Component-Based Modeling of Watershed Systems

Component-based modeling offers an attractive approach for constructing next generation watershed models. In component-based modeling, a complex system is represented as a series of loosely-integrated components with defined interfaces and data exchanges. Because components are loosely-integrated, it is possible for modelers to change how components are linked together within a "plug-and-play" environment. Component-based modeling is attractive for modeling watershed systems because watersheds are complex systems, and modeling such systems often requires the integration of data and models created and maintained by different groups. Component-based modeling allows for the integration of these disparate data and model resources, while still allowing each group to maintain and advance their own parts of the overall system. Although the component-based paradigm has been used to construct many software systems, it has only recently been applied for modeling watershed systems. Thus, in order to leverage this approach for modeling watersheds, important questions must first be addressed such as how watersheds should be decomposed into system components. In this paper we begin with a vision for component-based modeling, then focus on an experiment that seeks to understand how boundary condition data are exchanged between fully-coupled model components, and finally discuss future work needed to advance the use of component-based modeling of watershed systems.