CSDMS Data Component: a data-model integration tool for Earth surface processes modeling

Researchers working with Earth surface processes modeling nearly always work with datasets. However, their productivities often suffer because these datasets are difficult to access and use. To help solving this problem, we developed data components to ease the burden of working with data and coupling them with numerical models. Data components can provide a consistent way to access and retrieve various types of datasets (e.g., time series, raster grid, and multidimensional space-time data). Each data component effectively “wraps” a dataset with Basic Model Interface (BMI). BMI is a set of standard query and control functions that can be added to a model or a dataset. Using the BMI interface for datasets makes them easier to interact with BMI-enabled numerical models. To demonstrate the capability of data components, we present an example Jupyter Notebook, in which several data components were used to download topography and soil datasets to calculate the hourly landslide susceptibility when Hurricane Maria made its landfall in Puerto Rico in 2017. This Jupyter Notebook can also be executed using CSDMS@HydroShare, which is a cloud-based platform to support reproducible research. Those interested can try out this Jupyter Notebook example at https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/df5fa2f5d1b74be4bf0a049e1e59889c/.