Developing Tools and a Graphical User Interface for the Regional Simulation Model

The South Florida Water Management District (DISTRICT) is responsible for the operation and management of the Central & South Florida (C&SF) system of canals, structures, pump stations, dikes, and levees in order to balance the needs for flood control, water supply, agriculture, and environmental protection. Hydrologic simulation models are used for analysis of the performance of the hydrologic system. At the regional scale (several counties in size), the DISTRICT has been developing a new, generic model, called the Regional Simulation Model (RSM). RSM is a finite volume code, based on an irregular mesh of triangles. It is an object-oriented design, implemented in C++ and makes use of a variety of commonly available file formats, including NetCDF and HEC-DSS. RSM has two major components: HSE (Hydrologic Simulation Engine) and MSE (Management Simulation Engine). HSE is responsible for simulating the natural movement of water through overland flow, groundwater flow, and in canals and other conveyances, while MSE simulates the management decision process, using operational rules. This paper discusses how the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the RSM was conceived and developed as a software project using standard project management principles. The GUI has been developed for the RSM, incorporating a collection of tools used to generate documented input files. It provides a streamlined workflow for users of the RSM and automates documentation of the modeling scenarios. It also provides an interface to run the model and provides a collection of tools to post-process output from the model. The GUI uses a combination of a geodatabase, custom geographic information system (GIS) applications and Python applications. The highly detailed geodatabase represents the complex physical hydrologic water features and relationships that are simulated in the RSM. Examination of these elements in the GUI and the resulting files offer a look into the model and the new approach being taken to solve real world problems. When fully developed, the RSM and accompanying GIS tools are expected to be one of the primary DISTRICT modeling platforms for the next decade.