Land-Water Interoperable Models

This report summarisises the work of the Interoperable Modelling Systems for Integrated Land and Water Management programme. The programme aimed to develop an interoperable modelling system that is suitable for national use in integrated spatial assessment of environmental, production and economic implications of land use and land use change. The project team succeeded in implementing a set of coupled models within an interoperable modelling framework, with application in the Aparima catchment.

Eleven model components covering water quantity, quality, production and economics were set up within a framework (Delta Shell) using established standards for model interfaces (BMI), variable naming (from CSDMS) and various standard file formats. We also attempted to implement Overseer, but could not fully achieve this.

The models were set up for a trial catchment, the Aparima, and assemblies were run successfully within the DeltaShell environment. Model output was able to be displayed within the Delta Shell environment using the visualisation libraries and user interface native to Delta Shell, although some additional code was required. All the model components, apart from Overseer, have been provided as free and open-source components available on a data repository.

Despite these successes, the project team recommends that an alternative coupling approach based on running model components be trialled. Such a system has several advantages over the Windows desktop approach of Delta Shell..