A Python wrapper for coupling hydrodynamic and oil spill models

Date

2013-03-15

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Description

This report presents a new method for coupling different hydrodynamic models with an oil spill transport model. The hydrodynamic models used are the two-dimensional (2D) TxBLEND model and the three-dimensional (3D) SELFE model. The oil spill transport model is the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME) developed and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The new coupling method is an automated approach using Python scripting to eliminate the labor-intensive manual reformatting of hydrodynamic outputs to GNOME inputs. The integrated model system is demonstrated by independently coupling GNOME to TxBLEND and SELFE and modeling a hypothetical spill in Galveston Bay.

Keywords

hydrology, hydrodynamic modeling, oil spill, TxBLEND, SELFE, GNOME, Python

Citation