The Hydrologic Modeling Inventory: A Cooperative Research Effort

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Research program (Reclamation), with cooperation from a number of federal and state agencies, universities and private entities is developing a website for generally applicable models which can be used for watershed precipitation and runoff analyses, reservoir and river systems operations, water requirements and related hydrologic analyses. This website builds on, expands and updates the 1991 inventory developed by Reclamation. It is anticipated that the website will contain concise summaries with information on each model which will be helpful to potential users in determining which model they should use for their work and how they can acquire these models. The first goal of the model inventory effort is to provide water resource managers, local officials, stakeholders, model developers and the general public with a forum in which the latest modeling and decision support tools may be shared. A second goal of the inventory is to facilitate communication and exchanges of information not traditionally possible through literature, journal articles, conference proceedings and technical reports. The exchanges and communications include developer and user community interactions, interactions between all levels of governmental organizations (federal, state, regional, local, etc.) and between different enterprise models of business (public, university and private, etc.). The shared contact points between these communities (telephone, fax, mail, etc.), particularly the internet resources (email, ftp, and web pages) should increase the flow of information and feedback between different parties. Improved communication facilitated by the on-line inventory should increase the opportunity for awareness, interaction and dialog. The access to information is no longer burdened by barriers in communication. A third goal for the inventory is to provide a summarized discussion forum for the modeling community.