Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-547-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-547-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
SERGHEI v2.0: introducing a performance-portable, high-performance, three-dimensional variably saturated subsurface flow solver (SERGHEI-RE)
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Gregor Rickert
Institute of Geoecology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Na Zheng
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Zhibo Zhang
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Ilhan Özgen-Xian
Institute of Geoecology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Daniel Caviedes-Voullième
Simulation and Data Lab Terrestrial Systems, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences Agrosphere (IBG-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Related authors
Zhi Li, Hanqi Li, Zhibo Zhang, Chaomeng Dai, and Simin Jiang
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3977–3990, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3977-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3977-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study used advanced computer simulations to investigate how earthquake-induced building collapse affects flooding of the metro stations in Shanghai. Results show that the influences of building collapse on rainfall-driven and river-driven floods are different because these two types of floods have different origination and propagation mechanisms.
Pablo Vallés, Mario Morales-Hernández, Volker Roeber, Pilar García-Navarro, and Daniel Caviedes-Voullième
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-722, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-722, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a computational model for passive particle transport in water. Their trajectories depend on advection and turbulence, represented by a random-walk model. Three numerical methods are compared to estimate their trajectory, evaluating accuracy and computational cost. Tests show that the Euler method offers the best balance. Finally, a rainfall event in a catchment is simulated to validate the model’s performance over irregular terrain.
Zhi Li, Hanqi Li, Zhibo Zhang, Chaomeng Dai, and Simin Jiang
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3977–3990, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3977-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3977-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study used advanced computer simulations to investigate how earthquake-induced building collapse affects flooding of the metro stations in Shanghai. Results show that the influences of building collapse on rainfall-driven and river-driven floods are different because these two types of floods have different origination and propagation mechanisms.
Shahin Khosh Bin Ghomash, Heiko Apel, and Daniel Caviedes-Voullième
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 2857–2874, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2857-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2857-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Early warning is essential to minimise the impact of flash floods. We explore the use of highly detailed flood models to simulate the 2021 flood event in the lower Ahr valley (Germany). Using very high-resolution models resolving individual streets and buildings, we produce detailed, quantitative, and actionable information for early flood warning systems. Using state-of-the-art computational technology, these models can guarantee very fast forecasts which allow for sufficient time to respond.
Denise Degen, Daniel Caviedes Voullième, Susanne Buiter, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen, Harry Vereecken, Ana González-Nicolás, and Florian Wellmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7375–7409, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7375-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7375-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In geosciences, we often use simulations based on physical laws. These simulations can be computationally expensive, which is a problem if simulations must be performed many times (e.g., to add error bounds). We show how a novel machine learning method helps to reduce simulation time. In comparison to other approaches, which typically only look at the output of a simulation, the method considers physical laws in the simulation itself. The method provides reliable results faster than standard.
Zbigniew P. Piotrowski, Jaro Hokkanen, Daniel Caviedes-Voullieme, Olaf Stein, and Stefan Kollet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1079, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
The computer programs capable of simulation of Earth system components evolve, adapting new fundamental science concepts and more observational data on more and more powerful computer hardware. Adaptation of a large scientific program to a new type of hardware is costly. In this work we propose cheap and simple but effective strategy that enable computation using graphic processing units, based on automated program code modification. This results in better resolution and/or longer predictions.
Daniel Caviedes-Voullième, Mario Morales-Hernández, Matthew R. Norman, and Ilhan Özgen-Xian
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 977–1008, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-977-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-977-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper introduces the SERGHEI framework and a solver for shallow-water problems. Such models, often used for surface flow and flood modelling, are computationally intense. In recent years the trends to increase computational power have changed, requiring models to adapt to new hardware and new software paradigms. SERGHEI addresses these challenges, allowing surface flow simulation to be enabled on the newest and upcoming consumer hardware and supercomputers very efficiently.
Cited articles
Bassetto, S., Cancès, C., Enchéry, G., and Tran, Q.-H.: On several numerical strategies to solve Richards' equation in heterogeneous media with finite volumes, Comput. Geosci., 26, 1297–1322, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-022-10150-w, 2022. a
Beegum, S., Šimůnek, J., Szymkiewicz, A., Sudheer, K., and Nambi, I. M.: Updating the Coupling Algorithm between HYDRUS and MODFLOW in the HYDRUS Package for MODFLOW, Vadose Zone J., 17, 1–8, https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2018.02.0034, 2018. a
Brandhorst, N., Erdal, D., and Neuweiler, I.: Coupling saturated and unsaturated flow: comparing the iterative and the non-iterative approach, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4041–4059, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4041-2021, 2021. a
Caviedes-Voullième, D., García-Navarro, P., and Murillo, J.: Verification, conservation, stability and efficiency of a finite volume method for the 1D Richards equation, J. Hydrol., 480, 69–84, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.12.008, 2013. a, b, c
Caviedes-Voullième, D., Morales-Hernández, M., Norman, M. R., and Özgen-Xian, I.: SERGHEI (SERGHEI-SWE) v1.0: a performance-portable high-performance parallel-computing shallow-water solver for hydrology and environmental hydraulics, Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 977–1008, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-977-2023, 2023. a, b, c
Caviedes-Voullième, D., Morales-Hernández, M., and Özgen Xian, I.: SERGHEI (2.0), Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13166466, 2024. a
Celia, M. A., Bouloutas, E. T., and Zarba, R. L.: A general mass‐conservative numerical solution for the unsaturated flow equation, Water Resour. Res., 26, 1483–1496, https://doi.org/10.1029/WR026i007p01483, 1990. a
Chang, C., Deringer, V. L., Katti, K. S., Van Speybroeck, V., and Wolverton, C. M.: Simulations in the era of exascale computing, Nat. Rev. Mater., 8, 309–313, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00540-6, 2023. a
Chávez-Negrete, C., Domínguez-Mota, F., and Santana-Quinteros, D.: Numerical solution of Richards equation of water flow by generalized finite differences, Comput. Geotech., 101, 168–175, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2018.05.003, 2018. a, b, c
Condon, L. E., Markovich, K. H., Kelleher, C. A., McDonnell, J. J., Ferguson, G., and McIntosh, J. C.: Where is the bottom of the watershed?, Water Resour. Res., 56, e2019WR026010, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026010, 2020. a
Coon, E. T., Svyatskiy, D., Jan, A., Kikinzon, E., Berndt, M., Atchley, A. L., Harp, D. R., Manzini, G., Shelef, E., Lipnikov, K., Garimella, R., Xu, C., Moulton, J. D., Karra, S., Painter, S. L., Jafarov, E., and Molins, S.: Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS), USDOE Office of Science (SC) [code], https://doi.org/10.11578/dc.20190911.1, 2019. a
D'Haese, C. M. F., Putti, M., Paniconi, C., and Verhoest, N. E. C.: Assessment of adaptive and heuristic time stepping for variably saturated flow, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fl., 53, 1173–1193, https://doi.org/10.1002/fld.1369, 2007. a, b
El-Kadi, A. I. and Ling, G.: The Courant and Peclet Number criteria for the numerical solution of the Richards Equation, Water Resour. Res., 29, 3485–3494, https://doi.org/10.1029/93WR00929, 1993. a
Farthing, M. W. and Ogden, F. L.: Numerical Solution of Richards' Equation: A Review of Advances and Challenges, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 81, 1257–1269, https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2017.02.0058, 2017. a, b
Forsyth, P., Wu, Y., and Pruess, K.: Robust numerical methods for saturated-unsaturated flow with dry initial conditions in heterogeneous media, Adv. Water Resour., 18, 25–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/0309-1708(95)00020-J, 1995. a, b
Hammond, G. E., Lichtner, P. C., and Mills, R. T.: Evaluating the performance of parallel subsurface simulators: An illustrative example with PFLOTRAN, Water Resour. Res., 50, 208–228, https://doi.org/10.1002/2012WR013483, 2014. a
Hokkanen, J., Kollet, S., Kraus, J., Herten, A., Hrywniak, M., and Pleiter, D.: Leveraging HPC accelerator architectures with modern techniques — hydrologic modeling on GPUs with ParFlow, Comput. Geosci., 25, 1579–1590, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-021-10051-4, 2021. a, b
Hou, J., Pan, Z., Tong, Y., Li, X., Zheng, J., and Kang, Y.: High-efficiency and high-resolution numerical modeling for two-dimensional infiltration processes, accelerated by a graphics processing unit, Hydrogeol. J., 30, 637–651, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-021-02444-7, 2022. a
Kirkland, M. R., Hills, R. G., and Wierenga, P. J.: Algorithms for solving Richards' equation for variably saturated soils, Water Resour. Res., 28, 2049–2058, https://doi.org/10.1029/92WR00802, 1992. a, b, c, d
Kollet, S. J. and Maxwell, R. M.: Integrated surface–groundwater flow modeling: A free-surface overland flow boundary condition in a parallel groundwater flow model, Adv. Water Resour., 29, 945–958, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2005.08.006, 2006. a
Kuffour, B. N. O., Engdahl, N. B., Woodward, C. S., Condon, L. E., Kollet, S., and Maxwell, R. M.: Simulating coupled surface–subsurface flows with ParFlow v3.5.0: capabilities, applications, and ongoing development of an open-source, massively parallel, integrated hydrologic model, Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 1373–1397, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1373-2020, 2020. a
Lai, W. and Ogden, F. L.: A mass-conservative finite volume predictor–corrector solution of the 1D Richards' equation, J. Hydrol., 523, 119–127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.01.053, 2015. a, b, c, d
Li, Z.: Test cases for SERGHEI v2.0 (SERGHEI-RE), Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13282882, 2024. a
Li, Z., Hodges, B. R., and Shen, X.: Modeling hypersalinity caused by evaporation and surface-subsurface exchange in a coastal marsh, J. Hydrol., 618, 129268, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129268, 2023. a
Mao, W., Zhu, Y., Ye, M., Zhang, X., Wu, J., and Yang, J.: A new quasi-3-D model with a dual iterative coupling scheme for simulating unsaturated-saturated water flow and solute transport at a regional scale, J. Hydrol., 602, 126780, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126780, 2021. a, b
Maxwell, R. M.: A terrain-following grid transform and preconditioner for parallel, large-scale, integrated hydrologic modeling, Adv. Water Resour., 53, 109–117, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.10.001, 2013. a
Morway, E. D., Niswonger, R. G., Langevin, C. D., Bailey, R. T., and Healy, R. W.: Modeling Variably Saturated Subsurface Solute Transport with MODFLOW-UZF and MT3DMS, Groundwater, 51, 237–251, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.00971.x, 2013. a, b
Mualem, Y.: A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 12, 513–522, https://doi.org/10.1029/WR012i003p00513, 1976. a
Orgogozo, L., Renon, N., Soulaine, C., Hénon, F., Tomer, S., Labat, D., Pokrovsky, O., Sekhar, M., Ababou, R., and Quintard, M.: An open source massively parallel solver for Richards equation: mechanistic modelling of water fluxes at the watershed scale, Comput. Phys. Commun., 185, 3358–3371, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2014.08.004, 2014. a
Özgen-Xian, I., Molins, S., Johnson, R. M., Xu, Z., Dwivedi, D., Loritz, R., Mital, U., Ulrich, C., Yan, Q., and Steefel, C. I.: Understanding the hydrological response of a headwater-dominated catchment by analysis of distributed surface–subsurface interactions, Sci. Rep., 13, 4669, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31925-w, 2023. a
Paniconi, C. and Putti, M.: A comparison of Picard and Newton iteration in the numerical solution of multidimensional variably saturated flow problems, Water Resour. Res., 30, 3357–3374, https://doi.org/10.1029/94WR02046, 1994. a
Paniconi, C. and Putti, M.: Physically based modeling in catchment hydrology at 50: Survey and outlook, Water Resour. Res., 51, 7090–7129, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017780, 2015. a, b
Phoon, K., Tan, T., and Chong, P.: Numerical simulation of Richards equation in partially saturated porous media: under-relaxation and mass balance, Geotech. Geol. Eng., 25, 525–541, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-007-9126-7, 2007. a
Richards, L. A.: Capillary conduction of liquids through porous mediums, Physics, 1, 318–333, 1931. a
Richardson, L. F.: Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618291, 1922. a
Shen, C. and Phanikumar, M. S.: A process-based, distributed hydrologic model based on a large-scale method for surface–subsurface coupling, Adv. Water Resour., 33, 1524–1541, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2010.09.002, 2010. a
Šimůnek, J., Šejna, M., Saito, H., Sakai, M., and van Genuchten, M. T.: The HYDRUS-1D Software Package for Simulating theOne-Dimensional Movement of Water, Heat, andMultiple Solutes in Variably-Saturated Media v4.17, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, https://www.pc-progress.com/Downloads/Pgm_hydrus1D/HYDRUS1D-4.17.pdf (last access: 4 August 2024), 2013. a, b
Šimůnek, J., van Genuchten, M. T., and Šejna, M.: Recent Developments and Applications of the HYDRUS Computer Software Packages, Vadose Zone J., 15, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2016.04.0033, 2016. a
Trott, C. R., Lebrun-Grandié, D., Arndt, D., Ciesko, J., Dang, V., Ellingwood, N., Gayatri, R., Harvey, E., Hollman, D. S., Ibanez, D., Liber, N., Madsen, J., Miles, J., Poliakoff, D., Powell, A., Rajamanickam, S., Simberg, M., Sunderland, D., Turcksin, B., and Wilke, J.: Kokkos 3: Programming Model Extensions for the Exascale Era, IEEE T. Parallel Distr., 33, 805–817, https://doi.org/10.1109/TPDS.2021.3097283, 2022. a
van Genuchten, M.: A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898, https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1980.03615995004400050002x, 1980. a
van Lier, Q. J. and Pinheiro, E. A. R.: An alert regarding a common misinterpretation of the van Genuchten α parameter, Rev. Bras. Ciênc. Solo, 42, e0170343, https://doi.org/10.1590/18069657rbcs20170343, 2018. a
Vogel, T.: Effect of the shape of the soil hydraulic functions near saturation on variably-saturated flow predictions, Adv. Water Resour., 24, 133–144, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0309-1708(00)00037-3, 2001. a
Warrick, A. W., Lomen, D. O., and Yates, S. R.: A Generalized Solution to Infiltration, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 49, 34–38, https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1985.03615995004900010006x, 1985. a, b
Zha, Y., Tso, M. C.-H., Shi, L., and Yang, J.: Comparison of Noniterative Algorithms Based on Different Forms of Richards' Equation, Environ. Model. Assess., 21, 357–370, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-015-9467-1, 2016. a
Zha, Y., Yang, J., Yin, L., Zhang, Y., Zeng, W., and Shi, L.: A modified Picard iteration scheme for overcoming numerical difficulties of simulating infiltration into dry soil, J. Hydrol., 551, 56–69, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.05.053, 2017. a
Zha, Y., Yang, J., Zeng, J., Tso, C. M., Zeng, W., and Shi, L.: Review of numerical solution of Richardson–Richards equation for variably saturated flow in soils, WIREs Water, 6, e1364, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1364, 2019. a, b
Zhang, Z., Wang, W., Gong, C., Jim Yeh, T.-C., Duan, L., and Wang, Z.: Finite analytic method: Analysis of one-dimensional vertical unsaturated flow in layered soils, J. Hydrol., 597, 125716, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125716, 2021. a
Short summary
We introduce SERGHEI-RE, a 3D subsurface flow simulator with performance-portable parallel computing capabilities. SERGHEI-RE performs effectively on various computational devices: from personal computers to advanced clusters. It allows users to solve flow equations with multiple numerical schemes, making it adaptable to various hydrological scenarios. Testing results show its accuracy and performance, confirming that SERGHEI-RE is a powerful tool for hydrological research.
We introduce SERGHEI-RE, a 3D subsurface flow simulator with performance-portable parallel...