Easy and accessible linking of hydrological and hydraulic models through OpenMI for

integrated river basin management

L.T. Olkeba1; N.K. Shrestha

1; B. De Fraine

1; W. Bauwens

1

1Department of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel,

Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.

The modelling of the catchment processes is a key for integrated water resources management.

Constructing a single model for all the catchment processes may not always be a feasible option

and it does not make appropriate use of existing models. The Open Modeling Interface

(OpenMI), which allows time-dependent models to exchange data at run-time, might just be

useful for such proposes. We conducted this study on the river Zenne basin, Belgium to form an

integrated modelling between the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Storm

Water Management Model (SWMM), whereby the output of the SWAT model forms the input to

the SWMM model. For this, both models were migrated to the OpenMI platform. Using the

historical hydro-meteorolgical data record, the SWAT model was calibrated for the years 1998-

2007 and validated for the years 1988-1997. The predicted discharges showed that the model can

reproduce flow hydrographs with reasonable accuracy. The reported model performance

evaluation statistics in terms of Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency was found to be 0.77 for the calibration

and 0.48 for the validation periods. The SWAT model was sucessfully linked to the SWMM in

the OpenMI platform. Flow and water levels records in a number of limnimetric locations along

the river were used for calibrating and validating the SWMM model. Results showed that this

development can sucessfully be used as a decision support tool for the water resources

management plan of the river Zenne in particular and for water resouces management in general.

Keywords: OpenMI, Integrated modelling, SWAT, SWMM, river Zenne, Belgium.