harmoniqua : harmonising quality assurance in model based catchment and river basin management

HarmoniQuA:Harmonising Quality Assurance in model based

catchment and river basin management

Huub Scholten and Sjoukje Osinga

Wageningen University, Information Technology Group, The Netherlands

July, 2001 HS & SO, CSM2001, Laxenburg 2

Contents

Which problems to solve? State-of-the-art HarmoniQuA Discussion


What kind of problems to solve?

The ‘art’ of modelling Modelling risks:

– wrong model concept (unsound theories, inconsistencies)– implementation errors– numerical errors– no estimates of uncertainties

WFD forces organisations to co-operate in integrated studies:– between EU-countries: methodological differences– between (sub)domains: methodological differences + different

languages


State-of-the-art

Growing interest in QA-issues for Modelling and Simulation (M&S) in water management

Present European initiatives:– The Netherlands:

Good Modelling Practice Handbook for Water Management– Denmark:

Guidelines for Good Practices in Groundwater Modelling– United Kingdom:

Informal Discussions on Model Quality Assurance


The Netherlands: GMP handbook Objectives:

– improving the quality M&S for water management

– making the process reproducible, reconstructable, auditable

How:– by decomposition of the network of processes

– until all steps are straightforward and simple

– and using this decomposition as a definition of the M&S process for water management

– which definition is shared by all stakeholders (client/customer, modeler, user, decision maker, etc.) = ontology

Partners: – Wageningen University, Delft Hydraulics, RIZA, Alterra, TNO and

others for comments


GMP handbook: example

not OK

OK

not OK

determinewhich input

data

define system

determinewhich analysis

data

step 4

makeconceptual

model

choosediscretisation(space + time)

choose amodel program

choosenumericalapproach

implementmodel

verify modelstep 2


Denmark: Good Practice in Groundwater modelling

Establishment of formal guidelines:– groundwater modelling– comprehensive handbook– course material– guidance material

Partners– Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)– Danish Hydraulic Institute– Environmental Protection Agency– regional water authorities

Comments and discussions with other stakeholders


UK: discussions on model QA

Informal discussions on model Quality Assurance topics Involved:

– CEH Wallingford (formerly the Institute of Hydrology)– Environment Agency– Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food– water industry– consultants– academics

Later: more formal basis and involvement of other stakeholders (professional, academics, commercial)


HarmoniQuA:present shortcomings to state-of-the-art

Only national initiatives No tools for storing the steps and choices of the Modelling

& Simulation Process No tools for reporting No dedicated support for different users/stakeholders Hard to update Difficult to disseminate the knowledge on M&S for water

management


HarmoniQuA: new challenges

Technological– Internet– KB-technology– platform / operating system independent

Water Framework Directive– international co-operation on river basin scale management– coupling of models, represented in different formats, belonging to

different domains, including socio-economic (the so-called integrated approach)


HarmoniQuA: the project

EC funded project (start Jan 2002) Workplan:

– 4 years– consortium of 12 partners in 10 countries (all key-players)– aim:

developing infrastructure to help modellers and other stakeholders in all steps of the M&S process for water management

– 2.57 million Euro project (of which 1.65 million Euro will be funded by EC in EESD program)


HarmoniQuA: partners (1)


HarmoniQuA: partners (2)

WU, The Netherlands GEUS, Denmark NTUA, Athens, Greece CEH-Wallingford, UK WL|Delft Hydraulics,The

Netherlands Cemagref, France

BfG, Germany SMHI, Sweden VITUKI Plc, Hungary Uni Dortmund, Germany LNEC, Portugal DHI Hydroinform a.s., Czech

Republic


HarmoniQuA: workpackages (a)

Collecting knowledge on M&S for water management and identifying and filling knowledge gaps– generic part with Do’s and Don’ts– parts specific for each subdomain:

• precipitation runoff models

• hydrodynamic models (incl. sediment and morphology)

• flood forecasting models

• water quality and emission models

• biota models (ecology)

• socio-economical models


HarmoniQuA: workpackages (b)

Design and implementation of a knowledge base and filling it with the knowledge collected in WP1

Developing tools to work with the knowledge base for:– storing/recording the process– reporting to different types of stakeholders (modelers, client,

model users, policy makers, problem owners, concerned members of the public)

– facilitating auditing– structuring negotiations between stakeholders– facilitating re-use of models and/or results– learning from previous projects


HarmoniQuA: workpackages (c)

Testing the tools– 2 series of 10 real life case studies:

• series 1: single subdomain or multi-subdomain• series 2: multi-subdomain or integrated studies (incl. socio-economics)

Dissemination– website for internal and external communication– courses and courseware

• academic• professionals

– dissemination to all stakeholders including concerned members of the public


HarmoniQuA: workpackages (c)

Knowledge on M&Sgeneric + subdomain specific

Knowledge BaseTools to work with KB

Testing tools of WP 2Testing knowledge of WP1

WP 1

WP 2 WP 3

DisseminationCourseware / WebsiteExtension material

WP 4

Academics

Public

Existingknowledge

Experts

Professionals


HarmoniQuA: co-operation Co-operating projects to establish an infrastructure for

M&S in water management to facilitate the implementation of WFD:

– HarmonIT: software to couple various kinds of models

– HarmoniQuA: methodology, guidelines and tools facilitating M&S

– BMW: support in selecting models

– Euroharp: quantification of and guidance to assess N and P losses

– Tisza River Project: comprehensive test case model system of a single catchment

Optimised exchange of information between projects Mutual use of intermediate products in the other projects


Discussion GMP handbook is a start GMP has many shortcomings HarmoniQuA will try to overcome some of these Further:

– NEN-norm: using part I of GMP Handbook

– ISO-norms to be derived from HarmoniQuA???

– HarmoniQuA will co-operate with other projects within EESD 1.1 (tools for model-component selection, for conceptual modelling, etc.)

QA in M&S will benefit from GMP and HarmoniQuA


HarmoniQuA: more information

http://www.info.wau.nl/harmoniqua/

harmoniqua : harmonising quality assurance in model based catchment and river basin management

Documents

quality ms

water managementdenmark

water managementmaking

water managemenths

model qainformal discussions

model quality assurancehs

simulation ms

ms process