Frequently asked questions
What is the San Francisco Bay-Delta Community Model?
It is a set of free, open models of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, built in Delft3D Flexible Mesh. Anyone can download them, run them, change them, or extend them.
What area does it cover?
The Still Water Level Model runs from Point Reyes up to the tidal limits near Sacramento and Vernalis, and includes the whole Bay.
Which models can I download?
The 1D-2D Still Water Level (SWL) Model, the 3D Water Quality Model, and a 2D sediment transport model. All of them are on the Downloads page.
What does the Still Water Level download include?
Model grid, boundary conditions and wind forcing for water years 1951 to 2019, processed results for 1,244 locations around San Francisco Bay, and extreme water level data. If you do not want to run the model, you can download the processed results on their own.
How accurate is the Still Water Level Model?
The average root-mean-square error against observed water levels is 8.0 cm (Nederhoff et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2021.103984).
Who developed it?
The Still Water Level Model was developed by Deltares USA and the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the Alameda County Flood Control District. The 3D Water Quality Model builds on work by Martyr-Koller et al. (2017) and Vroom et al. (2017).
How can I use the models?
They are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. You can run, amend, copy and distribute them.
Where is the official data release?
The U.S. Geological Survey data release holds Still Water Level Model input files and results for October 2018 to April 2019: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9WWB9V4. Input and results for water years 1951 to 2019 are on the Still Water Level download page.
What software do I need?
Delft3D Flexible Mesh, which is open source. The Delft3D FM page is linked from Downloads.
How should I cite the models?
Each model page lists the references to cite. For the Still Water Level Model, cite Nederhoff et al. (2021) and the USGS data release above.