The goal in this commentary is to share the development of the NASA Applied Science pre‐launch protocol called the Early Adopter Program (EAP) that is designed to build user‐readiness of planned satellite Earth observing missions proactively and before the launch. Here we focus in particular on the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission EAP as an illustration of benefits of such a program of proactive and sustained user community engagement. Such a commentary will be of value to other satellite Earth observation missions that are currently in service, scheduled for launch or prioritized for development in the near future.

The scarcity of water resources nowadays lays stress on researchers to develop strategies aiming at making the best benefit of the currently available resources. One of these strategies is ensuring that reliable and near-optimum designs of water distribution systems (WDSs) are achieved. Designing WDSs is a discrete combinatorial NP-hard optimization problem, and its complexity increases when more objectives are added. Among the many existing evolutionary algorithms, a new hybrid fast-convergent multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is developed to increase the convergence and diversity rates of the resulted non-dominated solutions in terms of network capital cost and reliability using a minimized computational budget. Several strategies are introduced to the developed algorithm, which are self-adaptive PSO parameters, regeneration-on-collision, adaptive population size, and using hypervolume quality for selecting repository members. A local search method is also coupled to both the original MOPSO algorithm and the newly developed one. Both algorithms are applied to medium and large benchmark problems. The results of the new algorithm coupled with the local search are superior to that of the original algorithm in terms of different performance metrics in the medium-sized network. In contrast, the new algorithm without the local search performed better in the large network.

Seepage beneath earth dams founded on pervious strata can cause excessive under-seepage, elevated downstream exit gradients, and high phreatic levels, thereby increasing susceptibility to internal erosion and piping. This study presents a Hele–Shaw laboratory investigation of seepage-control efficiency for an upstream impervious blanket used alone and in combination with a vertical cutoff (blanket–cutoff system). The experimental geometry reproduces a zoned earth dam cross-section at a scale of 1:200. Five foundation thickness ratios $(T/B=0.184–1.00)$ were tested. For the blanket-only system, four blanket length ratios $(L_b/B=0.50–1.25)$ were examined. For the blanket–cutoff system, cutoff depth ratios $(S/T=0.20–0.80)$ were investigated using (i) a representative blanket length $L_b/B=0.75$ across all foundation depths and (ii) a deep-foundation case $T/B=1.00$ across all blanket lengths. Seepage discharge, head loss due to seepage-control measures, maximum exit gradient at the downstream toe, and phreatic line location were measured at steady state and expressed in dimensionless form using the equivalent Hele–Shaw hydraulic conductivity. Relative to the no-measure reference case, the upstream blanket reduced dimensionless discharge by 20.8–70.2%, reduced the exit-gradient indicator by 6.4–50.2%, and reduced the downstream seepage-surface height by 58.9–92.8%. Adding a vertical cutoff provided further reductions relative to the blanket-only configuration, up to 34.4% in discharge and to 29.8% in exit-gradient indicator at $L_b/B=0.75$—while increasing head loss across the upstream control system. Regression-based correlations and main-text design maps are proposed for preliminary sizing. The proposed correlations and design maps are intended for screening-level use only within the tested ranges 0.18 ≤ $T/B$ ≤ 1.00, 0.50 ≤ $L_b/B$ ≤ 1.25, and 0.20 ≤ $S/T$ ≤ 0.80. Because the Hele–Shaw model is a two-dimensional viscous-flow analog of saturated seepage, the results provide a physical basis for relative comparison of seepage-control measures rather than a direct substitute for site-specific analysis of heterogeneous three-dimensional foundations. Accordingly, the agreement discussed in this paper is qualitative and trend-based, and the proposed tools are intended to complement rather than replace quantitative FEM for site-specific design.

A design framework is presented for broad-crested weirs with exponential (power-law) head–discharge behavior and three practical control-section shapes: Rectangular, parabolic, and triangular. Unlike ideal-flow sizing, the approach explicitly accounts for real-flow effects through a velocity coefficient at the control section. Starting from the energy equation and the critical-depth condition, analytical relations are obtained for the control-section depth, the critical depth, and the velocity and discharge coefficients. These relations are coupled with geometry-specific critical-flow expressions to derive a general, dimensionless design equation that links the required contraction ratio to the approach-velocity coefficient, the control-section velocity coefficient, and the head exponent n. The core innovation of the framework is a general dimensionless design equation that directly yields the required control-section area ratio $A^{*}$/$A_o$, i.e., the geometric contraction relative to the approach section, for a specified design head and approach-velocity condition. The method provides direct design parameters for each section family: Rectangular width, parabolic parameter, and triangular head angle. A short quantitative check against representative classical experimental ratios shows very good agreement with measured values. For the applied design example based on a trapezoidal approach section and conservative lower-bound $C_v$ values, neglecting real-flow effects underpredicts the required contraction ratio by about 28–39%, depending on the selected section shape. The developed framework provides a transparent, theoretically grounded, and practical tool for the hydraulic design of broad-crested weirs.