New Transboundary Hydrographic Data Set for Advancing Regional Hydrological Modeling and Water Resources Management

Abstract

The authors document the development and testing of a new suite of hydrologic and hydraulic data for the customization of the new National Water Model (NWM) to the Great Lakes basin. The NWM was recently (August 2016) deployed operationally across the United States, including extensions across the international basins of the Columbia and Rio Grande Rivers. In its current configuration the NWM does not extend across the entire Great Lakes basin due to the challenges of reconciling data discontinuities along the United States–Canada border. The new hydrographic data set was developed by harmonizing data from existing sources across the Great Lakes basin, and by leveraging a strong binational partnership between US and Canadian federal agencies and research institutions. The completed hydrographic data set allows the NWM to be customized to the Great Lakes basin, and to be applied to water resources management problems including differentiating drivers behind long-term changes in Great Lakes water levels, forecasting water supplies for regional hydropower management, and understanding the physical processes along the Great Lakes coastline that govern the fate and transport of waterborne pollutants.