Model Catalogue

The Model Catalogue is a web based product that complements eWater Source (and other third party water modelling software). The primary role of Model Catalogue is to provide a space for organisations in the water modelling community to share and collaborate on water models.

Model Definitions and Model Artefacts

The Model Catalogue only stores model definitions (or simply, definitions). A model definition contains important information about the model it represents. It includes core information such as the models:

  • ownership (i.e. the organisation that owns the model)
  • registration information (when and who created/modified the definition)
  • repository (e.g. path, access token, etc)
  • sub entities (i.e. scenarios, runs, metadata, changes, versions, etc)

A model definition is normally identified by the scope of model. They are typically defined in terms of the geographical area that the deal with (eg a catchment such as the Goulburn River).

A model definition is just a reference to the model artefacts. The model artefacts are the physical files that comprise a complete functional water model. They typically include the following files:

  • Project files (eg rsproj)
  • Plugins
  • Water Modelling Software (exe and DLL files)
  • Input data (eg. csv)

The model artefacts themselves are not stored in the Model Catalogue but in the the /wiki/spaces/EI/pages/52563693. 

The model definition allows users to discover and access the model artefacts in the Model Datastore.

Organisations

Model definitions are owned by organisations. An organisation represents a real world entity that works with software water models (eg. Department of Water).

An individual model definition is owned by one and only one organisation. An organisation will typically own one or many model definitions. Model definitions are not directly owned by an individual user, 

A model definitions organisation determines who can do what to it. See Providers and Consumers for more details on the rights of members.

Users

All users of the Model Catalogue need to be a registered member in the system. There is no anonymous access. Membership is currently by invitation only.

A user may or may not be associated with an organisations. Associated users have access to all the models owned by their organisation. Unassociated users have no control over the model definitions.

See Providers and Consumers for more details on the rights of members.

Providers and Consumers

Consumers always have access to publicly available model definitions. However, by default they do not automatically have access to the model artefacts. Currently, access to the Model Datastore from the Model Catalogue is a manual offline process managed by the organisation that owns the 

Organisations provide their models to consumers, who can in turn provide their models.

Workflow

Organisations create a model definition. The model definition contains models that, enhance it with additional metadata and (optionally) publish the model to other users. The other users can then discover the model definition

It can be accessed via catalogue.ewater.org.au.

The following is a description of the typical workflow users experience:

  1. A provider creates a model definition (aka registers) a model that their organisation owns in the Model Catalogue. The model definition contains core information about the model (eg. repository, scenario, changes, versions, maps).
  2. A consumer (not from the same organisation) can then find the model definition in the catalogue by using various tools (maps, searching and filtering)
  3. External Modellers can then request access to models that they wish to have access to.
  4. Internal Modellers can approve or reject requests to access their models.
  5. External Modellers, once approved, can then access the model files
  6. External Modellers can review the model and provide feed back to the Internal Modeller.
  7. Internal modellers can incorporate the feedback into their models to make for better decision making.




Troubleshooting and FAQs

If you have further questions please contact us or visit our online service desk.