Collins et al. (2026) Towards continental-scale SWOT-based modeling of reservoir operations

Identification

• Journal: Remote Sensing of Environment
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-04
• Authors: Elyssa L. Collins, Augusto Getirana, Sujay Kumar, Yeosang Yoon, Chi-Hsiang Huang, Huilin Gao, Fuad Yassin
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2026.115714

Research Groups

• Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (E.L. Collins)
• Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland (E.L. Collins)
• Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD (A. Getirana)
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University (C.-H. Huang, H. Gao)
• Environment and Climate Change Canada (F. Yassin)

Short Summary

This study evaluates the use of satellite altimetry and flow routing scheme outputs for reservoir operation parameterization compared to traditional in situ data approaches. The results show that simulated storages perform significantly better than simulated releases across all experiments.

Objective

• Evaluate the accuracy of using mass balance for reservoir reconstruction, parameterization, and simulation at a larger number and variety of reservoirs.
• Quantify the effects of input data errors on reservoir simulation accuracy when using different combinations of in situ, altimeter, and hydrologically modeled data sources.
• Assess the capabilities and limitations of continental satellite-informed reservoir modeling.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Continental-scale (US and Brazil)
• Temporal Scale: Daily to monthly

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Dynamically zoned target release (DZTR) model, flow routing scheme (FRS)
• Data sources:
  • In situ inflow, storage, and release observations from ResOpsUS and ONS databases
  • Satellite altimetry data from Global Water Measurements (GWM) and SWOT missions
  • Hydrologically modeled inflow data from HyMAP

Main Results

• Simulated storages perform significantly better than simulated releases across all experiments.
• Reconstructed reservoir storage and release time series using satellite altimetry are reasonably well-aligned with in situ observations.
• The use of FRS inflow instead of in situ inflow leads to decreased accuracy in reconstructed releases.

Contributions

• This study expands upon previous research by evaluating the use of mass balance for reservoir reconstruction, parameterization, and simulation at a larger number and variety of reservoirs.
• The results provide insights into the effects of input data errors on reservoir simulation accuracy when using different combinations of in situ, altimeter, and hydrologically modeled data sources.

Funding

• This research was supported by NASA's Hydrological Sciences Laboratory (E.L. Collins) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (F. Yassin).

Citation

@article{Collins2026Towards,
  author = {Collins, Elyssa L. and Getirana, Augusto and Kumar, Sujay and Yoon, Yeosang and Huang, Chi-Hsiang and Gao, Huilin and Yassin, Fuad},
  title = {Towards continental-scale SWOT-based modeling of reservoir operations},
  journal = {Remote Sensing of Environment},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.rse.2026.115714},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2026.115714}
}