Development of a Component-Based Modeling Framework for Agricultural Water-Resource Management

Because hydrologic responses of an agricultural watershed are influenced by many natural and man-made factors including pond/reservoir, management practices, and/or irrigation/drainage, strategies of hydrological modeling for the watershed must be case-dependent and thus carefully designed to effectively reflect their roles as critical hydrologic components in simulation processes. In this study, we propose a component-based modeling framework that accommodates a flexible modeling approach to consider a variety of hydrologic processes and management practices, especially irrigation-reservoir operation and paddy-farming practices, in watershed-scale modeling. The objectives of this study are twofold: to develop a COmponent-based Modeling Framework for Agricultural water-Resources Management (COMFARM) using an object-oriented programming technique, and to evaluate its applicability as a modeling tool to predict the responses of an agricultural watershed characterized with diverse land uses in a case study. COMFARM facilitates quick and easy development of watershed-specific hydrologic models by providing multiple interchangeable simulation routines for each hydrologic component considered. COMFARM is developed with the JAVA programming language, using Eclipse software. The framework developed in this study is applied to simulating hydrologic processes of the Seon-Am irrigation-district watershed consisting primarily of reservoir-irrigated rice paddies in South Korea. The application study clearly demonstrates the applicability of the framework as a convenient method to build models for hydrologic simulation of an agricultural watershed. The newly developed modeling framework, COMFARM is expected to serve as a useful tool in watershed management planning by allowing quick development of case-oriented analysis tools and evaluation of management scenarios customized to a specific watershed.