Implementing the Water, HEat and Transport model in GEOframe (WHETGEO-1D v.1.0): algorithms, informatics, design patterns, open science features, and 1D deployment

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents WHETGEO and its 1D deployment: a new physically based model simulating the water and energy budgets in a soil column. The purpose of this contribution is twofold. First, we discuss the mathematical and numerical issues involved in solving the Richardson–Richards equation, conventionally known as the Richards equation, and the heat equation in heterogeneous soils. In particular, for the Richardson–Richards equation (R2) we take advantage of the nested Newton–Casulli–Zanolli (NCZ) algorithm that ensures the convergence of the numerical solution in any condition. Second, starting from numerical and modelling needs, we present the design of software that is intended to be the first building block of a new customizable land-surface model that is integrated with process-based hydrology. WHETGEO is developed as an open-source code, adopting the object-oriented paradigm and a generic programming approach in order to improve its usability and expandability. WHETGEO is fully integrated into the GEOframe/OMS3 system, allowing the use of the many ancillary tools it provides. Finally, the paper presents the 1D deployment of WHETGEO, WHETGEO-1D, which has been tested against the available analytical solutions presented in the Appendix.

HESS Opinions: Participatory Digital eARth Twin Hydrology systems (DARTHs) for everyone – a blueprint for hydrologists

“…A few books indeed cover the issues for scientific computing, such as Rouson et al (2014) for Fortran 95 and Gardner and Manduchi (2007) for Java. Another step forward can be made by using a certain degree of abstraction in software, as proposed, for instance, by Berti (2000), with examples in C++, and used in Tubini and Rigon (2022), with Java. Abstraction, one of the basic rules of design pattern (i.e., "program to interface and not to objects"), is important in that it allows the software "not to be modified" but "extended", thereby enormously increasing the flexibility of a project and its lifetime.…”

“…identify possible directions and hints, based on more than a decade of experience in deploying hydrological models (Rigon et al, 2006;Formetta et al, 2014;Tubini and Rigon, 2022) and contributing to geographic information system (GIS) developments (e.g., JGrass, uDig and gvSIG);…”

Soil Moisture Sensor Information Enhanced by Statistical Methods in a Reclaimed Water Irrigation Framework

“…Since these models seldom produce analytical solutions (for instance, see [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]), numerical methods and solutions are generally still proposed in the literature, sometimes highlighting features in heterogeneous soils [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], sometimes the proper treatment of nonlinear issues (e.g., [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]) and sometimes elegant techniques for dealing with time or space discretization (e.g., [ 17 , 18 ]). More refined models and software are able to couple moisture content dynamics with the heat equation (as in [ 19 ]). On the other hand, the use of physics-based models requires a deep the knowledge of soil characteristics and significant laboratory efforts for assessing hydraulic parameters (for example, see [ 20 , 21 ]), the measurement of which can be expensive and time-consuming.…”