Description of Work (DoW)

The goal of OpenMI-LIFE is to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and, more particularly, make integrated water management feasible. This requires an ability to predict not only how individual catchment processes will respond to "programmes of measures" but also to foresee how those processes will interact with each other. Prediction is achieved through the use of models but until the development of the OpenMI, no generic open practical mechanism existed that could link together models of different processes from different suppliers running on different machines - see State-of-the-Art section. HarmonIT, funded by FP5, has developed and proved the highly innovative concept of the Open Modelling Interface, which solves this complex problem. OpenMI-LIFE will demonstrate how it can be deployed, used, supported and funded at the operational level on real world scale problems. This demonstration will be conducted in co-operation with Competent Authorities in two Pilot River Basins, the Scheldt and the Pinios. It will also show how requests by users for changes to the interface will be handled and implemented. It is the intention that the procedures and systems demonstrated and refined in this project will continue after the project. The long term aim is that the OpenMI should become the European and global standard for model linking in the environmental domain.

Figure 1 Simplified view of stakeholders and their involvement in the use, maintenance and dissemination of the OpenMI

Figure 1 illustrates the key stakeholders, procedures and products involved in the use, evolution and maintenance of the OpenMI. The tasks listed below are designed to demonstrate the OpenMI and these procedures working at an operational level. It is anticipated that the project will identify the need for change both in the OpenMI and the support procedures. The demonstration will show that both types of request can be handled in a sustainable way. Listed below are the main tasks involved in staging the demonstration:

A) Build capacity

For the OpenMI to become widely adopted there must be a core of knowledgeable modellers. This task will create and deliver training courses to developers, modellers and users in the Competent Authorities of the Scheldt and Pinios and the wider modelling community if resources permit.

B) Demonstrate the OpenMI in the Scheldt and C) the Pinios river basins

The Scheldt and Pinios are Pilot River Basins where implementation of the WFD is being trialled. Both basins contain problems whose management requires an integrated approach and hence the use of linked models. The Competent Authorities of these basins will identify a range of problems. The modelling community will use models linked by the OpenMI to perform an integrated analysis of the problems and indicate the likely outcomes of different policies to the Competent Authorities. Model providers will upgrade the relevant models to be OpenMI-compliant so that they can be linked. The OpenMI Association will maintain and support the OpenMI making new releases in response to requests for change. An evaluation report will assess the value of a) integrated modelling and b) the OpenMI and its support organisation.

D) Demonstrate the OpenMI technical support, maintenance and co-ordination

The success of the OpenMI as a standard depends upon its widespread adoption at the European level. However, its use requires a small but significant degree of investment by developers. Therefore, it will only be taken up if there is confidence that it will be supported and maintained into the future. This task will identify and test a sustainable support and co-ordination organisation. The demonstration will begin using the current open source version of the OpenMI, the research output of HarmonIT. It is expected that this will not satisfy all the user needs. The resulting change requests will be used to exercise all aspects of the support organisation including the periodic release of new open source versions of the OpenMI standard and its supporting software and documentation.

E) Disseminate information

Global awareness of the OpenMI has been achieved in the water modelling community. If the OpenMI is to be widely adopted, it is essential that this is maintained and, ideally, extended into other domains. This task will confirm the target community and the best media for communication. It will then use those media to deliver appropriate information about the OpenMI and the benefits of integrated modelling.

F) Manage OpenMI-LIFE

The transformation of an IT product is a complex task involving risk. Substantial time will be allocated for active monitoring and management. A risk management plan is in place.

Figure 1 shows the OpenMI-LIFE participants and the stakeholder roles they will represent in the demonstration. The "Competent Authorities" responsible for implementing the WFD and IWM are represented by VMM - AK, AWZ, VMM - AWA and RIKZ who are, in their domains, the competent authorities for the Scheldt Basin. They are actively involved in the preparation of programmes of measures and the development of River Basin Management Plans. VMM - AK and RIKZ are leading members of the International Scheldt Commission. They have also been members of the Interreg III Scaldit project, which tested the implementation of the WFD. VMM - AK, RIKZ, AWZ, VMM -AWA, Aquafin, and NTUA represent the modelling community. VMM - AK, RIKZ, AWZ, VMM - AWA are regulators and Aquafin is the company responsible for waste water treatment for the whole of Flanders. All actively own and use models to analyse water management problems and are anxious to know if integrated modelling will lead to better, more integrated solutions to water management problems. DHI, WL Delft, and WSL represent the major commercial model developers in Europe and probably the world. ULg, NTUA and UTH are academic developers, many of whose models have been taken up commercially. In the demonstration, the developers will interact with the modelling community and the OpenMI Association as they would in a real world context. Their motivation is to understand the opportunities and the threats that the OpenMI creates together with the costs and savings. They will receive requests for change to their models from the modelling community. If these requests require a change to the OpenMI, they will pass them to the OpenMI Association represented by NERC, DHI, WL Delft, WSL, AQUAFIN and NTUA. These organisations have been responsible for leading the €6M FP5 HarmonIT project that created the OpenMI and have planned the support organisation. NERC, DHI, WL Delft and WSL all have experience of maintaining standards and software on a national and international basis. All have a long term interest in and understanding of water management. NTUA managed the global dissemination programme for HarmonIT. Their collective interest is to be sure that the proposed support organisation is viable.

The OpenMI-LIFE project will be led by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology - NERC), a world class research organisation with over 2500 staff and turnover in excess of €420M. Its science programme covers most aspects of the natural environment and related technologies; of particular relevance to OpenMI-LIFE are: hydrology, ecology, integrated management (especially of water resources), sustainable economies, modelling, data management, database design and environmental informatics. NERC works with both the public, private and academic sectors and has extensive experience of managing large national and international projects. It is committed to the delivery of its science to the user community and the market place. NERC has successfully led and managed the 14 partners from 7 countries, who developed the OpenMI over 4 years through the €6M FP5 HarmonIT project (Contract No EVK1-CT-2001-00090), delivering it on time and to budget.

Of the participants, NERC, VMM - AK, AWZ, VMM - AWA and RIKZ are publicly funded national bodies. NTUA, ULg and UTH are Universities and Aquafin, DHI, WSL and WL Delft are non profit companies.

All the partners have participated in many past and current EC projects. Much of their recent contribution has been underpinning research for the Water Framework Directive. VMM - AK and NTUA are representing the Pilot River Basins where the WFD is being trialled. The two most relevant projects are the FP5 HarmonIT and Interreg III Scaldit.