Development of the Community Water Model (CWatM v1.04) – a high-resolution hydrological model for global and regional assessment of integrated water resources management

• Published in: Geoscientific Model Development Vol. 13; no. 7; pp. 3267 - 3298
• Main Authors: Burek, Peter, Satoh, Yusuke, Kahil, Taher, Tang, Ting, Greve, Peter, Smilovic, Mikhail, Guillaumot, Luca, Zhao, Fang, Wada, Yoshihide
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 21-07-2020; European Geosciences Union; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Agricultural management; Agriculture; Analysis; Climate change; Computer simulation; Documentation; Economic models; Economics; Fluid dynamics; Groundwater; Human influences; Hydrologic models; Hydrologic processes; Hydrology; Intercomparison; Lakes; Land use; Linux; Modular structures; Operating systems; Physical simulation; Programming environments; Programming languages; Quality assessment; Regional analysis; Regional development; Reservoirs; Return flow; Sciences of the Universe; Source code; Storage; Water management; Water quality; Water quality models; Water resource management; Water resources; Water resources management; Water use
• ISSN: 1991-9603; 1991-959X; 1991-962X; 1991-9603; 1991-962X; 1991-959X
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-13-3267-2020

We develop a new large-scale hydrological and water resources model, the
Community Water Model (CWatM), which can simulate hydrology both globally
and regionally at different resolutions from 30 arcmin to 30 arcsec at
daily time steps. CWatM is open source in the Python programming environment
and has a modular structure. It uses global, freely available data in the
netCDF4 file format for reading, storage, and production of data in a
compact way. CWatM includes general surface and groundwater hydrological
processes but also takes into account human activities, such as water use
and reservoir regulation, by calculating water demands, water use, and
return flows. Reservoirs and lakes are included in the model scheme. CWatM
is used in the framework of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison
Project (ISIMIP), which compares global model outputs. The flexible model
structure allows for dynamic interaction with hydro-economic and water quality
models for the assessment and evaluation of water management options.
Furthermore, the novelty of CWatM is its combination of state-of-the-art
hydrological modeling, modular programming, an online user manual and
automatic source code documentation, global and regional assessments at
different spatial resolutions, and a potential community to add to, change,
and expand the open-source project. CWatM also strives to build a community
learning environment which is able to freely use an open-source hydrological
model and flexible coupling possibilities to other sectoral models, such as
energy and agriculture.