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Interoperable Models for Land and Water in New Zealand

This programme aims to develop a modelling system populated with models which draws on national datasets and is implemented in an interoperable modelling framework. This modelling system will be used nationally for integrated and spatial assessment of economic, production and environmental implications of land use and land use change. Uses of the system will include assessment and accounting of productivity potential and water quality contaminant dynamics at farm and catchment scales.

This is a collaborative project with support from the following organisations:

• Our Land and Water National Science Challenge (cornerstone funding)

• National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (project lead)

• Landcare Research

• AgResearch

• DairyNZ

• Plant and Food Research

• Geological and Nuclear Sciences

• Scion

• Victoria University

• Ministry for the Environment (operational support)

• Regional Councils, through Envirolink

The programme's aim is to link together existing computer models, using established framework systems. The outermost layer of the integrated model system -- the thing that users will operate -- is the Delta Shell environment, an open source project of Deltares. Models can be integrated into a Delta Shell application either as plugins that interact directly with Delta Shell through the API defined by Deltares or by using the Basic Model Interface (BMI) defined by the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS).

This GitHub repository houses examples and work-in-progress for the tools developed for the shared use of the participants in the programme.