ParFlow CONUS2.0
ParFlow CONUS2.0 Model
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Steady state water table depth map for the CONUS2.0 model (Yang et al. 2023)
The ParFlow CONUS2.0 model is the second generation national ParFLow model. It is a significant update from the CONUS1.0 model. Almost every model input field has been improved in some way from the first generation to the second generation model. The new model differs significantly from the CONUS1.0 model in the following ways.
- The spatial extent of the domain was expanded from the original CONUS1 box domain to cover the entire contiguous US and areas draining to it (This expanded the surface area of the domain to 7.8 million square km).
- The number of vertical layers in the model was increased from 5 to 10 and the vertical extent of the model was extended from 102m to 392m.
- The domain is aligned with the US National Water Model and the topography was re-processed match drainage basin areas, proceses local sinks and internally draining basins and to improve the spatial consistency of the stream network (Refer to Zhang et al. (2021)).
- A 3D continental hydrostratigraphic model was developed from scratch to include vertical complexity and a flow barrier was used to enable confined and unconfined aquifers. The final configuration was chosen from 80 possible domains which were tested in two watersheds (Refer to Tijerina-Kreuzer et al. (2023) and Swilley et al. (2023)).
For complete details of the new domain refer to Yang et al. (2023) documentation of the CONUS2.0 steady state simulation. Transient simulations are in progress for the CONUS2.0 domain and will be released here when they are available.
How to get access to the model
The complete model configuration including all input files and run scripts are archived on the HydroData catalog in the conus2_domain dataset.
To access all datasets using the gridded data tools explore the HydroData Catalog.
Use the Subset Tools Package to create your own ParFlow model using the national model as a starting point.
Notebooks using subset tools to build a model from CONUS2:
ParFlow CONUS2.0
Model Development Publications
- Tijerina-Kreuzer, D, JS Swilley, HV Tran, J Zhang, B West, C Yang, LE Condon, and RM Maxwell (2023). Continental Scale Hydrostratigraphy: Basin-Scale Testing of Alternative Data-Driven Approaches. Groundwater. 28 September 2023.
- Swilley, JS, D Tijerina-Kreuzer, HV Tran, J Zhang, C Yang, LE Condon and RM Maxwell (2023). Continental Scale Hydrostratigraphy: Comparing Geologically Informed Data Products to Analytical Solutions. Groundwater. 15 September 2023.
- Zhang, J, LE Condon, H Tran and RM Maxwell (2021). A National topographic dataset for hydrological modeling over the contiguous United States, Earth System Science data. Earth Syst. Sci. Data. 13, 3263–3279.
Steady State Simulation Publications
- Yang, C, DT Tijerina-Kreuzer, HV Tran, LE Condon, and RM Maxwell (2023). A High-Resolution, 3D Groundwater-Surface Water Simulation of the Contiguous US: Advances in the Integrated ParFlow CONUS 2.0 Modeling Platform. Journal of Hydrology. 626: 130294.
Other Publications
- Condon, LE and RM Maxwell (2019). Modified priority flood and global slope enforcement algorithm for topographic processing in physically based hydrologic modeling applications. Computers & Geosciences. 126:73-83.
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