Using an interoperable geoprocessing system for hydrological simulation

Calculation of land use and topographical parameters for hydrological models is usually performed using GIS software. Current approaches, however, are limited by the intensive user dependency on fixed routines, commands, sequences, etc., specific to the software been used. Therefore, current modeling approaches for geoprocessing suffer from a lack of interoperability. Algorithms that translate/summarize geographical information have been tightly designed to the needs and characteristics of specific models and GIs systems, and are not reusable. This means that each connection between a specific pairing of an environmental model and a GIS system requires a unique translation algorithm, which, in turn, requires new resources to repeatedly solve the same conceptual problem. This paper proposes the use of the Geospatial Object Library for Environmental Modeling (GEOLEM) as an alternative or complementary tool for calculating land use and topographical parameters. Although this research focuses on the calculation of geographical parameters needed by the Hydrological Simulation Program Fortran (HSPF), potential uses of GEOLEM in other modeling frameworks are also addressed.