GEOframe

In the context of the project “Water Management and Adaptation Based on Watershed Digital Twins” two postdoctoral positions are available at the University of Trento, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering.

Each position has a duration of 16 months, with the possibility of extension up to 24 months. Apply before the: 20.11.2025

The main objective of the project is to enhance the representation of both natural and regulated hydrological systems within watershed digital twins, building on the advanced hydrological and water resource system models developed by partner institutions, including the IHCantabria (Spain), the University of Córdoba, the University of Trento (Italy), Université Grenoble Alpes (France), and the University of Bristol (UK).

Below you can find the specific objectives of the calls and the link for the application

Post-Doc position n.1: Develop and test simplified modeling solutions to represent the groundwater effect within the GEOframe system for a better representation of the hydrological cycle. Evaluate the impact of climate change on the frequency and intensity of extreme events, such as droughts, in a context of competing water uses (hydropower versus agriculture).

Link to the call: here.

Post-Doc position n.2: Develop and test simplified modeling approaches for accurately representing artificial reservoirs within the GEOframe modeling framework. Assess the effectiveness of the proposed solutions and their influence on the simulation of key hydrological processes. Investigate how reservoir operation rules can serve as preventive and adaptive strategies to mitigate the impacts of natural hazards (floods and droughts) under climate change conditions.

Link to the call: here.

Sunday, October 12, 2025

GEOframe Winter School 2026 (GWS2026)

The GEOframe Winter School 2026 will be held at the University of Trento (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering) on the following dates:

December 1-3, 2025
January 7-10, 2026

Preliminary Program:

December 1–3, 2025 (Online via Zoom or onsite):

Software installation
Geomorphological analysis of the basin

January 7–10, 2026 (Onsite):

Kriging-based spatialization of meteorological variables
Energy balance and evapotranspiration estimation
Snow modeling
River runoff simulation
Model calibration and verification

Hands-on seminars will also be offered on the following topics:

Use of satellite data for hydrological applications
Meteorological datasets for hydrological applications (including in situ data, modeled data, real-time, and forecast data)

All lectures and hands-on sessions will be recorded and published on the School’s Vimeo channel, allowing for asynchronous participation. Special arrangements will be made for international participants in different time zones.

Location and Timing

The venue of the winter school is the University of Trento, Polo Mesiano, Room H1.

December 1-3, 2025: Hybrid sessions, available online and onsite
January 7-10, 2026: Onsite sessions, In-person attendance required

Output of the School

The main objective of the GEOframe Winter School is to equip participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to set up and run the GEOframe hydrological modeling system for their own area of interest. By the end of the course, participants will be able to produce spatially distributed estimates of all key components of the water balance, including: Rainfall, Snow accumulation and melt, Evapotranspiration, Runoff, Root-zone soil moisture, and Groundwater levels

Overview of GEOframe

GEOframe is not just a single model but a comprehensive, open-source hydrological modeling system built entirely with open-source tools. It offers a modular and flexible approach to hydrological simulation by leveraging the Object Modelling System v3 (OMS3) to connect a wide variety of modeling components.

The system includes dozens of modeling options, each tailored to represent specific processes of the hydrological cycle across varying spatial and temporal scales—from sub-hourly to yearly resolutions, and from point-scale simulations to large river basins.

Each modeling solution within GEOframe is a carefully selected combination of components optimized to simulate particular hydrological processes, such as: Spatially variable rainfall, Snow dynamics, Energy and water fluxes, Evapotranspiration, Runoff generation and routing, Soil moisture dynamics, and Groundwater flow.

Rather than forcing users to adapt their problem to a rigid model, GEOframe provides the flexibility to tailor the modeling approach to the specific characteristics and needs of the study area.

GEOframe has been successfully applied across a range of scales and contexts, from small experimental catchments to large basins such as the Blue Nile, the Po River Basin (Italy’s largest), and the Adige River Basin. In these regions, GEOframe has been used to produce high-resolution hydrological simulations calibrated and validated with observed data (e.g., discharge).

Contents of the School

GEOframe comprises dozens of modular components covering rainfall-runoff processes, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, terrain analysis, interpolation models, and calibration tools. The Winter School focuses on using a selected set of these tools to perform a comprehensive hydrological budget of catchments.

At its core, the rainfall-runoff modeling in GEOframe is based on dynamical systems, specifically systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The school explores both the theoretical foundations and practical implementation of these models, structured around a 7-step methodology.

In addition to lectures and hands-on sessions, the Winter School also serves as a platform for discussion and knowledge exchange between senior researchers, early-career scientists, and professionals.

Participants’ Background

The Winter School is open to a maximum of 30 participants, including:

PhD students
Postdoctoral researchers
Early-career scientists
Professionals from local authorities

Ideal participants are those interested in deepening their understanding of hydrological processes and learning how to model them using GEOframe tools.

The course will focus on:

Infiltration processes
Energy and water budgets
Vegetation transpiration
Process-based hydrological modeling

Application requirements

All applicants must submit a CV and a motivation letter as part of the registration process.

Workload and Credits

The Winter School will be conducted in English and includes 8 full days of activity, with sessions scheduled from 09:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00 CET.

Participation Costs

Registration is mandatory for all participants. The course fee is €210 for researchers, PhD students, and scientists involving:

A certificate of attendance
Dedicated support on a personal simulation project

Certificates will be issued upon submission of a small simulation project developed with GEOframe, with tutoring provided during and after the School.

Free Participation is granted to:

Students enrolled in Hydrological Modeling courses at the University of Trento
PhD students from the University of Trento (DICAM and C3A programs)
Participants in the PRIN projects: Waterstem, COACH-WAT, and SUNSET
Participants in the project "Studio delle caratteristiche idrologiche del Distretto del fiume Po mediante l’applicazione della modellistica GEOframe"
Members of the Young Hydrologic Society (Italian chapter) and the Società Idrologica Italiana (SII)

Registration

Please register via the official registration form (link to be updated soon). Stay tuned for updates on deadlines and additional details.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

IAHS 2025 Side Event Course Material

Introducing GEOtop and GEOframe:

Open-Source Tools for Hydrological Modelling in Mountain Catchments

Side event

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 17:30-19:30
Room No. APJ AKB-103, APJ Block, IIT Roorkee

This hands-on short course introduces participants to practical use of two open-source hydrological models: GEOtop, a physically-based distributed model for energy and water balance in the soil-snow-vegetation-atmosphere system, and GEOframe, a semi-distributed model, flexible, component-based hydrological modelling system based on the Object Modelling System (OMS v3).

This course will run as a side-event for the upcoming XIIth IAHS Scientific Assembly 2025 to be held in Roorkee, India from October 5-10, 2025. The course is ideal for PhD and Master students, postdoctoral researchers and professionals eager to explore open-source models for hydrological modelling. The course blends theoretical lectures with demonstrations that include model setup (software installation), model execution, and interpretation of outputs through case studies.

Introduction to mountain catchment hydrological modelling

Theory: Slides

GEOframe Hydrological modeling system:

Theory: Slides installation and rainfall-runoff modelling
Practice: project folder of installation and rainfall runoff modelling

GEOtop Hydrological model:

Theory: Slides of the model description and simulations
Practice: project folder of installation and simulations

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

OMS Runner Library: Streamlining Hydrological Model Execution

The OMS Runner Library v1.2.2 represents a significant advancement in hydrological modeling workflow automation, specifically designed to simplify the execution of OMS3 (Object Modeling System) simulations. For hydrologists and water resources engineers working with GEOframe and OMS3, this Python library addresses the seamless integration and execution of simulation models across different computing platforms. What follows assume a lot of knowlege that you can get by looking to some of our Winter Schools or some of our lab classes as Physical Hydrology (in Italian) or Biosphere Atmosphere and Climate Interactions.

What is OMS3?

The Object Modeling System (OMS3) is a Java-based framework widely used in environmental and hydrological modeling. It provides a robust platform for developing, coupling, and executing complex simulation models. However, working with OMS3 often requires dealing with Java classpaths, configuration files, and platform-specific execution commands – tasks that can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially for researchers focused on scientific analysis rather than software engineering.

The Solution: Python Integration

The OMS Runner Library bridges this gap by providing a comprehensive Python interface for OMS3 operations. This is particularly valuable because Python has become the lingua franca of scientific computing, with most hydrologists already familiar with its ecosystem of tools like pandas, matplotlib, and Jupyter notebooks.

The library automatically handles the complexities of Java environment detection, ensuring that Java JDK 11 is properly configured across Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. This cross-platform compatibility is crucial for research teams working in diverse computing environments, from field laptops running Windows to high-performance computing clusters running Linux.

Please find:

Version 1.2.4

The OMS_v_1_2_4.py It contains the methods to configure and execute OMS3 projects
A set of Configuration Getter. Notebooks that demonstrate how to prepare an OMS3 project for the execution of its simulation files.
A set of Runners Notebooks to discover and execute the sim files
A set of utilities Notebooks illustrating some method to debug simulations
The user manual version 1.2.4

Version 1.2.2

Key Capabilities

One of the library's standout features is its intelligent simulation management. It can automatically discover simulation files within a project, maintain configuration databases, and execute models either individually or in sophisticated batch processing workflows. For hydrologists working with multiple scenarios – such as climate change impact assessments or calibration procedures – the parallel execution capabilities can reduce computational time.

The library supports various execution patterns: sequential processing for dependent simulations, parallel execution for independent model runs, and asynchronous background processing for long-running computations. This flexibility allows researchers to optimize their workflows based on available computational resources and modeling requirements.

Practical Applications

In practical hydrological applications, this translates to significant productivity gains. A researcher studying watershed responses to different precipitation scenarios can now set up dozens of model runs with just a few lines of Python code, monitor their progress through Jupyter notebooks, and automatically collect results for analysis. The library's integration with popular Python data analysis tools means results can be immediately processed, visualized, and shared.

Users can explore more about GEOframe's capabilities and latest developments at the GEOframe blog, where detailed tutorials and case studies demonstrate advanced hydrological modeling workflows.

The comprehensive logging and error handling features are particularly valuable in operational hydrology contexts, where model reliability and traceability are paramount. The library maintains detailed execution histories, facilitates debugging, and provides clear diagnostic information when issues arise.