River morphology data and analysis are critical for a plethora of studies (e.g., sediment transport and hydrodynamics), yet river morphology research is hindered by the lack of a collaborative and community-based system for easy access to large-scale data and services. This research puts forth RIMORPHIS, a publicly available research portal for river morphology studies that makes customized and interactive bathymetry-related GIS functionality and data available on the web on-demand with intuitive map-based 2D and 3D visualizations and user interfaces. Distributed and scattered bathymetry-related data resources are gathered and indexed to be served via an interconnected database model that is compatible with a variety of data structures from different organizations and individuals, varying available river morphology data, and discordant entity identification and relationships in the external data resources. In order to establish a national watershed reference system to associate gathered bathymetry data in their geographical area, NHDPlus High Resolution (HR) is utilized to retrieve catchment, flowline, and junction information for the United States. Association of localized river morphology data (e.g., processed river cross-section points) with a national reference system enables complex and large watershed level queries for big picture assessments through the RIMORPHIS platform. In order to support the community for in-house river morphology research, RIMORPHIS provides two RESTful APIs (i.e., Data and Tools). Data API is created based on the Swagger framework and OpenAPI specification to allow query-based access to the data. Tools API serves individual algorithms and bathymetry-related functions of RIMORPHIS for utilization with custom parameters and scenarios. From a broader perspective, interactive, on-demand, and one-stop nature of the cyberinfrastructure have the potential to propel hydrological research and education as it can serve as a free information resource for stakeholders by making it easier to access data, information, functionality, and services on river morphology.
For more information, visit
https://rimorphis.org/
