scholarly journals Notebook for retrieval of National Water Model Retrospective run results at SNOTEL sites

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Model ◽  
National Water

scholarly journals General Assessment of the Operational Utility of National Water Model Reservoir Inflows for the Bureau of Reclamation Facilities

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2897
Author(s):  
Francesca Viterbo ◽  
Laura Read ◽  
Kenneth Nowak ◽  
Andrew W. Wood ◽  
David Gochis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Model ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Bureau Of Reclamation ◽  
Hydrologic Processes ◽  
One Year ◽  
Inflow Performance ◽  
Basin Area ◽  
National Water ◽  
Total Inflow

This work investigates the utility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Model (NWM) for water management operations by assessing the total inflow into a select number of reservoirs across the Central and Western U.S. Total inflow is generally an unmeasured quantity, though critically important for anticipating both floods and shortages in supply over a short-term (hourly) to sub-seasonal (monthly) time horizon. The NWM offers such information at over 5000 reservoirs across the U.S., however, its skill at representing inflow processes is largely unknown. The goal of this work is to understand the drivers for both well performing and poor performing NWM inflows such that managers can get a sense of the capability of NWM to capture natural hydrologic processes and in some cases, the effects of upstream management. We analyzed the inflows for a subset of Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) reservoirs within the NWM over the long-term simulations (retrospectively, seven years) and for short, medium and long-range operational forecast cycles over a one-year period. We utilize ancillary reservoir characteristics (e.g., physical and operational) to explain variation in inflow performance across the selected reservoirs. In general, we find that NWM inflows in snow-driven basins outperform those in rain-driven, and that assimilated basin area, upstream management, and calibrated basin area all influence the NWM’s ability to reproduce daily reservoir inflows. The final outcome of this work proposes a framework for how the NWM reservoir inflows can be useful for reservoir management, linking reservoir purposes with the forecast cycles and retrospective simulations.

scholarly journals Modeling Streamflow Enhanced by Precipitation from Atmospheric River Using the NOAA National Water Model: A Case Study of the Russian River Basin for February 2004

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heechan Han ◽  
Jungho Kim ◽  
V. Chandrasekar ◽  
Jeongho Choi ◽  
Sanghun Lim
Keyword(s):  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Soil Water Content ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Atmospheric River ◽  
Russian River ◽  
National Water

This study aims to address hydrological processes and impacts of an atmospheric river (AR) event that occurred during 15–18 February 2004 in the Russian River basin in California. The National Water Model (NWM), a fully distributed hydrologic model, was used to evaluate the hydrological processes including soil moisture flux, overland flow, and streamflow. Observed streamflow and volumetric soil water content data were used to evaluate the performance of the NWM using various error metrics. The simulation results showed that this AR event (15–18 February 2004) with a long duration of precipitation could cause not only deep soil saturation, but also high direct runoff depth. Taken together, the analysis revealed the complex interaction between precipitation and land surface response to the AR event. The results emphasize the significance of a change of water contents in various soil layers and suggest that soil water content monitoring could aid in improving flood forecasting accuracy caused by the extreme events such as the AR.

scholarly journals Featured Collection Introduction: National Water Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sagy Cohen ◽  
Sarah Praskievicz ◽  
David R. Maidment
Keyword(s):  
Water Model ◽  
National Water

scholarly journals A Comparison of National Water Model Retrospective Analysis Snow Outputs at SNOTEL Sites Across the Western U.S.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Garousi-Nejad ◽  
David Tarboton
Keyword(s):  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Central Basin ◽  
Model Errors ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Snow Covered Area ◽  
Covered Area ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
The U.S ◽  
National Water

This study compares the U.S. National Water Model (NWM) reanalysis snow outputs to observed snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow-covered area fraction (SCAF) at SNOTEL sites across the Western U.S. This was done to evaluate and identify opportunities for improving the modeling of snow in the NWM. SWE was obtained from SNOTEL sites, while SCAF was obtained from MODIS observations at a nominal 500 m grid scale. Retrospective NWM results were at a 1000 m grid scale. We compared results for SNOTEL sites to gridded NWM and MODIS outputs for the grid cells encompassing each SNOTEL site. Differences between modeled and observed SWE were attributed to both model errors, as well as errors in inputs, notably precipitation and temperature. The NWM generally under-predicted SWE, partly due to precipitation input differences. There was also a slight general bias for model input temperature to be cooler than observed, counter to the direction expected to lead to under-modeling of SWE. There was also under-modeling of SWE for a subset of sites where precipitation inputs were good. Furthermore, the NWM generally tends to melt snow early. There was considerable variability between modeled and observed SCAF that hampered useful interpretation of these comparisons. This is in part due to the model grid SCAF essentially being binary (snow or no snow) while observations from MODIS are much more fractional. However, when SCAF was aggregated across all sites and years, modeled SCAF tended to be more than observed using MODIS. These differences are regional with generally better SWE and SCAF results in the Central Basin and Range and differences tending to become larger the further away regions are from this region. These findings identify areas where predictions from the NWM involving snow may be better or worse, and suggest opportunities for research directed towards model improvements.

scholarly journals A Multiscale, Hydrometeorological Forecast Evaluation of National Water Model Forecasts of the May 2018 Ellicott City, Maryland, Flood

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Viterbo ◽  
Kelly Mahoney ◽  
Laura Read ◽  
Fernando Salas ◽  
Bradford Bates ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flash Flood ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Extreme Rainfall ◽  
Precipitation Forecast ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Extreme Rainfall Event ◽  
Flood Prediction ◽  
Streamflow Forecasts ◽  
Atmospheric Forcings ◽  
National Water

AbstractThe NOAA National Water Model (NWM) became operational in August 2016, producing the first ever real-time, distributed, continuous set of hydrologic forecasts over the continental United States (CONUS). This project uses integrated hydrometeorological assessment methods to investigate the utility of the NWM to predict catastrophic flooding associated with an extreme rainfall event that occurred in Ellicott City, Maryland, on 27–28 May 2018. Short-range forecasts (0–18-h lead time) from the NWM version 1.2 are explored, focusing on the quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) forcing from the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model and the corresponding NWM streamflow forecast. A comprehensive assessment of multiscale hydrometeorological processes are considered using a combination of object-based, grid-based, and hydrologic point-based verification. Results highlight the benefits and risks of using a distributed hydrologic modeling tool such as the NWM to connect operational CONUS-scale atmospheric forcings to local impact predictions. For the Ellicott City event, reasonably skillful QPF in several HRRR model forecast cycles produced NWM streamflow forecasts in the small Ellicott City basin that were suggestive of flash flood potential. In larger surrounding basins, the NWM streamflow response was more complex, and errors were found to be governed by both hydrologic process representation, as well as forcing errors. The integrated, hydrometeorological multiscale analysis method demonstrated here guides both research and ongoing model development efforts, along with providing user education and engagement to ultimately engender improved flash flood prediction.

Using Steady‐State Backwater Analysis to Predict Inundated Area from National Water Model Streamflow Simulations

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 940-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apoorva Shastry ◽  
Ryan Egbert ◽  
Fernando Aristizabal ◽  
Cehong Luo ◽  
Cheng‐Wei Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Water Model ◽  
National Water

scholarly journals An integrated evaluation of the National Water Model (NWM)–Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) flood mapping methodology

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2405-2420 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Michael Johnson ◽  
Dinuke Munasinghe ◽  
Damilola Eyelade ◽  
Sagy Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Absolute Error ◽  
Low Complexity ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Flood Mapping ◽  
Roughness Coefficient ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Inundation Maps ◽  
Elevation Data ◽  
High Level ◽  
National Water

Abstract. Flood maps are needed for emergency response, research, and planning. The Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) technique is a low-complexity, terrain-based approach for inundation mapping using elevation data, discharge–height relationships, and streamflow inputs. The recent operational capacities of the NOAA National Water Model (NWM) and preprocessed HAND products from the University of Texas offer an operational framework for real-time and forecast flood guidance across the US. In this study, we evaluate the integrated National Water Model –Height Above Nearest Drainage (NWM–HAND) flood mapping approach using 28 remotely sensed inundation maps and 54 reach-level catchments. The results show the NWM–HAND method tends to underpredict inundated cells in 4th-order and lower-order reaches but does better with a slight tendency to overpredict in high-order reaches. An evaluation of the roughness coefficient used in the production of synthetic rating curves suggests it is the most important parameter for correcting these errors. Persistent inaccuracies do occur when NWM streamflow predictions are substantially biased (>60 % mean absolute error between NWM and observed streamflow) and in regions of low relief. Overall, the NWM–HAND method does not accurately capture inundated cells but is quite capable of highlighting regions likely to be at risk in 4th-order streams and higher. While NWM–HAND should be used with caution when identifying flood boundaries or making decisions of whether a cell is dry or wet, its applicability as a high-level guidance tool along larger rivers is noteworthy.

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