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The Integrated Water Prediction (IWP) science program within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Resources Mission Area (WMA) focuses on the development of advanced models for forecasting water availability by simulating components of the water cycle and water quality attributes such as temperature, water constituents, and the ecological conditions these attributes produce. The IWP science program also is developing the cyberinfrastructure required to implement national and local-scale models to be used by water resource managers over the decades ahead.
The IWP science program is developing a new approach to hydrologic modeling that incorporates state-of-the-art Earth science and provides the capability necessary to objectively evaluate models. By incorporating leading-edge software design principles in model development, the program can provide timely predictions that can be used by a variety of stakeholders in their decision making.
The IWP team is currently spearheading efforts in three different areas:
Understanding multiscale processes,
Developing hydro-terrestrial Earth systems testbeds, and
Enhancing WMA enterprise capacity.
A comprehensive view of the combined natural and human elements of the water cycle is shown in
Among other objectives, the Integrated Water Prediction science program is developing models and the computational infrastructure needed to characterize and predict multiple facets of the water cycle (modified from
Testbeds will be an integral component of the IWP science program workflow (
Overview of the Integrated Water Prediction science program workflow highlighting the roles of the hydro-terrestrial Earth systems testbed (HyTEST) and enterprise capacity efforts.
Photograph showing USGS supercomputers housed at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. The computational and modeling strengths of the USGS and other Federal agencies will be important for the implementation of the IWP science program. Photograph by Steven M. Young, USGS.
Enterprise capacity also forms a critical step in the IWP workflow (
Development of the IWP modeling ecosystem is driven by stakeholder needs at local to national scales. Early IWP modeling efforts are expected to focus on WMA Integrated Water Science basins including the Delaware, Upper Colorado, Illinois, and Willamette River Basins (
Major hydrologic regions of the continental United States. The Delaware, Upper Colorado, and Illinois River Basins were selected in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively, to serve as Integrated Water Science Basins. The Willamette River Basin was most recently selected for Integrated Water Science implementation in 2022, and additional basins are planned to be added each year through 2028.
Contact information:
Water Resources Mission Area
U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
703–648–5953
For additional information, visit:
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