Developing community infrastructure for hydrologic modeling

Abstract

Third Workshop on the Community Hydrologic Modeling Platform (CHyMP): A Strategic and Implementation Plan; Irvine, California, 15–17 March 2011; The objective of the Community Hydrologic Modeling Platform (CHyMP), a grassroots effort begun in 2008, is to build the cyberinfrastructure and human infrastructure for community‐driven, integrated model development and comprehensive data set compilation, as well as a framework for model distribution, high‐performance computing access, and technical support. CHyMP recognizes that it is difficult to evaluate and access many existing hydrologic models and the data needed to calibrate them, and these shortcomings impede scientific progress. The third CHyMP workshop, “A Strategic and Implementation Plan,” funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling, brought together more than 30 participants from universities, government agencies, and the private sector to focus on defining steps to begin implementing CHyMP. Participants discussed four aspects critical to community modeling: the data required, the need for benchmarking and intercomparison exercises, the importance of evaluating platforms for such exercises, and the vision of a national water modeling framework.