The first Summer Institute, originally called the National; Flood Interoperability Experiment (NFIE), was held in 2015, and focused on the formation of a prototype National Water Model running in the Texas Advances Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The prototype model demonstrated that the discharge on 2.7 million stream reaches of the U.S. could be simulated and forecast in near real-time using input precipitations and weather information produced by NOAA and a computational framework called WRF-Hydro developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The key innovation demonstrated at the first Summer Institute was a hybrid grid-catchment information framework for the National Water Model in which the land-atmosphere computations were carried out on square grid cells covering the continental U.S., and the resulting runoff was geographically transformed onto the 2.7 million catchments of the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) and routed through the NHDPlus stream network. It was demonstrated that the continental stream network could be treated as a single flow continuum, from atmosphere to oceans and from coast to coast.
2015 - The first Summer Institute, called the National Flood Interoperability Experiment, resulted in the development of a National Water Model prototype.
2016 - The HAND (Height Above Nearest Drainage) method was coupled with the newly operational; National Water Model to establish, for the first time, the foundation for continuous near real-time flood inundation mapping across the United States.
2017 - The third Summer Institute explored how the National Water Model can serve as a bridge between data generators (traditionally modelers who want to ensure the data are as accurate as possible) and data users (those who use data to communicate, plan, and respond), resulting in an unprecedented opportunity to improve the way that water information is exchanged and communicated. View the 2017 technical report.
2018 - The fourth Summer Institute focused on the underlying science of the National Water Model through investigation of National Water Model hydrologic process algorithms, particularly related to the representation of groundwater and river channel processes, as well as modeling at very fine scales. View the 2018 technical report.
2019 - The fifth Summer Institute focused on the themes of Coupled Inland-Coastal Hydraulics, Scaling of Hydrologic Processes, and Hydroinformatics. View the 2019 technical report.
2020 - The 2020 SI was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 – The 2021 Summer Institute was the first SI to be held virtually. Fourteen SI fellows in 4 teams completed projects relating to Hydroinformatics, Coastal Coupling, Module Development for the Next Generation National Water Model, and Machine Learning. The 2021 technical report is coming soon.
Participant Feedback
The Summer Institute has been described by participants as a transformative experience.
The Summer Institute is an invaluable opportunity for beginning-career hydrologists. I cannot overstate the amount I learned, the increase of confidence in my abilities, introduction to new concepts and methods, and the relationships that I formed during the SI. It is an experience that has made me feel like I am more posed to have an integral contribution to the hydrologic community and has given me direction in my studies and research. I won't forget my experience at the SI for a long time to come. - 2017 Summer Institute Fellow
- Take a look at the Story Map describing the experiences of the 2016 Summer Institute Fellows.
- Watch the short video created by the 2016 Summer Institute Fellows
