Distributed memory parallel groundwater modeling for the Netherlands Hydrological Instrument. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Verkaik, J.; Hughes, J.D.; van Walsum, P.E.V.; Oude Essink, G.H.P.; Lin, H.X.; Bierkens, M.F.P.
• Is Part Of: Environmental modelling & software. Volume 143(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Parallel computing -- Distributed memory -- Netherlands Hydrological Instrument -- Groundwater -- Numerical modeling -- Integrated modeling; Environmental monitoring -- Computer programs -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Computer simulation -- Periodicals; Digital computer simulation -- Periodicals; Computer software -- Periodicals; Environmental Monitoring -- Periodicals; Computer Simulation -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Surveillance -- Logiciels -- Périodiques; Écologie -- Simulation, Méthodes de -- Périodiques; Simulation par ordinateur -- Périodiques; Logiciels -- Périodiques; Computer software; Digital computer simulation; Ecology -- Computer simulation; Environmental monitoring -- Computer programs; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.70015118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105092
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-8152

Abstract

Abstract: Worldwide, billions of people rely on fresh groundwater reserves for their domestic, agricultural and industrial water use. Extreme droughts and excessive groundwater pumping put pressure on water authorities in maintaining sustainable water usage. High-resolution integrated models are valuable assets in supporting them. The Netherlands Hydrological Instrument (NHI) provides the Dutch water authorities with open source modeling software and data. However, NHI integrated groundwater models often require long run times and large memory usage, therefore strongly limiting their application. As a solution, we present a distributed memory parallelization, focusing on the National Hydrological Model. Depending on the level of integration, we show that significant speedups can be obtained up to two orders of magnitude. As far as we know, this is the first reported integrated groundwater parallelization of an operational hydrological model used for national-scale integrated water management and policy making. The parallel model code and data are freely available.