Why is Simulating Water Useful?

Simulating the flow of fluids is very important because fluids such as water play a large role in everyones' lives. For example in order to predict the risk of flooding in an area one has to have the ability to simulate water in order to have an idea of where it would flow. Predicting flooding is very important because it allows housing developers to avoid areas that are at high risk of getting flooded. Another important use is predicting erosion. Water plays a major role in erosion and to accurately predict erosion it is useful to have the ability to simulate the process of water picking up material and moving it downstream. Erosion modelling is very important because it shapes landscapes. For example the grand canyon (shown below) was created by the Colorado river eroding the ground. Water driven erosion also plays a role in more human scale areas such as rivers. There are many homes that are on the banks of rivers, and the rivers erode their banks which can destroy houses or other property. Therefore models that can predict the flow of rivers and erosion caused by them are immensely useful in this context.

The shallow water equations are also used to model tsunamis. Especially in costal Alaska tsunamis pose a significant threat to life and property. This means that it is important to be model tsunamis and the damage possible. The Alaska Earthquake Center models the possible inundation due to tsunamis and one inundation map for Valdez Alaska is shown below.

Equations of hydrodynamics based on the shallow water equations (often in multilayer formulation) are often used to model in weather prediction and climate modeling. Climate modeling is a well developed field of science. It is important because many people depend on weather forecasting. For example a farmer may need to know what the weather will be in the growing season to determine what plants to sow.