TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) proudly announces NextGen In A Box (NGIAB), a transformative solution for hydrological modeling. Until now, cutting-edge hydrological modeling has been locked behind technical barriers. NextGen In A Box (NGIAB) solves those challenges, bringing sophisticated water modeling to everyone from local communities to top-tier researchers.
A Leap Forward in Hydrological Modeling
Until now, customizing or localizing the U.S. National Water Model (NWM) required specialized expertise, extensive hardware and challenging manual setup. NGIAB changes that—simplifying the entire process into a user-friendly solution. NGIAB packages the NextGen Water Modeling Framework into a single, easy-to-use software environment, removing technical barriers and allowing users to configure, run and modify localized water models effortlessly.
Advancements Unlocked by NGIAB
NGIAB equips researchers, academic institutions and government agencies with tools to:
- Provide geospatial and time series visualization capabilities for catchments and nexus points
- Automate data preprocessing, modeling and visualization
- Leverage powerful cloud and high-performance computing (HPC) systems
- Real-time data ingestion, large-scale analytical model execution and iterative simulations
NGIAB’s continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline ensures rapid development cycles while maintaining reliability, facilitating seamless upgrades and integration into the NextGen framework. Ultimately, NGIAB promotes efficient research-to-operations and operations-to-research pathways for the NextGen Framework, empowering a wider range of researchers and practitioners to contribute to advancements in hydrological modeling.
Real-World Impact
NGIAB has already demonstrated its value in case studies like the Provo River Basin in Utah, where researchers validated model performance at a reduced spatial scale. Using tools like the Data Preprocessor and the Tethys Platform for visualization, NGIAB enables detailed analysis of hydrological patterns and empowers users to easily select catchments and date ranges using an interactive map, making data preparation a straightforward task. In another example, NGIAB’s deployment in high-performance computing environments has facilitated complex simulations, showcasing its scalability and efficiency.
With NGIAB, hydrologists and decision-makers can rapidly adapt water models for regions facing extreme weather, improving response times for floods, droughts and water management crises.
What’s Next for NGIAB
Looking ahead, the NGIAB team envisions expanding the platform’s capabilities to include:
- Enhanced visualization tools and user interfaces
- Automated validation and verification protocols
- Strengthening integration capabilities with existing hydrological databases and systems
- Expanding the framework to incorporate additional model formulations and physical processes
“NGIAB is an open-source containerized tool that streamlines working with Next Generation Water Resource Modeling framework (NextGen), bridging the gap between research and operational implementation,” says Arpita Patel, DevOps manager and enterprise architect. “By providing full control over model inputs, configurations and execution, NGIAB enables seamless deployment across personal laptop, cloud services and HPC environments. This solution empowers consortium members, partners and researchers to quickly set up and run simulations to drive innovation and push the boundaries of the field.” Researchers, government agencies and community leaders interested in leveraging NGIAB can get started today. Click here to access more information about NGIAB.