by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Commercial software, Storm & Sewer software — 4 Comments ↓

XPSWMM by xpsoftwareis saidֲ to be complete software package for modeling stormwater and wastewater flows and pollutants. Itֲ may beֲ used by scientists, engineers and resource and asset managers to simulate natural rainfall-runoff processes and the performance of engineered systems that manage our water resources.

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xpswmm is used to develop link-node and spatially distributed models that are applied to the analysis, design and simulation of storm and wastewater systems. xpswmm also models flow and pollutant transport in natural systems including rivers, lakes, and floodplains with groundwater interaction. Floodplain flow can be modeled in 2 dimensions or in an integrated 1D-2D linked configuration.

xpswmm simulates the complete hydrologic cycle in rural and urban watersheds. Beginning with single or multiple rainfall events and dry weather flows, it models flows through collection, conveyance and treatment systems to the final outfalls. All hydrologic processes including infiltration, temporary storage and ground-surface water exchanges are included in the model.

Key features:

  • GIS Integration
  • Animations
  • Scenario manager
  • Real time control
  • EPA SWMM compatibility
  • FEMA approval
  • Hydrology methods choices
  • Localization
  • Quick data view
  • Subsurface hydrology
  • Conduit design

I found a video on YouTube that shows an example of building flooding using xpswmm (see other videos tagged with xpswmm):

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Free software, Storm & Sewer software — 2 Comments ↓

The nofdp IDSS (Nature Oriented Flood Damage Prevention, Information and Decision Support System) is an open source application for the interactive development of flood risk strategies and 1D hydrodynamic flood simulation. Additionalֲ modules for ecological and spatial analysis, multi criteria evaluation, flood risk maps, flood frequency, flood duration and communication are included.

nofdp-idss

watch video, download source code.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Commercial software — 1 Comment ↓

ESRI web site includes a section named The Resource Center for Water Utilities Management:

The web site is for the ArcGIS water, wastewater, and stormwater utility community. It provides useful templates and best practice information enabling you to implement ArcGIS to manage your water utility information, perform your daily operations, and support your long term planning.

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An interesting section is the Asset Management page (video):

ArcGIS helps you maintain and manage up-to-date information about your water utility’s assets, including detailed descriptions about their current condition and operating status. You can also create performance information about your facilities such as customer complaints, main breaks, leaks, meter readings, and SCADA data.

Water utility asset management starts with compiling a geographic database of your utility network from source documents such as as-built drawings, construction plans, field observations, and GPS data collectors.

The Water Utilitiesֲ Blog has more useful information for the GIS user.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in EPANET related, Programming — 16 Comments ↓

A visitor that came to this blog from Demetriosֲ Eliades’sֲ web site reminded me of the EPANet and Matlab issue. About 3 years ago I was busy preparing for the Battle of the Water Sensor Networks (BWSN). A few people helped me test and debug the software utilities for the battle. One of them was Philip Jonkergouwֲ from the University of Exeter. One of the methods we used to validate theֲ programs was to independently write the code and compare results. I developed the programs in Visual Basic and Philip used Matlab.

The programs we wrote had to call the EPANet toolkit.ֲ Both of us spent a lot of time setting up the programsֲ to work correctly according to the BWSN rules. When it did work we compared the results, fixed the bugs and the BWSN is history.

Calling EPANet from Matlab is still a task people are looking for help with. Philip postedֲ a Matlab file and shared his experience. Some time later Demetrios publishedֲ an “enhanced modified version” with some technical explanation for beginners.

More information regarding EPANet and Matlab integration can be found by searching the Water Simulation Forum.

I have met Demetrios in August 2006 at the WDSA 2006 and even had a good time. Who said water engineers can’t party?

wdsa2006

From right to left: Ami Preis, Demetriosֲ Eliades, Lina Perelman, yours truly and a Colombian guy that I can’t remember his name.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in EPANET related — 12 Comments ↓

Robert E. Pitt is a Professor at the University of Alabama. For his Urban Water Systems and Water Resources Engineering courses he wrote a Step-by-Step Guide to EPANET 2.0 Simulations.

The guide starts with creating a new project, adding elements, moving, deleting and editing objects.ֲ  The text is accompanied with many screen shots and editors examples.

This is a good starting point for the novice user.

Download here or here (PDF)

by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Off topic — No Comments ↓

From FrontLine:

More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, iconic American waterways like the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are in perilous condition and facing new sources of contamination.

With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture and massive suburban development, scientists note that many new pollutants and toxins from modern everyday life are already being found in the drinking water of millions of people across the country and pose a threat to fish, wildlife and, potentially, human health.

In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Events & news — 4 Comments ↓

The Los-Angeles Times has a interesting write up about water rights in Colorado:

Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law. Holstrom’s violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain. But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom’s property is not hers to keep. It should be allowed to fall to the ground and flow unimpeded into surrounding creeks and streams, the law states, to become the property of farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways.

This is not the same as two countries that share a river and fighting over water rights, it is whether water should be considered as property.

I remember hearing that water is actually H2O2 – two parts of Hydrogen, one part of Oxygen and one part of Opinion.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Programming, Water security — No Comments ↓

BackSense is new methodology to identify the possible sources location and time frame of a contamination that may cause the trigger of a set of water quality sensors that are part of an Early Contamination Warning System (ECWS). The basic idea of BackSense it to identify all the networks nodes that can “reach” a specific sensor at given time. BackSense may suggest the location of the contamination while providing information regarding safe areas of the network. The new methodology is fast enough to be used in real time, accurate and simple to implement.

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The ideal operating scenario of a system like BackSense would be in the water utility’s control center. It should be connected to the SCADA system that holds both the sensors reading and the hydraulic state of the distribution network (operating state of different elements, tank levels and demand readings). As BackSense uses an hydraulic simulation, a calibrated model of the the network is required. It is important to note that a water quality model is not required by BackSense!

The methodology was verified using two real world water distribution systems described in the BWSN. The small network includes 129 nodes and 170 and the algorithm runs in a few seconds. The large network (12,527 nodes and 14,431 links) is solved in about three minutes.

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At present, the graphical user interface is limited but the underlying algorithms are in place. This method had not been published and circulated to a limited number of people and companies. A (very) short screen cast is available at http://backsense.optiwater.com/v1/.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Events & news — 3 Comments ↓

A free online water management summit will be held on April 21st 2009, starting on 7pm:

This summit features presentations by scientists, academics, and business leaders addressing the increasingly important issue of water management. For businesses, efficiency will cut costs and promote environmental awareness, and for all, this summit will provide insight into best practices, tips, case studies, and solutions for responsible resource and facility management.

Six presentation are scheduled:

  1. Introducing the Alliance for Water Stewardship
  2. Water and Information Management
  3. Building Water Sustainability into Intelג€™s Business Processes
  4. Global Water Trends and the Corporate Response
  5. Is Water the New Carbon? Corporations Expand Their Strategies
  6. Analyzing Water Impacts in California

More details here.

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by Elad SalomonsPosted on Posted in Events & news — No Comments ↓

Some time ago a heard a talk by a safety specialist who recommended not to shower when an electric water heater is turned on. Well, so folks over at Ft. Lupton, Colo. are showering with the lights off. Its for the romance but for safety since they have flammable water!

gas-in-water

As it turns out, gas from near by wells penetrated the water system and is flowing from the faucets (video).

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