2023-10-23 MESH CoP Meeting Notes

[hrynkiwc]

1. Draft CoP Terms of Reference; Lead: Bruce D.

• Bruce D. will take the lead on developing the document.
• CoP memberships may include other members outside of the current group, including ECCC researchers/developers, Manitoba, and other academic researchers.
• The CoP may be divided into two or three sub-groups, including one focused on code development, and another for users. Meetings will not be restricted by group, and meetings may be attended by anyone in the CoP if there is interest.

2. SK, MB and YT plans for future forecasts; Lead: Dan P.

• Saskatchewan:
  o In cooperation with the University of Saskatchewan, the WSA is currently focusing on forecasts in 5 different watersheds, with improvements to model calibration and performance.
  o Work is also being done on some other physical based models to be included in FEWS.
  o Future plans include expansion to other watersheds and a move to multi-model ensembles.
  o Attention is being given to model calibration and agnostic setup.
  -Manitoba:
  o There are plans to ensure MESH compatibility with FEWS and see how it performs by simple calibration. The results can then be shared with university researchers who will take on the task of refinement.
  o There is a need to determine if FEWS can handle point-based data or if it can only manage grid-based data, although ECCC does not have access to this system to test it.
• Yukon
  o Is currently waiting to determine if their project has been approved for funding.
  o The set-up is vector based and the interest is in non-scientific performance.
  o Some of what they are looking for may already have been developed, which has been updated by Mohammed E on GitHub. However, the setup for shorter rivers for the vector based system has resulted in a significantly slower processing time. Mohammed E can share some of the details of this with those who are interested.

3. MESH development and updating strategy – how best to leverage Al’s team at U of C; Lead: Dan P.

• GitHub will continue to be used for development and a new staff member will be focusing on management of this in the New Year.
• Division of duties between University, NHS and MRD: NHS will be supporting MESH as a service but will not be engaging in scientific development
• There are several different versions and applications to manage the code and testing process (up to 8?). In the example of benchmarking for targeted rivers, consolidating various versions is an issue. GitHub can bring it all together and the main repository doesn’t need to be private.

4. Presentation MESH workflows; Lead: Kasra K.

• Recipe for Hydrological Modelling Workflow,
  • Presentation Outline:
    • Recipe for Hydrological Modelling Workflow,
      • Community hydrological modelling and workflows,
    • Model-agnostic workflows,
      • datatool: extracting subsets of large meteorological datasets,
      • agnostic-orchestrator: simplified agnostic setup,
    • Model-specific workflows,
      • MESHFlow: specific workflow for MESH modelling,
    • Practical examples,
      • MESH for Alberta,
      • MESH for the Assiniboine River Basin,
      • MESH for Quebec and the Maritimes,
    • Concluding remarks
  • This presentation will be sent to the CoP via email.

5. Action Items and Person Responsible

   • Develop a Terms of Reference document for the MESH CoP; Bruce D.
   • Develop a strategy for MESH development and updating.; Bruce D, Dan P., Al P.
   • Arrange a MESH coder sub-group meeting.; Al P.

6. Next meeting; Lead: Bruce D.

• A smaller group meeting specifically for coders will be set up by Al P in approximately two weeks.
• The next MESH CoP meeting is set for Monday, November 20 at 14:00 CST (13:00 MST, 13:00 YST)