How to Estimate the Needed Time Step for your Model using DB Tools in InfoSWMM

How to Estimate the Needed Time Step for your Model using DB Tools in InfoSWMM pic.twitter.com/zpoZyNPQaq

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) June 14, 2013

How to Make Custom Labels in InfoSWMM and InfoSewer

How to Make Custom Labels in InfoSWMM and InfoSewer pic.twitter.com/ikx0dxsl01

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) June 14, 2013

How to simulate a Quasi Steady Run in InfoSWMM, H2OMap SWMM or SWMM 5

How to simulate a Quasi Steady Run in InfoSWMM, H2OMap SWMM or SWMM 5 pic.twitter.com/4un4P19HFo
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) June 14, 2013

Steps in Merging Two InfoSWMM Models without any Scenarios

Steps in Merging Two InfoSWMM Models without any Scenariostwitpic.com/cwik9h

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) June 10, 2013

Wikipedia Traffic for the SWMM versus EPANET Articles

Subject:  Wikipedia Traffic for the SWMM versus EPANET Articles

Wikipedia has one article for EPANET and three articles for SWMM 5 (two are redirected to the Stormwater Management Model Main Article).  The statistics for the last three years (data before 2007 is unavailable) show an average of 28 visitors per day to SWMM and 16 per day to EPANET).  The search name has switched from the word SWMM to Stormwater Management Model starting in 2009.

Losses from a Subcatchment in SWMM 5 are composed of Evaporation + Infiltration = Total Losses

Losses from a Subcatchment in SWMM 5 are composed of Evaporation + Infiltration = Total Lossestwitpic.com/cv8oc5
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) June 4, 2013

Applicazione di tecnologie BMP ai sistemi di drenaggio urbano , It is about SWMM 5 and LID's

A good thesis from Italy on modelling BMP's and LID's in an Urban Environment
Applicazione di tecnologie BMP ai sistemi di drenaggio urbano

Figure 1,  Applicazione di tecnologie BMP

How to Use Map Display to show flooding in H2OMap SWMM

How to Use Map Display to show flooding in H2OMap SWMMtwitpic.com/cubswl
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 30, 2013

Making Wastewater Systems Smarter

Making Wastewater Systems Smarter

Link http://www.innovyze.com/news/1494/Making_Wastewater_Systems_Smarter

Making Wastewater Systems Smarter

Custom shape in SWMM 5

You can use a custom shape in SWMM 5 for a closed Link or if it is an open channel then you can use a Transect Section as in HEC-RAS

You use the custom shape,
Make a Table of Depth/Full Depth and Width/Full Depth

Top Width of LID is Important for a Swale in the Subcatchment Dialog

Top Width of LID is Important for a Swale in the Subcatchment Dialog twitpic.com/ctmvrq

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 27, 2013

Two Methods to Calibrate RDII RTK parameters in H2OMAP SWMM and InfoSWMM

Two Methods to Calibrate RDII RTK parameters in H2OMAP SWMM and InfoSWMM

There are two methods to calibrate the RTK parameters for RDII Analysis in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM.  The two methods are similar but use a different approach to calibrate the data:

1.       The RDII Hydrograph component of the Calibrator Add On also uses a Genetic Algorithm to calibrate the upstream RDII locations based on monitored flow but using the hydraulic network for the calibration.
2.      The RDII Analyst uses a Genetic Algorithm to Calibrate the RTK parameters for one location using monitored rainfall and flow data.  This calibration does not take into account the hydraulic routing in the network. 

Figure 1.  RDII Analyst and GA Calibrator

If you use the DOS Version of SWMM 5 be careful to NOT have spaces in directory names

If you use the DOS Version of SWMM 5 be careful to NOT have spaces in directory names twitpic.com/csq2kj
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 24, 2013

InfoSWMM can import H2OMAP Sewer, InfoSewer and H2OMAP SWMM models

InfoSWMM can import H2OMAP Sewer, InfoSewer and H2OMAP SWMM models twitpic.com/csq1dp
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 24, 2013

Water Providers of North America v 2.0 infographic

Water Providers of North America v 2.0 infographic

Water Providers of North America v 1.0 infographic

Representation of Surcharging in 1D Open Channels in InfoWorks ICM and CS

Representation of Surcharging in 1D Open Channels in InfoWorks ICM and CS blog.innovyze.com/2013/05/23/rep…
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 23, 2013

GA Calibration Options in InfoSWMM help find the best parameters

GA Calibration Options in InfoSWMM help find the best parameterstwitpic.com/cse4qp
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 22, 2013

Nodes in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM

Nodes in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM

Or how the invert, rim elevation, crown elevation of the highest connecting link, pressure depth and flooded depth interact during a simulation.

Level (invert of the Node)

Elevation (crown – surcharged if the HGL is above the crown elevation)

Ground (either a depth above invert or a Rim Elevation)

Overflow is either lost, stored, increases the HGL, Inlet Controlled or flows to a 2D mesh depending on the values of Surcharge Depth, Ponded Area, Inlet Options or 2D Options, respectively

How to Make a New GeoDataBase in InfoSWMM or InfoSewer

How to Make a New GeoDataBase in InfoSWMM or InfoSewertwitpic.com/cs6iul
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 21, 2013

The detailed LID Modeling Report in InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMM is made for the Show Detailed Output Command

>
The detailed LID Modelingt Report in InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMM is made for the Show Detailed Output Commandtwitpic.com/crp3sh
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 19, 2013

Five Parameters beside the Maximum Time Step that help control simulation length in InfoSWMM and SWMM

Five Parameters beside the Maximum Time Step that help control simulation length in InfoSWMM and SWMM 5twitpic.com/crhplq
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 18, 2013

FYI, If you like twitter and like to center your embeded tweets add this to the custom twitter code How to center your embedded tweets class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center">

Four Key Parameters to Control Your Model, Time Step, Iterations, Time Step Lengthening and Hot Start File

Four Key Parameters to Control Your Model, Time Step, Iterations, Time Step Lengthening and Hot Start Filetwitpic.com/cpfht1
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 9, 2013

From 3QD - THE MATHEMATICS OF ROUGHNESS

THE MATHEMATICS OF ROUGHNESS

Jim Holt reviews Benoit B. Mandelbrot's The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick, in the NYRB:

Benoit Mandelbrot, the brilliant Polish-French-American mathematician who died in 2010, had a poet’s taste for complexity and strangeness. His genius for noticing deep links among far-flung phenomena led him to create a new branch of geometry, one that has deepened our understanding of both natural forms and patterns of human behavior. The key to it is a simple yet elusive idea, that of self-similarity.
To see what self-similarity means, consider a homely example: the cauliflower. Take a head of this vegetable and observe its form—the way it is composed of florets. Pull off one of those florets. What does it look like? It looks like a little head of cauliflower, with its own subflorets. Now pull off one of those subflorets. What does that look like? A still tinier cauliflower. If you continue this process—and you may soon need a magnifying glass—you’ll find that the smaller and smaller pieces all resemble the head you started with. The cauliflower is thus said to be self-similar. Each of its parts echoes the whole.
Other self-similar phenomena, each with its distinctive form, include clouds, coastlines, bolts of lightning, clusters of galaxies, the network of blood vessels in our bodies, and, quite possibly, the pattern of ups and downs in financial markets. The closer you look at a coastline, the more you find it is jagged, not smooth, and each jagged segment contains smaller, similarly jagged segments that can be described by Mandelbrot’s methods. Because of the essential roughness of self-similar forms, classical mathematics is ill-equipped to deal with them. Its methods, from the Greeks on down to the last century, have been better suited to smooth forms, like circles. (Note that a circle is not self-similar: if you cut it up into smaller and smaller segments, those segments become nearly straight.)
Only in the last few decades has a mathematics of roughness emerged, one that can get a grip on self-similarity and kindred matters like turbulence, noise, clustering, and chaos. And Mandelbrot was the prime mover behind it. 

Posted by Robin Varghese at 12:51 PM | Permalink 

SWMM5 Simple Model

Flooding Options in a SWMM 5 Manhole

Flooding Options in a SWMM 5 Manholetwitpic.com/cnfwcd
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) May 1, 2013

SWMM5 1000 Year Runoff Flow Duration Curve using SWMM 5 Statistics

SWMM5 1000 Year Runoff Flow Duration Curve using SWMM 5 Statistics twitpic.com/ck37uw
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) April 18, 2013

How to calculate the Maximum Unfilled Manhole Depth in InfoSewer

How to calculate the Maximum Unfilled Manhole Depth in InfoSewertwitpic.com/cif0zd
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) April 10, 2013

SWMM 5 Statistics for a 1000 year Simulation

SWMM 5 Statistics for a 1000 year Simulationtwitpic.com/cifasa
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) April 10, 2013

Mass Balance in SWMM 5

Mass Balance in SWMM 5twitpic.com/celztg
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 26, 2013

How to switch the upstream and downstream nodes in SWMM 5

How to switch the upstream and downstream nodes in SWMM 5 twitpic.com/choav7
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) April 7, 2013

Live Link between the HGL Plot in InfoSWMM and the DB Tables/ Attribute Browser

Live Link between the HGL Plot in InfoSWMM and the DB Tables/ Attribute Browser twitpic.com/cbygp8
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 17, 2013

Storage Nodes in InfoSWMM 2D

Storage Nodes in InfoSWMM 2Dyoutu.be/Jqk4YPMu3hY via @youtube

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 15, 2013

Increase in heavy rainfalls over past 60 years in upper Midwest, US

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130313182312.htm

March 14, 2013

Mar. 13, 2013 — Heavy rains have become more frequent in the upper Midwest over the past 60 years, according to a study from the University of Iowa. The trend appears to hold true even with the current drought plaguing the region, the study's main author says.

The fact that temperatures over the country's midsection are rising, too, may be more than coincidence. The hotter the surface temperature, which has been the trend in the Midwest and the rest of the world, the more water that can be absorbed by the atmosphere. And the more water available for precipitation means a greater chance for heavy rains, explains Gabriele Villarini, assistant professor in engineering at the UI and lead author of the paper, published in the Journal of Climate, the official publication of the American Meteorological Society.

"We found that there is a tendency toward increasing trends in heavy rainfall in the northern part of the study region, roughly the upper Mississippi River basin," says Villarini, in the civil and environmental engineering department and an assistant research engineer at the IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering. "We tried to explain these results in light of changes in temperature. We found that the northern part of the study region -- including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois -- is also the area experiencing large increasing trends in temperature, resulting in an increase in atmospheric water vapor."

Villarini notes the current drought affecting the Midwest and other regions of the country has occurred too recently to be included in his study, whose data goes from about 1950 to 2010.

"I'm not looking at the average annual rainfall. I'm studying heavy rainfall events," he says. "We may currently be in deficit for overall rainfall, but we may also be in the normal range when it comes to the number of heavy rainfall days."

Villarini and his colleagues examined changes in the frequency of heavy rainfall through daily measurements at 447 rain gauge stations in the central and southern United States. The states included were: Minnesota, Wisconsin Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Each rain gauge station has a record of at least 50 years. The data cover much of the 20^th century and the first decade of this century. For the purposes of the study, heavy rainfall was defined as days in which rainfall exceeded the 95^th percentile of the at-site rainfall distribution.

Villarini notes that while his study focused on changes in temperature and the frequency of heavy rainfall over the central United States, other published results have shown rainfall increases to be linked to changes in irrigation over the Ogallala Aquifer, which runs from Nebraska to northern Texas. Based on those studies, he says it is reasonable to assume that changes in land use, land cover and agricultural practice would affect the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as well.

His colleagues in the study are James Smith, professor at Princeton University; and Gabriel Vecchi, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The research was funded by NASA and the Willis Research Network.

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---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa. The original article was written by Gary Galluzzo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Gabriele Villarini, James A. Smith, Gabriel A. Vecchi. Changing Frequency of Heavy Rainfall over the Central United States. Journal of Climate, 2013; 26 (1): 351 DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00043.1

How to define link widths in InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMM

How to define link widths in InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMMtwitpic.com/c8n3g4
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 4, 2013

How to Map Maximum Top Width in InfoSWMM

How to Map Maximum Top Width in InfoSWMMtwitpic.com/c8utbx
— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 5, 2013

How to Rename a Scenario in InfoSWMM

How to Rename a Scenario in InfoSWMMtwitpic.com/c7l5t3

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) February 28, 2013

How to have backwater in a dummy OUTLET in SWMM 5

How to have backwater in a dummy OUTLET in SWMM 5twitpic.com/c7mhau

— RDickinson (@RDickinson) March 1, 2013

New Top Width Graph Feature in InfoSWMM

New Top Width Graph Feature in InfoSWMM

New Top Width Graph Feature in InfoSWMM

Genetic Algorithm and GIS Addons to InfoSWMM

Genetic Algorithm and GIS Addons to InfoSWMM

google6b814b77922a6829.html

google-site-verification: google6b814b77922a6829.html

From the Dish - The Wisdom of Play

The Wisdom Of Play

FEB 10 2013 @ 1:43PM

Mark Rowland meditates on the well-lived life, arguing that it “is play, and not work, that gives value to our lives”:

It might be that most of the things we do in life we do for the sake of something else. But there are still some things we do just to do them — for their own sake and not for the sake of anything else. If the former category is work, then the latter category is play. Work is activity directed at an external goal. Play is activity whose goal is internal or intrinsic to it. In its pure form, play has no external purpose or reward. We play just to play. When my sons’ volleys have been sufficiently consistent and accurate, their tennis coach will instigate a game. He yells, ‘Fruit basket!’ and lobs several balls into the air in quick succession. They have to drop their rackets, run and catch the balls before they stop bouncing. This is done amid much cackling and squeals of delight on their part — almost as if the rest of their lesson was work aimed at unleashing this bout of play. I love watching this, because I cannot imagine a purer form of play. There is no external goal or purpose. My sons do it simply because at that precise moment in time — and the squeals of delight are testament to this — there is nothing in the world they would rather be doing.

Ten years of cumulative precipitation

January 28, 2013 to Mapping by Nathan Yau

We've all seen rain maps for a sliver of time. Screw that. I want to see the total amount of rainfall over a ten-year period. Bill Wheaton did just that in the video above, showing cumulative rainfall between 1960 and 1970. The cool part is that you see mountains appear, but they're not actually mapped.  Source on FlowingData

The hillshaded terrain (the growing hills and mountains) is based on the rainfall data, not on actual physical topography. In other words, hills and mountains are formed by the rainfall distribution itself and grow as the accumulated precipitation grows. High mountains and sharp edges occur where the distribution of precipitation varies substantially across short distances. Wide, broad plains and low hills are formed when the distribution of rainfall is relatively even across the landscape.

See also Wheaton's video that shows four years of rain straight up.

Is there more recent data? It could be an interesting complement to the drought maps we saw a few months ago. [Thanks, Bill]

How To Run the SWMM 5 Console from the SWMM 5 GUI

How To Run the SWMM 5 Console from the SWMM 5 GUI

Use the SWMM 5 tools, define the program as the DOS engine or SWMM5.EXE (1), run the tool (2) and see the dos output in the command window of Windows 7 or Windows XP.  It should also be possible to call Matlab and have Matlab call the SWMM 5 program using the SWMM 5 interface.

InfoSWMM Import and Export from SWMM

Outlets in SWMM 5 can have reverse flow

Outlets in SWMM 5 can have reverse flow

Outlets in SWMM 5 can have reverse flow (1) if the downstream head is greater than the upstream head (2), a flap gate (3) will prevent the flow reversal (4).  An outlet can have both positive and negative flow as long as you do not prevent it by having a flap gate.

InfoSWMM and InfoSewer Product Pages and Videos

InfoSewer Product Page
InfoSWMM Product Page
InfoSWMM 2D Product Page
Innovyze Videos

Stopping Tolerance in InfoSWMM, H2OMAP SWMM and SWMM5 Internal Units

Stopping Tolerance in InfoSWMM, H2OMAP SWMM and SWMM5 Internal Units

InfoSWMM, H2OMAP SWMM and SWMM 5 share the same underlying dynamic engine code but one small difference is that InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM allows the user to select the node stopping tolerance instead of always using the default SWMM 5 stopping tolerance of 0.0005  feet.  SWMM 5 uses internal units of feet and shows the output in meters if you are using SI units, as does InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM.  The following table shows how the stopping tolerance translates to inches and millimeters in the engine of a US and SI model.   The smaller the tolerance the larger the number of iterations used during the simulation but using a very small tolerance does not always mean a better simulation.  If possible, for example, with pumps it is better to use a small time step and a medium level tolerance – for example 1 millimeter is a good starting  value, but maybe 2 or 3 millimeters may help if you have a continuity error at a pump node. 

The nodes are considered converged if the depths between successive iterations is less than the stop tolerance of the program (the default stop tolerance is less than the stopping tolerance (Figure 1)

Stopping Tolerance	Inches	Millimeters
0.1000000	1.2000000	30.4800000
0.0500000	0.6000000	15.2400000
0.0100000	0.1200000	3.0480000
0.0050000	0.0600000	1.5240000
0.0001000	0.0012000	0.0304800
0.0005000	0.0060000	0.1524000
0.0000100	0.0001200	0.0030480
0.0000500	0.0006000	0.0152400
0.0000010	0.0000120	0.0003048
0.0000050	0.0000600	0.0015240
0.0000001	0.0000012	0.0000305

Figure 1  If the node depths between successive iterations are less than the stopping tolerance then the node is considered to be converged.

Importing a Link Shapefile into InfoSWMM via GIS Gateway

Importing a Link Shapefile into InfoSWMM via GIS Gateway

Here is how you map the shapefile pipe fields to the InfoSWMM data fields.  One note, you had two diameter fields (feet and inches) and the feet column was mostly zero so I used the inch column.  Here are the four steps and mapping you need to import all of the data from your shapefile.  You will have to use blockedit and convert the diameter from inches to feet in the DB link table (Step 5 – note there are still three missing pipe diameters).

Step 1.  Use the GIS Gateway command and set up the import of the file name, and ID field

Step 2. Set up the mapping between the Shapefile fields and InfoSWMM.  We used link offset and the pipe diameter in inches.

Step 3. Load the mapped shapefile

Step 4.  The imported data from your shapefile into the DB table of InfoSWMM

Step 5  Convert to feet from inches

Climate-proofing cities

Here's just one example, from Singapore:

RnD.de.PortraitsSingapore's Marina Barrage.

The Marina Barrage and Reservoir, which opened in 2008, is at the heart of Singapore's two-billion-dollar campaign to improve drainage infrastructure, reduce the size of flood-prone areas, and enhance the quality of city life. It has nine operable crest gates, a series of enormous pumps, and a ten-thousand-hectare catchment area that is roughly one-seventh the size of the country. The system not only protects low-lying urban neighborhoods from flooding during heavy rains; it also eliminates the tidal influence of the surrounding seawater, creating a rainfed supply of freshwater that currently meets ten percent of Singapore's demand. More over, by stabilizing water levels in the Marina basin the barriers have produced better conditions for water sports. The Marina's public areas, which include a sculpture garden, a water-play space, a green roof with dramatic skyline vistas, and the Sustainable Singapore Gallery, bolster the city's tourist economy as well.

That's a brilliant way to address two climate impacts -- large precipitation events and rising sea levels -- at once. Singapore has also elevated all access points to its underground subway a least a meter above high-water flood levels. It's also building desalination plants and systems to reuse waste water. It's also burying its power lines.

Engineers at the Dutch firm Arcadis recently proposed a large new sea barrier for north of New York City's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The price tag: $6.5 billion. And that's just one small piece of the puzzle. All this stuff is prudent, but it's expensive.

Via http://grist.org/climate-energy/climate-proofing-cities-not-something-conservatives-are-going-to-be-good-at/

How to Compile SWMM 5 in Visual Studio 2010 Express

How to Compile SWMM 5 in Visual Studio 2010 Express

Download the newest SWMM 5 code(Figure 1) from http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/#Downloads and then make a new directory on your computer. We will call it c:\newSWMM5Code with a subdirectory C:\newSWMMCode\VC2005_DLL  in which the attached vcxproj file is placed.  The source code from the EPA should be placed on C:\newSWMMCode.  You can then open up the file swmm5_ms.vcxproj and make a new SWMM 5 DLL model with your code modifications (if needed). 

swmm5_ms.vcxproj Download this file