Explore refactoring to use xarray-simlab

[aufdenkampe]

The xarray-simlab modeling framework library has been a source of inspiration for Clearwater-modules, as it:

• Has a well-designed object-oriented abstraction of Models, Processes, and Variables that was informed by other earth simulation libraries.
• Is built around xarray and dask.
• Is well documented
• Is the framework used by the actively maintained Fastscape, a fast and user-friendly landscape evolution model.

In September 2023, we decided to build our own simlab-inspired framework from scratch, largely because we had a very tight timeline to deliver a demo:

• Compare TSM refactor options: xarray-simlab vs custom framework. #14

Since then, we've received additional funding and uncovered critical performance issues in our TSM demo of the Sumwere Creek test case, as described in:

• Improve timestep performance further: numba or not? #57

With further exploration, and conversation with the simlab dev team (xarray-contrib/xarray-simlab#193 (comment)), we're back to considering adopting xarray-simlab as a core dependency because it has solutions for some of our immediate needs:

• Pre-initialize output xarray time coordinates and variables #68
• Reduce memory usage: zero-copy #62
• Reduce memory usage: lazy writing to dask.array #69
• Align variable types with intent used by xarray-simlab #65