WaterCAST (the Water and Contaminant Analysis and Simulation Tool) is a software product for whole-of-catchment modelling. It has been developed to facilitate the improved and consistent evaluation of flows, loads and concentrations of constituents, under scenarios that include actual or planned changes in land use, land management, climate variability and climate change. This PROTOTYPE RELEASE of WaterCAST includes additional tools for modelling: * Ability to run stochastic replicates of climate data (generated using the stochastic climate library multi-site daily rainfall algorithm) through the model and produce summary statistics of model results. * The impact of farm dams distributed through a functional unit or subcatchment on the volume of runoff to stream * Corrections to the ASCII Grid Preprocessor algorithm that converts grids of SILO derived rainfall inputs to time series inputs for each subcatchment of the model It is known that the model calibration tool DOES NOT WORK in this prototype release. If you want to use this tool, use the Beta release.

This is a PROTOTYPE RELEASE, specifically targeted at WaterCAST application projects that want to apply the new features of the prototype release. FILES CREATED OR MODIFIED IN THIS PROTOTYPE RELEASE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO READ BY FUTURE VERSIONS. IF YOU ARE USING A WATERCAST/E2 PROJECT FILE CREATED IN A PREVIOUS VERSION (eg Beta v 1.0.0) THEN MAKE SURE THAT YOU SAVE A COPY BEFORE DOING ANYTHING TO IT IN THIS PROTOTYPE VERSION.

For general guidance on complexity issues, please see the WaterCAST Beta release page. For specific guidance on running the new modules that have been developed for this internal release, please refer to: Stochastic climate runs Andrew Freebairn and Phillip Jordan Farm dams Lydia Cetin and Andrew Freebairn ASCII Grid Preprocessor Fix Brendan Farthing

For example applications, please see the WaterCAST Beta Release page. Typical example applications of the new modules available only in this PROTOTYPE RELEASE: Stochastic climate runs Understanding the influence of natural climate variability on the variability in the results (flows and constituent loads) that I can expect at the end of the catchment, or at intermediate points of interest in the catchment. Farm dams Incorporating the combined influence of farm dams on runoff from the catchment or subcatchment, of which there may be many hundreds or even thousands in the catchment. This could allow for better calibraton of the model, by allowing for changes in runoff that are attributable to the farm dams.

This PROTOTYPE RELEASE of WaterCAST includes additional tools for modelling: * Ability to run stochastic replicates of climate data (generated using the stochastic climate library multi-site daily rainfall algorithm) through the model and produce summary statistics of model results. * The impact of farm dams distributed through a functional unit or subcatchment on the volume of runoff to stream * Corrections to the ASCII Grid Preprocessor algorithm that converts grids of SILO derived rainfall inputs to time series inputs for each subcatchment of the model