Hossain, FaisalMinocha, Sanchit2024-02-122024-02-122024-02-122023Minocha_washington_0250O_26480.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/51122Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2023Rivers, Earth's circulatory system for surface water, akin to human arteries, ensure water distribution for the planet. While these river networks are natural, human intervention has led to the construction of dams. In the modern world, dams and the artificial reservoirs behind them serve the increasing demand for water across diverse needs such as agriculture, energy production, and drinking water. As dams continue to proliferate, monitoring water availability influenced by reservoir operations is now of paramount importance. The Reservoir Assessment Tool (RAT) is a data-driven python package that integrates satellite remote sensing with hydrological models, enabling the estimation of key reservoir parameters such as inflow, outflow, surface area, evaporation and storage changes. The earliest rendition of RAT (version 1.0) was set up for 1598 reservoirs around the world with limitations in functional robustness, updating frequency and scalability. Some of these limitations on updating frequency and functional robustness were addressed in version 2.0 that was later made operational for the inter-governmental agency of the Mekong River Commission. Recognizing the need for scalability and to lower the barrier of entry to mobilize the global water management community to benefit from satellite remote sensing, we hereby introduce RAT version 3.0 in the form of a modeling platform. This version is optimized for accelerating open collaboration among users for continuous improvement and customization of RAT to enable reservoir management breakthroughs. RAT 3.0 represents a wholesale overhaul from the previous versions to empower the global community of users and developers in the spirit of the open-source movement. RAT 3.0 allows reservoir monitoring advancements and new functional developments that can be freely exchanged and seamlessly integrated for continuous evolution of the software. A centralized web application has also been established to facilitate the storage and dissemination of global reservoir monitoring information along with comprehensive training resources. In addition to making it easier for the community to set up the modelling platform for tracking reservoirs, RAT 3.0 is optimized for conducting digital twin experiments to investigate human impact of surface water regulation and the increasing availability of satellite sensors that now offer multi-decadal and global record of reservoir operations. As uptake spreads, the global impact of the RAT 3.0 modeling platform is expected to play a role in the more sustainable and equitable utilization of our planet's finite surface water resources.application/pdfen-USCC BY-NDDam MonitoringDam OperationsOpen SourcePython packageReservoir ModelingReservoir MonitoringCivil engineeringRemote sensingHydrologic sciencesCivil engineeringThesis