The ‘Ike Wai Hawai‘i groundwater recharge tool

This paper discusses the design and implementation
of the ‘Ike Wai Hawai‘i Groundwater Recharge Tool, an
application for providing data and analyses of the impacts of
land-cover and climate modifications on groundwater-recharge
rates for the island of O‘ahu. This application uses simulation
data based on a set of 29 land-cover types and two rainfall
scenarios to provide users with real-time recharge calculations for
interactively defined land-cover modifications. Two visualizations,
representing the land cover for the island and the resultant
groundwater-recharge rates, and a set of metrics indicating the
changes to groundwater recharge for relevant areas of the map
are provided to present a set of easily interpreted outcomes
based on the user-defined simulations. Tools are provided to give
users varying degrees of control over the granularity of data
input and output, allowing for the quick production of a roughly
defined simulation, or more precise land-cover models that can
be exported for further analysis. Heuristics are used to provide
a responsive user interface and performant integration with the
database containing the full set of simulation data. This tool is
designed to provide user-friendly access to the information on
the impacts of land-cover and climate changes on groundwater recharge
rates needed to make data-driven decisions.