i-Tree Cool River

i-Tree Cool River simulates river water temperature dynamics to quantify how urbanization and restoration influence river thermal regimes.

Key Features:

• Water and Energy Budget Modeling: Employs a dual-budget approach capturing water and energy dynamics and accounts for inflows from urban storm sewers and reservoirs including their temperature contributions.
• Energy Budget Adjustments: Adjusts radiation fluxes for riparian shading and evapotranspiration to modify thermal exchange at the water surface.
• Restorative Cooling Simulations: Simulates cooling effects from cool groundwater inflows and hyporheic exchange where cooler subsurface water replaces warmer surface water.
• Diurnal Variation in Riparian Shading: Incorporates diurnal changes in riparian shading to represent temporal variability in radiative inputs.
• Integration with HEC-RAS: Utilizes predicted river depths and velocities from HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System) to inform hydrodynamic conditions.
• Periodic Boundary Conditions: Implements periodic boundary conditions to enable rapid extension of restoration scenarios along the channel.
• Implementation: Implemented in C++.

Scientific Applications:

• Urban Planning: Evaluates potential thermal effects of proposed developments and green infrastructure on river temperatures.
• Ecological Restoration: Assesses effectiveness of restoration strategies aimed at reducing thermal stress in aquatic habitats.
• Climate Change Studies: Investigates how land use and climatic changes may alter river temperature regimes.

Methodology:

Integrates HEC-RAS hydrodynamic outputs (depths, velocities) with dual water and energy budget calculations; accounts for inflows from storm sewers and reservoirs with temperature contributions; adjusts radiation fluxes for riparian shading and evapotranspiration including diurnal variation; models restorative cooling via groundwater inflows and hyporheic exchange; implements periodic boundary conditions; implemented in C++.