ABSTRACT:

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is regularly used to support model applications in hydrological catchment modelling software. A GUI is generally user-friendly for novice users but opens sources of irreproducible research. We illustrate this risk by showing that none of the 10 Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) studies over the Upper Blue Nile Basin report all settings required to reproduce the model results. On the other hand, scripted workflows provide the ability to reproduce model setup and results, but they may be less user-friendly especially to novice users. We present a software (SWAT+ AW) that promotes reproducible SWAT+ model studies while remaining user-friendly for both novice and expert users. The workflow creates a SWAT+ model based on a configuration file while maintaining GUI compatibility. We applied the workflow to the Blue Nile catchment and show that it yields the same results as a model built with the SWAT+ GUI. We conclude that such user-friendly scripted workflows can help make catchment studies reproducible and offer opportunities for increased transparency and reusability of hydrological models. The software is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/VUB-HYDR/SWATPlus-AW).

ABSTRACT:

Most catchment modelling software use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to support model applications. A GUI is generally user-friendly for novice users but opens sources of irreproducible research. We illustrate this risk by showing that none of the 10 Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) studies over the Upper Blue Nile Basin report all settings required to reproduce the model results. We present a workflow (QSWAT Workflow) that promotes reproducibleSWAT model studies while remaining user-friendly for both novice and expert users. The workflow creates a SWAT model based on namelist file while maintaining GUI compatibility. We applied the workflow to the Blue Nile catchment and show that it yields the same results as QSWAT GUI. We conclude that such user-friendly workflows can help reduce cases of irreproducible catchment studies and offer opportunities for increased transparency and reusability of hydrological models. The workflow is publicly available on https://github.com/VUB-HYDR/QSWAT_Automated_Workflow

ABSTRACT:

Most catchment modelling software use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to allow direct manipulation of the models and adapt to specific case studies. GUI is generally easy to use for novice users but opens sources of irreproducible research. We present a workflow (QSWAT Workflow) that promotes reproducible SWAT model studies while remaining user-friendly for both novice and expert users. We applied this environment to the Blue Nile catchment and show that it yields the same results as using the QSWAT GUI. The workflow includes benefits in rebuilding earlier model configurations and implementing changes to existing setups while saving time. The project can still be viewed and modified in the GUI. We conclude that workflows can help reduce cases of irreproducible catchment studies and offer benefits for researchers building upon existing models including opportunities for catchment model setup with cloud computing without losing interoperability with GUIs. This workflow is on GitHub: https://github.com/VUB-HYDR/QSWAT_Automated_Workflow)