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Enabling Community Research with the Next Generation National Water Modeling Framework on HydroShare-Linked Computing Platforms


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Created: Nov 03, 2025 at 7:06 p.m. (UTC)
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Abstract

Presentation at AWRA 2025 Annual Water Resources Conference, Westminster, Colorado, November 10, 2025 and Jupyter Notebook and Python files for a Tutorial on NextGen Hydrologic modeling using the CIROH 2i2c JupyterHub Community NextGen hub. https://www.awra.org/Members/Events_and_Education/Events/2025%20Landing%20Pages/01_Annual/Annual2025.aspx

AWRA presentation abstract
This presentation highlights new capabilities for using computing platforms linked to the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) HydroShare hydrologic information system to configure, run, and analyze research-scale applications of the Next Generation National Water Model (NextGen). Developed by NOAA’s Office of Water Prediction, NextGen is a modular, interoperable hydrologic modeling framework that uses standardized interfaces such as the Basic Model Interface (BMI) and the Hy_Features data model for representing hydrologic catchments, flowpaths, and nexuses. Despite its strengths, the complexity of NextGen and its supporting cyberinfrastructure (CI) presents significant barriers to researchers. Configuring the computing environment and setting up input data for a modeling domain can be complex, time-consuming and technically demanding. This presentation will discuss the use of JupyterHub computing platforms linked to HydroShare to address these challenges and support collaborative research. Tools developed by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) have been deployed in a cloud-based JupyterHub environment to streamline model setup, data preparation, execution, and analysis. With this configuration, researchers can define a spatial domain and time period, generate input files, run the model, and analyze outputs, all within a pre-configured cloud environment. Model results can be compared with operational and retrospective outputs from NOAA’s National Water Model and ground-based observations, providing a foundation for evaluation and improvement. Workflows and results are encapsulated in Jupyter Notebooks and shared via HydroShare to promote accessibility, transparency, and reproducibility. By lowering technical barriers, this approach expands community engagement with NextGen, fosters collaborative hydrologic research, and serves as an entry point for research to improve the National Water Model as it adopts the NextGen framework.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
CONUS
North Latitude
49.8040°
East Longitude
-65.4594°
South Latitude
24.6390°
West Longitude
-124.8739°

Content

README.md

Enabling Community Research with the Next Generation National Water Modeling Framework on HydroShare-Linked Computing Platforms

Presentatiohn at AWRA 2025 Annual Water Resources Conference, Westminster, Colorado, November 10, 2025

Tarboton, D., A. Nassar, A. Castronova, A. Patel, F. Baig, H. Salehabadi, M. Abualqumboz, P. Dash and J. Horsburgh, (2025), "Enabling Community Research with the Next Generation National Water Modeling Framework on HydroShare-Linked Computing Platforms," AWRA 2025 Annual Water Resources Conference, Westminster, Colorado, November 10, 2025

📦 Contents

  • Powerpoint Presentation: Tarboton-Hydroshare-AWRA-11-10-25.pptx
  • Tutorial folder with Python code and Jupyter Notebooks to set up, run, and analyze the results from a NextGEN model configured for research over a small watershed using the CIROH-2i2c Jupyterhub Community NextGen hub.

🌊 NextGen Hydrologic Modeling Tutorial

The Tutorial folder holds Python code and Jupyter Notebooks with step-by-step instructions to set up, run, and analyze the results from a NextGEN model configured for research over a small watershed using the CIROH-2i2c Jupyterhub Community NextGen hub.

Jupyter Notebooks

🧭 NextGen_Data_Preparation.ipynb
  • Subsets the hydrofabric dataset, AORC forcings, and sets up the model configuration and realization for CFE and Noah-OWP.
🚀 NextGen_Run.ipynb
  • Executes the NextGen hydrologic model using the default configuration and parameter values.
📊 NextGen_Output_Analysis.ipynb
  • Analyzes and evaluates model output using water balance components.
  • Enables post-processing and visualization of results for interpretation and reporting.

Python Utility Files

Utility File Purpose
forcings_visualization_utils.py Visualization of meteorological forcing data
hydrofabric_visualization_utils.py Visualization of hydrofabric data
ngen_outputs_utils.py Analysis and visualization of model outputs

📘 Steps

  1. Use "Open With" on this resource to Launch the CIROH JupyterHub platform using the CIROH-2i2c Jupyterhub Community NextGen hub configuration. This copies the content of this resource into CIROH JupyterHub.
  2. In the Tutorial folder open and execute (cell by cell) the cells in NextGen_Data_Preparation.ipynb to prepare inputs. This defined the area of interest, subsets the hydrofabric, and generates AORC forcings for the model.
  3. Proceed to NextGen_Run.ipynb to execute the model. This executes the NextGen model using the prepared inputs and default parameters and model formulation.
  4. Finish with NextGen_Output_Analysis.ipynb to analyze and visualize results.

👥 Intended Audience

  • Researchers interested in getting started with NextGen to model watershed behavior and hydrologic processes
  • Practitioners interested in NextGen modeling workflows and their potential operational applications
  • Educators teaching hydrologic modeling and reproducible workflows

🛠️ Preparation

To access CIROH-2i2c JupyterHub you need to request Individual CIROH-2i2c JupyterHub CPU Access at https://docs.ciroh.org/docs/services/access#accessing-ciroh-jupyterhub. This requires a github account.

📦 Dependencies

This resource is set up to work with the CIROH-2i2c JupyterHub CIROH Community NextGen hub configuration. This has the content from NextGen in a Box and NGIAB data preprocess


🙏 Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) with funding under award NA22NWS4320003 from the NOAA Cooperative Institute Program. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NOAA.

Related Resources

The content of this resource references AWRA 2025 Annual Water Resources Conference, Westminster, Colorado, November 10, 2025, https://www.awra.org/Members/Events_and_Education/Events/2025%20Landing%20Pages/01_Annual/Annual2025.aspx
The content of this resource can be executed by Patel, A., B. Lee, N. Minor, M. Singh, A. Castronova (2025). CIROH-2i2c JupyterHub, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/2dd1ac86e8854d4fb9fe5fbafaec2b98

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Alabama CIROH: Enabling collaboration through data and model sharing with CUAHSI HydroShare NA22NWS4320003 to University of Alabama, subaward A23-0266-S001 to Utah State University

How to Cite

Tarboton, D., A. Nassar, A. M. Castronova, A. Patel, F. Baig, H. Salehabadi, M. Abualqumboz, P. Dash, J. S. Horsburgh (2025). Enabling Community Research with the Next Generation National Water Modeling Framework on HydroShare-Linked Computing Platforms, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/0580878f98d548b08923b780e667c396

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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