Modeling team to develop quality assurance project plan for coastal OAH model

A research team that has been modeling how land-based nutrient discharges into Southern California coastal waters influences ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) is launching an effort to develop a quality assurance project plan (QAPP) that is intended to enhance transparency and stakeholder understanding of how these modeling tools are being used.

The work, which kicks off in February, will bring together the modeling team and a subcommittee formed by the SCCWRP Commission’s Technical Advisory Group (CTAG) to collaboratively develop a written QAPP for the ROMS-BEC (Regional Ocean Modeling System-Biogeochemical Elemental Cycling) modeling tools.

The QAPP, which is expected to be finalized in late 2025, is designed to improve stakeholder understanding of how the ROMS-BEC is being applied to investigate the influence of land-based nutrient discharges in Southern California coastal waters and how uncertainty, or error, in the modeling predictions is being quantified. The goal is to enhance community confidence and acceptance of the modeling tools’ predictive capabilities.

Developing this QAPP document was a recommendation of an expert review panel that was convened in 2023 to independently evaluate the coastal ocean water-quality modeling tools.