way that is straightforward and facilitates management-related decisions. The large amounts of data produced by the NWM present one of the major challenges to fulfill this goal. We created a cyberinfrastructure to store NWM results, “accessibility” web applications to retrieve NWM results, and a REST API to access NWM results programmatically. To demonstrate the utility of this cyberinfrastructure, we created additional web apps that illustrate how to use our REST API and communicate hydrologic forecasts with the aid of dynamic flood maps. This work offers a starting point for the development of a more comprehensive toolset to validate the NWM while also improving the ability to access and visualize NWM forecasts, and develop additional national-scale-derived products such as flood maps. (KEY TERMS: data management; cyberinfrastructure; hydrologic modeling; data visualization; flooding; decision support systems.) Souffront Alcantara, Michael A., Christian Kesler, Michael J. Stealey, E. James Nelson, Daniel P. Ames, and Norm L. Jones, 2018. Cyberinfrastructure and Web Apps for Managing and Disseminating the National Water Model. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 54 (4): 859–871. https://doi.org/10.1111/ 1752-1688.12608