pyflowline: a mesh-independent river network generator for hydrologic models

Journal Article · Tue Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Journal of Open Source Software

DOI:https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05446· OSTI ID:2205585

Liao, Chang  ^[1]; Cooper, Matt G.  ^[1]

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1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

River networks are crucial in hydrologic and Earth system models. Accurately representing river networks in spatially distributed hydrologic models requires considering the model's spatial discretization and computational mesh. However, current methods of generating river networks for hydrologic models do not typically support unstructured meshes. Unstructured meshes offer numerous advantages over traditional, structured meshes. To overcome this limitation, we developed PyFlowline, a Python package that generates mesh-independent river networks. With PyFlowline, hydrologic modelers can generate conceptual river networks and their topological relationships for both structured and unstructured meshes.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 2205585
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-183741
• Journal Information: Journal of Open Source Software, Vol. 8, Issue 91; ISSN 2475-9066
• Publisher: Open Source Initiative - NumFOCUS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Python
hydrologic model
river networks
mesh
geographic information system
Hydrology
flow routing
earth system model