ANN Model Emulators for DSM2

Criterion

Explanation

General Description

DSM2 – ANN (Artificial Neural Network) is an emulator of the DSM2 model to simulate concentrations of conservative constituents in selected fixed locations of the Delta, using flow and concentrations at boundaries.

Model Domain

Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The downstream tidal boundary is specified at Martinez, where salinity is a function of net Delta outflow. Inflow boundary conditions are specified at: Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, Calaveras River, Mokelumne River downstream of Cosumnes River confluence, and Yolo Bypass. Agricultural return flows from Delta islands are also specified as boundary conditions.

Developer

Tetra Tech, Inc., under contract to Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Hardware computing requirements

Developed for the Windows operating system

Code language

Visual Basic through Excel for inputs and outputs; underlying ANN development in MatLab, called via dlls from Excel Visual Basic code

Original application

Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta

Public/proprietary and cost

Public, free

Physically or empirically based

Empirically based

Mathematical methods used

ANN model emulation of a physically based model.

Input data requirements

Outputs

Volumetric contributions from boundaries and concentrations at fixed locations within Delta.

Pre-processing and post-processing tools

Embedded within Excel.

Representation of uncertainty

None specified.

Prevalence

Recently developed, published peer-reviewed paper, minimal user base.

Ease of use for public entities

Easy to use. Excel user interface is provided for easy input of data required.

Ease of obtaining information and availability of technical support

The model executables and documentation are available.

Source code availability

Available through developer (Tetra Tech).

Status of model development

Latest version was released in 2016. No updates are presently planned.

Challenges in integration

Provides predictions of volumetric contributions from boundaries and concentrations at locations in the Delta. The present interface uses an Excel front end, but a closer integration will require working directly with the ANN dll files, which can be called through many different coding languages.