The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently announced that it has launched a new prize competition to develop improved snowpack water forecasts.
According to a press release, the competition will consist of two different tracks for a total of $500,000 in prize awards.
Track 1 is a Prediction Competition where competitors will develop and train machine learning models to estimate the current spatial distribution of snow water equivalent (SWE) over the Western United States. Models will be executed on a weekly basis to generate near real-time estimates of SWE throughout the winter and spring seasons. Models will be evaluated against ground truth data, and prizes will be awarded based on model performance. The total prize purse for the prediction competition is $440,000.
Track 2 is a Model Report Competition where solvers will submit additional documentation of their models. Documentation must contain additional model analysis and discussion of solution methodology, including detailed discussion of the robustness and interpretability. The total prize purse for the model report competition is $60,000.
"The Bureau of Reclamation is launching a new prize competition for improved snowpack water forecast techniques throughout the West. Developing better techniques to determine the amount of water stored as snowpack provides water managers with more accurate information to make better water management decisions," according to a press release.
Submission deadlines for each track are Feb. 15, 2022 – 6:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) for the Track 1 Prediction Competition and March 15, 2022 – 6:59 PM EST for the Track 2 Model Report Challenge.
The Bureau of Reclamation has partnered with multiple agencies and organizations for this competition. These include the Bonneville Power Administration, NASA – Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Geological Survey, National Center for Atmospheric Research, DrivenData, HeroX, Ensemble and NASA Tournament Lab.
