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PRMS simulator used to assess rainfall, runoff, and river flow for the National Hydrologic Model (NHM) Puerto Rico

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2022-11-21T00:00:00Z
The National Hydrologic Model (NHM) is a modeling framework which has been applied to the continental United States through the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). The PRMS model of Puerto Rico extends the NHM and allows the simulation of rainfall-driven hydrologic conditions in the Commonwealth. Calibration of the NHM Puerto Rico model involved an initial manual calibration to understand the important processes and develop a basic representation of the hydrology. This is followed by an automated calibration procedure using the Let Us CAlibrate (LUCA) multi-objective function model calibration tool. A four-step procedure is used in Luca to separately calibrate parameters for solar radiation, evapotranspiration, low flows, and peak flows. The calibrated model is used for comparison with field-estimated flows and to examine coastal flows during Hurricane Maria. This USGS data release contains all of the input and output files for the simulations described in the associated journal article (https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology9110205).

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