Anna De Nardi works on EPNs

Our three years degrees on Environmental Sciences requires for graduation a work exercise that can be really interesting.  Among the last graduations, I followed the work by Anna De Nardi, on the Extended Petri Net which I think was particularly valuable.  Anna, in fact, elaborated  all the MARRMoTs hydrological models using the Extended Petri Nets graphs. This show in practice that the statement that all the integral distributed hydrological models  (a.k.a. lumped distributed models, the hydrological dynamical systems, semi-distributed hydrological models) can be represented by means of the EPN is actually true. 

The MARRMoT (Modular Assessment of Rainfall-Runoff Models Toolkit) is a collection of hydrological models designed to simulate rainfall-runoff processes across different scales and conditions. Developed in MATLAB, MARRMoT provides a modular framework that allows researchers to compare, assess, and implement various conceptual hydrological models consistently

Key Features and Purpose:

• Model Variety: MARRMoT includes 47 different rainfall-runoff models, ranging from simple lumped models to more complex, semi-distributed structures.
• Comparative Framework: Its standardized environment enables researchers to test models on the same data sets and conditions, making it easier to assess model performance, suitability, and sensitivity.
• Customization: Users can adapt model configurations or modify parameters within the toolkit to better fit specific research objectives or study basins.
• - Open-source and Accessible: MARRMoT is open-source, encouraging community contributions, modifications, and application across various hydrological research areas.

This toolkit is particularly useful for researchers looking to improve or validate hydrological models and for those who want a structured way to compare the effects of model structure on hydrological simulation outcomes.

Extended Petri Nets (EPNs) are an enhanced version of traditional Petri Nets, a mathematical modeling language originally designed to describe distributed systems with concurrent, asynchronous processes. EPNs incorporate additional features to increase modeling flexibility and allow for more complex system representations. In scientific modeling, they are used for representing and analyzing systems in which discrete and continuous interactions are critical, like biological networks, chemical reactions, ecological models, or engineering processes.

For getting the poster at higher resolution, please click on the above image. For all the material, including all the MARRMoT models, please look at the here:

• All the  MARRMoT models represented with EPNs
• All the  EPNs-MARRMoT models catalogued by the number of reservoirs
• All the fluxes variables names found in the MARRMoT  collections

Other Hydrological models represented with EPNs can be found in Bancheri et al., 2019 below. 

References

Bancheri, Marialaura, Francesco Serafin, and Riccardo Rigon. 2019. “The Representation of Hydrological Dynamical Systems Using Extended Petri Nets (EPN).” Water Resources Research 55 (11): 8895–8921. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025099.

Marialaura, Bancheri, Francesco Serafin, and Riccardo Rigon. 2019. “Supporting Material for: The Representation of Hydrological Dynamical Systems Using Extended Petri Nets (EPN).” Water Resources Research.

Knoben, W. J. M., J. Freer, K. J. A. Fowler, M. C. Peel, and R. A. Woods. 2019. “Modular Assessment of Rainfall-Runoff Models Toolbox (MARRMoT) v1.0: An Open Source, Extendable Framework Providing Implementations of 46 Conceptual Hydrologic Models as a Ontinuous Space-State Formulations.” GMDD, February, 1–26.

Knoben, W. J. M., J. Freer, K. J. A. Fowler, M. C. Peel, and R. A. Woods. 2019, “Modular Assessment of Rainfall–Runoff Models Toolbox (MARRMoT) v1.2: An Open-Source, Extendable Framework Providing Implementations of 46 Conceptual Hydrologic Models as Continuous State-Space Formulations.” 2019. Copernicus GmbH. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-2463-2019-supplement.

Rigon, Riccardo, and Marialaura Bancheri. 2021. “On the Relations between the Hydrological Dynamical Systems of Water Budget, Travel Time, Response Time and Tracer Concentrations.” Hydrological Processes 35 (1). https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14007.

Trotter, L., W. Knoben, K. Fowler, M. Saft, and M. Peel. 2022. “Modular Assessment of Rainfall–Runoff Models Toolbox (MARRMoT) v2.1: An Object-Oriented Implementation of 47 Established Hydrological Models for Improved Speed and Readability.” Geoscientific Model Development, August. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6359-2022.