Model Management for watershed practitioners: Options for a rural watershed in

Abstract: Watershed management (WM) organizations use quantitative numerical modeling as a tool to evaluate environmental measurement data, to predict the impact of environmental change on the existing system, and to assess the impact of changes to the existing water cycle, for example after engineering projects. This paper makes an argument that model lifecycles, as the period from when the need for a new numerical model was identified, until the last time that a numerical model is accessed, have changed dramatically when the paradigm of WM has started integrating multiple perspectives and adaptive practices, while model lifecycle management has not received sufficient attention. As a result, WM organizations are struggling to apply numerical modeling efficiently and cost-effectively under their obligation to translate adaptive management into praxis. Model management can be defined as the process of organizing model maintenance. It includes the setting of standards on how consultants deliver models to practitioners, ensures that relevant knowledge is available to watershed practitioners, and minimizes requirements for technical knowledge, for example by automating data processing with an improved human-model interface. We demonstrate the use of a visualization and software tool for model management, as applied within the Drinking Water Source Protection program of the Province of Ontario (Canada), which relied heavily on numerical modeling for delineating vulnerable areas around municipal water supplies