Integrative Hydrometeorological Applications with Precipitation, Soil Moisture, and Water Vapor Using Phone Apps, GIS, and Data Assimilation

A group of unique integrative hydrometeorological applications are in development and use at Colorado State University (CSU). Advances in the use of these systems are leading toward additional system applications by local communities. These communities include: 1) local Colorado farmers via the USDA-NIFA Ogallala Water Coordinated Agricultural Project (OWCAP) with a cloud-based irrigation scheduler application and a new data management portal, 2) National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters via blended rainfall, total precipitable water, and layered water vapor products for operational heavy rain forecasts and user impacts, 3) Army Engineers that require estimates of soil moisture and soil strength for trafficability and mobility, including the abiotic context for biological environmental health issues, and 4) several other complex environmental collaborations. The collaborations range from community health improvements focused on multi-agency/organization human-centric issues, the International Phytobiome Initiative which evaluates plant health in the context of its full environment, and the CSU Terraforma effort that links animal-plant-soil pathogens in a controlled environmental context. These applications serve as a development guide for enabling technologies such as GIS for identification of human-animal-plant linkages, exploration of possible disease pathways, and communication and notification of community “events” as they occur. Method development makes use of machine learning and data assimilation to optimize system resources and states, and to identify changes as they occur within a rich multi-level organizational network. These integrative hydrometeorological application frameworks are a necessary step toward exploring multi-party event-based systems that will dynamically interact with and benefit our future communities.