Software Ecosystem Improves Scientific Productivity

The IDEAS–Watersheds project enables scientific software development by building new applications from reusable, robust, and scalable software components and libraries, using the best available software development practices and tools. Software releases of the primary codes and primary workflow tools are managed by the Software Stewards, and are increasingly accessed through containers.

IDEAS-Watersheds is advancing a community collaboration model around an “ecosystem” of interoperable components that can be used to build or extend scientific applications.

IDEAS-Watersheds team members lead development on Primary Codes and Primary Workflow Tools and integrate with Third Party Codes and Third Party Workflow Tools.

• Workflow Tools support data collection and preprocessing, model setup, ensembles of simulations, post processing and analysis.
• Codes and Interface Libraries support flexible mechanistic and multi-scale simulations of coupled hydro-biogechemical processes.
• Primary Codes and Primary Workflow Tools: Members of our team contribute to design and development.
• Third Party Codes and Workflow Tools: We are users, development is led outside IDEAS-Watersheds.

The Software Stewardship Activity ensures sustainability of the software ecosystem and focuses on support for the primary Workflow Tools and Codes. This approach helps researchers accelerate watershed science by providing well tested and documented new or enhanced capabilities, while supporting and promoting best practices in reproducible, transparent and transferable modeling and simulation.