HydroHUB & Other Projects

HydroHUB: Proposed Modeling Infrastructure for the Water Science and Engineering Communities

• What is HydroHUB?

HydroHUB is a website that will improve access to models broadly related to water. Unlike existing model repositories, HydroHUB will permit a user to log in and execute any simulation code interactively through an ordinary web browser. No downloading and installing code. The HydroHUB will have middleware that will even provide transparent access to High Performance Computing resources.

• What models will be available?

The ones you contribute! HydroHUB is a community resource and ultimately relies on contribution of simulation code from the community. The proposed project will seed the site with dozens of widely used codes to get started. The developers of codes such as ModelMuse, MODFLOW, Penn State Integrated Hydrologic Model (PIHM), NETPATH/PHREEQC, UCODE, GEOTOP, and codes available through the International Groundwater Modeling Center (IGWMC) and the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) will also be made available through HydroHUB.

• How do I use it?

Open up a web browser and log into the site. Sample data sets and parameterizations will be included with each model. A "Model Gallery" will contain example problems that have been solved with models contained within HydroHub.

HydroHUB will also be an important teaching resource for introducing students to simulation modeling. The ease of code execution and visualization tools for model output are well suited to development of problem sets and projects.

The nanotechnology community has a web site using the same technology that has been quite successful. Check out www.nanohub.org to explore its features.

• Why do we need another web portal?

HydroHUB can be viewed as a specialized view for model access, execution, and teaching that can access multiple model repositories, It will have tools and an interface focused on these objectives. By contrast, some community systems, such as CSDMS, are focused on model development. We intend to lessen the burden of of submitting to multiple repositories by enabling developers to submit to one system (such as CSDMS) but have the code available in other systems (such as HydroHUB). Similar integration efforts will be pursued with other modeling repositories (see Sidebar).

A recently completed user survey also indicated enthusiasm for the concept of HydroHUB. Read the Survey Results.