Data Processing Toolset for the Virtual Watershed Project

Abstract

The proposed Data Processing Toolset for the Virtual Watershed Project (DPT-VWP) is a user-centric web application that includes a set of new data processing tools for the NSF EPSCoR-supported Western Consortium for Water Analysis, Visualization and Exploration (WC-WAVE) project. The application includes an information section presenting an overview of the DPT-VWP, a tool selection section providing data processing tools, a tool request section enabling the user to request for a new tool to the developers, and a feedback section, where the users can submit their feedbacks and/or suggestions regarding the tools available in DPT-VWP. The tool selection section provides tools that convert input and output files of the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) model from text format into NetCDF format. The files are converted into NetCDF format for visualization purposes. There also exists tools that convert NetCDF format files back to text format. The text format files are required to run the PRMS model. The other tools available in the tool selection section can download the datasets of watersheds available from the Geographic Storage, Transformation and Retrieval Engine (GSToRE) and visualize the files in CSV format on a bar chart.The thesis presents background on the WC-WAVE project, Ground-water and Surface-water FLOW (GSFLOW) model and data processing, outlines the specification and the requirements of the DPT-VWP, presents the application’s design and implementation, and provides details of DPT-VWP’s evaluation performed by peer software developers. It also contains a comparison with related work and provides several suggestions for future work.