SC5.12/HS11.5 at vEGU - Introduction to Hydrological Modelling with the GEOframe system - April 2021 9:00 to 10:00 CET

You can find the session at this vGU link.

Contributors: Riccardo Rigon, Giuseppe Formetta, Marialaura Bancheri, Michele Bottazzi, Niccolò Tubini, Concetta D'Amato, Shima Azimi, Christian  Massari, Silvia Barbetta.

GEOframe is a system for doing hydrology by computer . It is based on the OMS3/CSIP infrastructure, developed by USDA- ARS/Colorado State University. OMS3/CSIP allows to build models by components, which perform simple task andcan be joined together to build “Modelling Solutions”, suited to particular case studies. Components developed so far cover: 

• meteorological data interpolation (Bancheri et al., 2018);
• terrain analysis (Abera et al., 2014, please see also the recent Horton Machine Toolbox);
• calibration tools (Formetta et al., 2011; Formetta et al., 2014);
• rainfall-runoff models (Bancheri et al., 2020; Formetta et al., 2014);
• and runoff propagation;
• evaporation and transpiration models (Bottazzi, 2020; Bottazzi, 2021);
• snow models (Formetta et al., 2014);
• Richards’ equations solvers in WHETGEO model (paper for GM in preparation, but you can give a look to Github for it);
• Freezing soil (without water flow), Tubini et al. 2021;

The modelling solution components are executed in parallel by the OMS3/CSIP engine. Besides, a further parallelization is made thanks to the spatial discretisation of the catchments in hydrological response units. GEOframe has been applied to catchments from few thousands of square meters to two hundred thousand square kilometers, and it is also used for operational forecasting in the Basilicata region in Italy.

The short course introduces the system using some case studies already prepared and show how to join components, set the parameters, run the calibration and obtain results. The course will be based on the material already prepared for various Winter Schools on the topic, which allows the participants to use independently the system.

The material provided at the vEGU session is the following:

• A very short introduction to OMS3 and GEOframe
• The working environment of OMS3 (and GEOframe)
• The simulation (.sim) files
• The Example Dataset

• Other material to come (Work in Progress)

For installations, please refer to the Winter School page here. 

Fair usage of GEOframe

 GEOframe is getting some momentum and various people wants to use it but they are maybe concern with co-authorship in the resulting works. To clarify some points, here it is an etiquette.

• The material we share with you can enable you to work in complete autonomy from us. In this case we do not require any co-authorship, as well as for minor help that will give with unselfishness. Citations of our work in appropriate manner will be required though.
• If the analysis involves modifications of the codes that requires common efforts, we will see how much will be our involvement and who will be involved. Our policy is to try to maintain the group of Authors in papers low but there could be exceptions. A fair approach is to include in papers who does fundamental work, i.e. work without which the research could not have been accomplished.
• Our code is open source and developed with open source tools. For the analysis of data and results we use open source tools. Potentially if you have a Java programmer, in your team, you can do the modifications of the code by yourself. Besides citations, etiquette would require that changes and addition to our code would be committed back to the community.
• Changes to our classes or methods do not imply that the original programmers of the code can be deprived of their authorship. The source code is copylefted but this does not mean "without authors". When substantial modifications are made, the Authors of the modifications can add their name to the Author list, but not eliminate previous Authors.  The code I modified is not "my code" but a code that has a history that needs to be maintained.  GEOframe source code plagiarism, in fact,  is defined as copying or reproducing source code without  mentioning  the original creators. That includes adapting the code minimally, moderately or including consistent fragments of the original author's code in your own code.
• A new GEOframe contribution is a new Java class, a new subroutine, whose contents are written entirely from zero without following schemes or algorithms already used in GEOframe for the same scope. By norm, algorithm origin should be cited too. 
• We can teach you how to do by yourself the modification of the codes.  We usually do for free, but help from us is not mandatory. We do with the perspective of improving our tools, improving the quality of our analysis and increasing the number of our users. 
• The preferable way to act when  modifying our codes is to branch it, modify it, and then issue a pull request to the maintainer of the main branch, with the scope to commit back the changes.
• New contributions, i.e. classes made from the scratch are welcomed. Only the authorized developers can add them to the main GEOframe components repository but being admitted is not that difficult. New developers are welcomed. 

For other complementary details we also wrote the GEOframe community publication policy

AdBPo GEOframe short course (18-02-2021): Modelling rainfall-runoff (and more)

 Now it is arrived the moment to talk about the traditional rainfall-runoff modelling. At first it looks like the usual soup. However the difference is the same that exists from a contemporary electric, auto-piloted car and the good-old Ford T. 

The pivot of all is, obviously, the informatics of OMS3 and of the today hardwares, that allow for multiple solutions and many degree of accuracy and investigation capabilities that were not allowed in the past. Nevertheless some new conceptual tools and theoretical contents emerged that also make the difference. 

Here the slides:

• Some possible GEOframe configurations. (Vimeo 2021 Italian)
• Additions and Variations (Vimeo 2021 Italian)
• Some simplified snow models (Vimeo 2021 Italian)
• Running the rainfall-runoff models in GEOframe
• Calibrating the rainfall-runoff models in GEOframe

More complete material (in English, can be found here and here)

The previous talk

The first talk

AdBPo GEOframe short course (17-02-2021): The kriging interpolation of meteorological data

 This is a short overview of what can be done within the GEOframe system for spatially interpolating meteorological data GEOframe.  

The main reference for these topics remains the longer talks given at the GWS2021 or (for the Italian speaking, what said for the class of Hydrological modelling). 

The slides of the day are available here. 

The exercise of the day are available here.

The video of the talk can be found here on Vimeo (in Italian)

Again on estimating hydro-meteo variables with Kriging. 

A more extensive treatment of the matter can be found here. 

The next talk

The previous talk

The first talk

AdBPo GEOframe short course (17-02-2021): The Energy Budget and Evapotranspiration

 This is a short overview of what can be done within the GEOframe system for estimating Evapotranspiration using GEOframe-Prospero.  The main reference for these topics remains the longer talks given at the GWS2021 or (for the Italian speaking, what said for the class of Hydrology). 

The slides:

• The Energy budget in short (Vimeo 2021 in Italian)
• The Evapotranspiration solutions (Vimeo 2021 in Italian)

Only for the brave (who has also performed the installations): 

• The code to run (and the Jupyter notebooks)

A more extensive treatment of the matter can be found here. 

The next talk

The previous talk

The first talk

AdBPo GEOframe short course (16-02-2021): Geomorphological analysis

Geomorphological analysis of a watershed finalized to the setting of the GEOframe hydrological model.

The class is organized in two parts:

1) Theory: Introduction to the digital watershed;  extraction and analysis of the main geomorphological features (slope, aspect, flow direction, basin); hillslope-link partition of the watershed. The slides of the class can be downloaded here 

2) Exercises: hands on a practical test case to apply all steps analyzed in the theoretical part. 

The test case can be downloaded here.

The Vimeo 2021 Video in Italian of the talk. And its continuation, also on Vimeo (and in Italian)

More extensive material can be found here. 

The previous GEOframe overview talk.

The next GEOframe overview talk.

AdBPo GEOframe short course (16-02-2021): Introduction to GEOframe overview

This is a short overview of the GEOframe System.  The overview has slides in English but the talk will be in Italian. For English speaker, please refer directly to the material of the Winter School 2021. 

The material contains:

• Prerequisite of the design of the GEOframe System (VIMEO 2021 Video in Italian)
• Short Intro to the Object Modelling System v3 and to GEOframe (VIMEO 2021 Video in Italian)
• The OMS3 working environment (VIMEO 2021 Video in Italian)
• The .sim files (VIMEO 2021 Video in Italian)

More detailed material (in English) is at the GEOframe Essentials Summary here, while specific parts for the .sim files extensions necessary to manage the Net3 environment are here:

• About the .sim files fields to run Net3
• VIMEO2021
• A video that helps to create ERM .sim files

Next seminar of the GEOframe Overview