Large scale computing at Rijkswaterstaat

The Dutch Rijkswaterstaat uses simulation models extensively in carrying out its various tasks, among which are the protection of the country from flooding and the management of shipping routes and ports. Different applications of the models lead to large scale computations. Furthermore the continuing increase in level of detail of the simulations demands more and more computing power.In the past few years, Rijkswaterstaat/RIKZ, Delft University of Technology and VOR-tech Computing have developed and implemented techniques to make these large scale simulations possible. First the 3D shallow water model TRIWAQ has been parallelized. Then this parallel version has been extended to allow for different forms of domain decomposition. Finally also various on-line couplings with different models have been established.In this paper we give an overview of these developments and of our approach towards parallel computing that enabled us to carry out all of these developments in a single conceptual framework.