SWMM5 or the Storm Water Management Model from Wikipedia - for Translation Purposes

Storm Water Management Model 

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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Storm Water Management Model (SWMM)[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] is a dynamic rainfall–runoff–subsurface runoff simulation model used for single-event to long-term (continuous) simulationof the surface/subsurface hydrology quantity and quality from primarily urban/suburban areas. The hydrology component of SWMM operates on a collection of subcatchment areas divided into impervious and pervious areas with and without depression storage to predict runoff and pollutant loads from precipitation, evaporation and infiltrationlosses from each of the subcatchment. In addition low impact development (LID) and best management practice areas on the subcatchment can be modeled to reduce the impervious and pervious runoff. The routing or hydraulics section of SWMM transports this water and possible associated water quality constituents through a system of closed pipes, open channels, storage/treatment devices, ponds, storages, pumps, orifices, weirs, outlets, outfalls and other regulators. SWMM tracks the quantity and quality of the flow generated within each subcatchment, and the flow rate, flow depth, and quality of water in each pipe and channel during a simulation period composed of multiple fixed or variable time steps. The water quality constituents such as water quality constituents can be simulated from buildup on the subcatchments through washoff to a hydraulic network with optional first order decay and linked pollutant removal, best management practice and low-impact development (LID) removal and treatment can be simulated at selected storage nodes. SWMM is one of the hydrology transport models which the EPA and other agencies have applied widely throughout North America and through consultants and universities throughout the world. The latest update notes and new features can be found on the EPA website in the download section.

Program description

The EPA storm water management model (SWMM) is a dynamic rainfall-runoff-routing simulation model used for single event or long-term (continuous) simulation of runoff quantity and quality from primarily urban areas. The runoff component of SWMM operates on a collection of subcatchment areas that receive precipitation and generate runoff and pollutant loads. The routing portion of SWMM transports this runoff through a system of pipes, channels, storage/treatment devices, pumps, and regulators. SWMM tracks the quantity and quality of runoff generated within each subcatchment, and the flow rate, flow depth, and quality of water in each pipe and channel during a simulation period divided into multiple time steps.

SWMM accounts for various hydrologic processes that produce runoff from urban areas. These include:

1. time-varying rainfall
2. evaporation of standing surface water
3. snow accumulation and melting
4. rainfall interception from depression storage
5. infiltration of rainfall into unsaturated soil layers
6. percolation of infiltrated water into groundwater layers
7. interflow between groundwater and the drainage system
8. nonlinear reservoir routing of overland flow
9. capture and retention of rainfall/runoff with various types of low impact development (LID) practices.

SWMM also contains a flexible set of hydraulic modeling capabilities used to route runoff and external inflows through the drainage system network of pipes, channels, storage/treatment units and diversion structures. These include the ability to:

1. handle networks of unlimited size·
2. use a wide variety of standard closed and open conduit shapes as well as natural channels·
3. model special elements such as storage/treatment units, flow dividers, pumps, weirs, and orifices·
4. apply external flows and water quality inputs from surface runoff, groundwater interflow, rainfall-dependent infiltration/inflow, dry weather sanitary flow, and user-defined inflows
5. utilize either kinematic wave or full dynamic wave flow routing methods·
6. model various flow regimes, such as backwater, surcharging, reverse flow, and surface ponding·
7. apply user-defined dynamic control rules to simulate the operation of pumps, orifice openings, and weir crest levels.

Spatial variability in all of these processes is achieved by dividing a study area into a collection of smaller, homogeneous subcatchment areas, each containing its own fraction of pervious and impervious sub-areas. Overland flow can be routed between sub-areas, between subcatchments, or between entry points of a drainage system.

Since its inception, SWMM has been used in thousands of sewer and stormwater studies throughout the world. Typical applications include:

1. design and sizing of drainage system components for flood control
2. sizing of detention facilities and their appurtenances for flood control and water quality protection·
3. flood plain mapping of natural channel systems, by modeling the river hydraulics and associated flooding problems using prismatic channels·
4. designing control strategies for minimizing Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) and Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO)·
5. evaluating the impact of inflow and infiltration on sanitary sewer overflows·
6. generating non-point source pollutant loadings for waste load allocation studies·
7. evaluating the effectiveness of BMPs and Subcatchment LID's for reducing wet weather pollutant loadings.Rainfall-runoff modeling of urban and rural watersheds
8. hydraulic and water quality analysis of storm, sanitary, and combined sewer systems
9. master planning of sewer collection systems and urban watersheds
10. system evaluations associated with USEPA's regulations including NDPES permits, CMOM, and TMDL
11. 1D and 2D (surface ponding) predictions of flood levels and flooding volume

EPA SWMM is public-domain software that may be freely copied and distributed. The SWMM 5 public domain consists of C engine code and Delphi SWMM 5 graphical user interface code. The C code and Delphi code are easily edited and can be recompiled by students and professionals for custom features or extra output features.

History

SWMM was first developed between 1969–1971 and has undergone four major upgrades since those years. The major upgrades were: (1) Version 2 in 1973-1975, (2) Version 3 in 1979-1981, (3) Version 4 in 1985-1988 and (4) Version 5 in 2001-2004. A list of the major changes and post 2004 changes are shown in Table 1. The current SWMM edition, Version 5/5.1.007, is a complete re-write of the previous Fortran releases in the programming language C, and it can be run under Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and also with a recomplilation under Unix. The code for SWMM5 is open source and public domain code that can be downloaded from the EPA Web Site.

Table 1. SWMM History

Release Date Versions Developers FEMA Approval LID Controls 08/20/2015 SWMM 5.1.010 EPA Yes Yes 04/30/2015 SWMM 5.1.009 EPA Yes Yes 04/17/2015 SWMM 5.1.008 EPA Yes Yes 10/09/2014 SWMM 5.1.007 EPA Yes Yes 06/02/2014 SWMM 5.1.006 EPA Yes Yes 03/27/2014 SWMM 5.1.001 EPA Yes Yes 04/21/2011 SWMM 5.0.022 EPA Yes Yes 08/20/2010 SWMM 5.0.019 EPA Yes Yes 08/17/2005 SWMM 5.0.005 EPA, CDM Yes No 11/30/2004 SWMM 5.0.004 EPA, CDM No No 11/25/2004 SWMM 5.0.003 EPA, CDM No No 10/26/2004 SWMM 5.0.001 EPA, CDM No No 2001–2004 SWMM5 EPA, CDM No No 1988–2004 SWMM4 UF, OSU, CDM No No 1981–1988 SWMM3 UF, CDM No No 1975–1981 SWMM2 UF No No 1969–1971 SWMM1 UF, CDM, M&E No No

EPA SWMM 5 provides an integrated graphical environment for editing watershed input data, running hydrologic, hydraulic, real time control and water quality simulations, and viewing the results in a variety of graphical formats. These include color-coded thematic drainage area maps, time series graphs and tables, profile plots, scatter plots and statistical frequency analyses.

This latest re-write of EPA SWMM was produced by the Water Supply and Water Resources Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Risk Management Research Laboratory with assistance from the consulting firm of CDM Inc under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). SWMM 5 is used as the computational engine for many modeling packages plus components of SWMM5 are in other modeling packages. The major modeling packages that use all or some of the SWMM5 components are shown in the Vendor section. The update history of SWMM 5 from the original SWMM 5.0.001 to the current version SWMM 5.1.007 can be found at the EPA Download in the file epaswmm5_updates.txt. SWMM 5 was approved FEMA Model Approval Page in May 2005 with this note about the versions that are approved on the FEMA Approval Page SWMM 5 Version 5.0.005 (May 2005) and up for NFIP modeling. SWMM 5 is used as the computational engine for many modeling packages (see the SWMM 5 Platform Section of this article) and some components of SWMM5 are in other modeling packages (see the SWMM 5 Vendor Section of this article).

SWMM conceptual model

SWMM conceptualizes a drainage system as a series of water and material flows between several major environmental compartments. These compartments and the SWMM objects they contain include:

The Atmosphere compartment, from which precipitation falls and pollutants are deposited onto the land surface compartment. SWMM uses Rain Gage objects to represent rainfall inputs to the system. The raingage objects can use time series, external text files or NOAA rainfall data files. The Rain Gage objects can use precipitation for thousands of years. Using the SWMM-CAT Addon to SWMM5 climate change can now be simulated using modified temperature, evaporation or rainfall.

The Land Surface compartment, which is represented through one or more Subcatchment objects. It receives precipitation from the Atmospheric compartment in the form of rain or snow; it sends outflow in the form of infiltration to the Groundwater compartment and also as surface runoff and pollutant loadings to the Transport compartment. The Low Impact Development (LID) controls are part of the Subcatchments and store, infiltrate or evaporate the runoff.

The Groundwater compartment receives Infiltration (hydrology) from the Land Surface compartment and transfers a portion of this inflow to the Transport compartment. This compartment is modeled using Aquifer objects. The connection to the Transport compartment can be either a static boundary or a dynamic depth in the channels. The links in the Transport compartment now also have seepage and evaporation.

The Transport compartment contains a network of conveyance elements (channels, pipes, pumps, and regulators) and storage/treatment units that transport water to outfalls or to treatment facilities. Inflows to this compartment can come from surface runoff, groundwater interflow, sanitary dry weather flow, or from user-defined hydrographs. The components of the Transport compartment are modeled with Node and Link objects. Not all compartments need appear in a particular SWMM model. For example, one could model just the transport compartment, using pre-defined hydrographs as inputs. If you use the kinematic wave routing then the nodes do not need to contain an outfall.

Table 2. SWMM5 Compartments

Compartment	Compartment	Compartment	Compartment
GAGE	SUBCATCH	NODE	LINK
TEMP	POLLUT	LANDUSE	TIMEPATTERN
CURVE	SUBCATCH	TSERIES	CONTROL
TRANSECT	AQUIFER	UNITHYD	SNOWMELT
SHAPE	LID

Model parameters

The simulated model parameters for subcatchments are surface roughness, depression storage, slope, flow path length; for Infiltration: Horton: max/min rates and decay constant; Green-Ampt: hydraulic conductivity, initial moisture deficit and suction head; Curve Number: NRCS (SCS) Curve number; All: time for saturated soil to fully drain; for Conduits: Manning’s roughness; for Water Quality: buildup/washoff function coefficients, first order decay coefficients, removal equations. A study area can be divided into any number of individual subcatchments, each of which drains to a single point. Study areas can range in size from a small portion of a single lots up to thousands of acres. SWMM uses hourly or more frequent rainfall data as input and can be run for single events or in continuous fashion for any number of years.

Hydrology and hydraulics capabilities

SWMM 5 accounts for various hydrologic processes that produce surface and subsurface runoff from urban areas. These include:

1. Time-varying rainfall for an unlimited number of raingages for both design and continuous hyetographs
2. evaporation of standing surface water on watersheds and surface ponds
3. snowfall accumulation, plowing and melting
4. rainfall interception from depression storage in both impervious and pervious areas
5. infiltration of rainfall into unsaturated soil layers
6. percolation of infiltrated water into groundwater layers
7. interflow between groundwater and pipes and ditches
8. nonlinear reservoir routing of watershed overland flow.

Spatial variability in all of these processes is achieved by dividing a study area into a collection of smaller, homogeneous watershed or subcatchment areas, each containing its own fraction of pervious and impervious sub-areas. Overland flow can be routed between sub-areas, between subcatchments, or between entry points of a drainage system.

SWMM also contains a flexible set of hydraulic modeling capabilities used to route runoff and external inflows through the drainage system network of pipes, channels, storage/treatment units and diversion structures. These include the ability to:

1. Simulate drainage networks of unlimited size
2. use a wide variety of standard closed and open conduit shapes as well as natural or irregular channels
3. model special elements such as storage/treatment units, outlets, flow dividers, pumps, weirs, and orifices
4. apply external flows and water quality inputs from surface runoff, groundwater interflow, rainfall-dependent infiltration/inflow, dry weather sanitary flow, and user-defined inflows
5. utilize either steady, kinematic wave or full dynamic wave flow routing methods
6. model various flow regimes, such as backwater, surcharging, pressure, reverse flow, and surface ponding
7. apply user-defined dynamic control rules to simulate the operation of pumps, orifice openings, and weir crest levels

Infiltration is the process of rainfall penetrating the ground surface into the unsaturated soil zone of pervious subcatchments areas. SWMM5 offers four choices for modeling infiltration:

Classical infiltration method

This method is based on empirical observations showing that infiltration decreases exponentially from an initial maximum rate to some minimum rate over the course of a long rainfall event. Input parameters required by this method include the maximum and minimum infiltration rates, a decay coefficient that describes how fast the rate decreases over time, and the time it takes a fully saturated soil to completely dry (used to compute the recovery of infiltration rate during dry periods).

Figure 2. SWMM 5's QA/QC Master Example Network. This one network includes examples 1 through 7 from the SWMM 3 and SWMM 4 Manuals

Modified Horton Method

This is a modified version of the classical Horton Method that uses the cumulative infiltration in excess of the minimum rate as its state variable (instead of time along the Horton curve), providing a more accurate infiltration estimate when low rainfall intensities occur. It uses the same input parameters as does the traditional Horton Method.

Green–Ampt method

This method for modeling infiltration assumes that a sharp wetting front exists in the soil column, separating soil with some initial moisture content below from saturated soil above. The input parameters required are the initial moisture deficit of the soil, the soil's hydraulic conductivity, and the suction head at the wetting front. The recovery rate of moisture deficit during dry periods is empirically related to the hydraulic conductivity.

Curve number method

This approach is adopted from the NRCS (SCS) curve number method for estimating runoff. It assumes that the total infiltration capacity of a soil can be found from the soil's tabulated curve number. During a rain event this capacity is depleted as a function of cumulative rainfall and remaining capacity. The input parameters for this method are the curve number and the time it takes a fully saturated soil to completely dry (used to compute the recovery of infiltration capacity during dry periods).

SWMM also allows the infiltration recovery rate to be adjusted by a fixed amount on a monthly basis to account for seasonal variation in such factors as evaporation rates and groundwater levels. This optional monthly soil recovery pattern is specified as part of a project's evaporation data.

In addition to modeling the generation and transport of runoff flows, SWMM can also estimate the production of pollutant loads associated with this runoff. The following processes can be modeled for any number of user-defined water quality constituents:

1. Dry-weather pollutant buildup over different land uses
2. pollutant washoff from specific land uses during storm events
3. direct contribution of wet and dry rainfall deposition
4. reduction in dry-weather buildup due to street cleaning
5. reduction in washoff load due to BMPs and LIDs
6. entry of dry weather sanitary flows and user-specified external inflows at any point in the drainage system
7. routing of water quality constituents through the drainage system
8. reduction in constituent concentration through treatment in storage units or by natural processes in pipes and channels.

Rain Gages in SWMM5 supply precipitation data for one or more subcatchment areas in a study region. The rainfall data can be either a user-defined time series or come from an external file. Several different popular rainfall file formats currently in use are supported, as well as a standard user-defined format. The principal input properties of rain gages include:

1. rainfall data type (e.g., intensity, volume, or cumulative volume)
2. recording time interval (e.g., hourly, 15-minute, etc.)
3. source of rainfall data (input time series or external file)
4. name of rainfall data source

The other principal input parameters for the subcatchments include:

1. assigned rain gage
2. outlet node or subcatchment and routing fraction
3. assigned land uses
4. tributary surface area
5. imperviousness and zero percent imperviousness
6. slope
7. characteristic width of overland flow
8. Manning's n for overland flow on both pervious and impervious areas
9. depression storage in both pervious and impervious areas
10. percent of impervious area with no depression storage.
11. infiltration parameters
12. snowpack
13. groundwater parameters
14. LID parameters for each LID Control Used

Routing options

Steady-flow routing represents the simplest type of routing possible (actually no routing) by assuming that within each computational time step flow is uniform and steady. Thus it simply translates inflow hydrographs at the upstream end of the conduit to the downstream end, with no delay or change in shape. The normal flow equation is used to relate flow rate to flow area (or depth).

This type of routing cannot account for channel storage, backwater effects, entrance/exit losses, flow reversal or pressurized flow. It can only be used with dendritic conveyance networks, where each node has only a single outflow link (unless the node is a divider in which case two outflow links are required). This form of routing is insensitive to the time step employed and is really only appropriate for preliminary analysis using long-term continuous simulations.Kinematic wave routing solves the continuity equation along with a simplified form of the momentum equation in each conduit. The latter requires that the slope of the water surface equal the slope of the conduit.

The maximum flow that can be conveyed through a conduit is the full normal flow value. Any flow in excess of this entering the inlet node is either lost from the system or can pond atop the inlet node and be re-introduced into the conduit as capacity becomes available.

Kinematic wave routing allows flow and area to vary both spatially and temporally within a conduit. This can result in attenuated and delayed outflow hydrographs as inflow is routed through the channel. However this form of routing cannot account for backwater effects, entrance/exit losses, flow reversal, or pressurized flow, and is also restricted to dendritic network layouts. It can usually maintain numerical stability with moderately large time steps, on the order of 1 to 5 minutes. If the aforementioned effects are not expected to be significant then this alternative can be an accurate and efficient routing method, especially for long-term simulations.

Dynamic wave routing solves the complete one-dimensional Saint Venant flow equations and therefore produces the most theoretically accurate results. These equations consist of the continuity and momentum equations for conduits and a volume continuity equation at nodes.

With this form of routing it is possible to represent pressurized flow when a closed conduit becomes full, such that flows can exceed the full normal flow value. Flooding occurs when the water depth at a node exceeds the maximum available depth, and the excess flow is either lost from the system or can pond atop the node and re-enter the drainage system.

Dynamic wave routing can account for channel storage, backwater, entrance/exit losses, flow reversal, and pressurized flow. Because it couples together the solution for both water levels at nodes and flow in conduits it can be applied to any general network layout, even those containing multiple downstream diversions and loops. It is the method of choice for systems subjected to significant backwater effects due to downstream flow restrictions and with flow regulation via weirs and orifices. This generality comes at a price of having to use much smaller time steps, on the order of a minute or less (SWMM can automatically reduce the user-defined maximum time step as needed to maintain numerical stability).

Integrated hydrology/hydraulics

Figure 3. SWMM 5's LID processes include unlimited low-impact development or BMP objects per subcatchment and 5 types of layers.

One of the great advances in SWMM 5 was the integration of urban/suburbansubsurface flow with the hydraulic computations of the drainage network. This advance is a tremendous improvement over the separate subsurface hydrologic and hydraulic computations of the previous versions of SWMM because it allows the modeler to conceptually model the same interactions that occur physically in the real open channel/shallow aquifer environment. The SWMM 5 numerical engine calculates the surface runoff, subsurface hydrology and assigns the current climate data at either the wet or dry hydrologic time step. The hydraulic calculations for the links, nodes, control rules and boundary conditions of the network are then computed at either a fixed or variable time step within the hydrologic time step by using interpolation routines and the simulated hydrologic starting and ending values. The versions of SWMM 5 greater than SWMM 5.1.007 allow the modeler to simulate climate changes by globally changing the rainfall, temperature and evaporation using monthly adjustments.

An example of this integration was the collection of the disparate SWMM 4 link types in the runoff, transport and extran blocks to one unified group of closed conduit and open channel link types in SWMM 5 and a collection of node types (Figure 2).

Low-impact development components

The low-impact development (LID) function was new to SWMM 5.0.019/20/21/22 and SWMM 5.1+ It is integrated within the subcatchment and allows further refinement of the overflows, infiltration flow and evaporation in rain barrel, swales,permeable paving, green roof, rain garden, bioretention and infiltration trench. The term Low-impact development(Canada/US) is used in Canada and the United States to describe a land planning and engineering design approach to managing stormwater runoff. In recent years many states in the US have adopted LID concepts and standards to enhance their approach to reducing the harmful potential for storm water pollution in new construction projects. LID takes many forms but can generally be thought of as an effort to minimize or prevent concentrated flows of storm water leaving a site. To do this the LID practice suggests that when impervious surfaces (concrete, etc.) are used, they are periodically interrupted by pervious areas which can allow the storm water to infiltrate (soak into the earth)

You can define a variety of sub processes in each LID in SWMM5 such as: surface, pavement, soil, storage, drainmat and drain.

Each type of LID has limitations on the type of sub process allowed by SWMM 5. It has a good report feature and you can have a LID summary report in the rpt file and an external report file in which you can see the surface depth, soil moisture, storage depth, surface inflow, evaporation, surface infiltration, soil percolation, storage infiltration, surface outflow and the LID continuity error. You can have multiple LID's per subcatchment and we have had no issues having many complicated LID sub networks and processes inside the Subcatchments of SWMM 5 or any continuity issues not solvable by a smaller wet hydrology time step. The types of SWMM 5 LID compartments are: storage, underdrain, surface, pavement and soil. a bio retention cell has storage, underdrain and surface compartments. an infiltration trench lid has storage, underdrain and surface compartments. A porous pavement LID has storage, underdrain and pavement compartments. A rain barrel has only storage and underdrain compartments and a vegatative swale LID has a single surface compartment. Each type of LID shares different underlying compartment objects in SWMM 5.

New as of July 2013, the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator is a Windows desktop application that estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States. Estimates are based on local soil conditions, land cover, and historic rainfall records. The calculator accesses several national databases that provide soil, topography, rainfall, and evaporation information for the chosen site. The user supplies information about the site's land cover and selects the types of low impact development (LID) controls they would like to use on site. The LID Control features in SWMM 5.1.007 include the following among types of Green infrastructure:

StreetPlanter: Bio-retention Cells are depressions that contain vegetation grown in an engineered soil mixture placed above a gravel drainage bed. They provide storage, infiltration and evaporation of both direct rainfall and runoff captured from surrounding areas. Street planters consist of concrete boxes filled with an engineered soil that supports vegetative growth. Beneath the soil is a gravel bed that provides additional storage. The walls of a planter extend 3 to 12 inches above the soil bed to allow for ponding within the unit. The thickness of the soil growing medium ranges from 6 to 24 inches while gravel beds are 6 to 18 inches in depth. The planter's capture ratio is the ratio of its area to the impervious area whose runoff it captures.

Main Street Tree Planter, Miles City (281991376)

Raingarden:Rain Gardens are a type of bio-retention cell consisting of just the engineered soil layer with no gravel bed below it.Rain Gardens are shallow depressions filled with an engineered soil mix that supports vegetative growth. They are usually used on individual home lots to capture roof runoff. Typical soil depths range from 6 to 18 inches. The capture ratio is the ratio of the rain garden's area to the impervious area that drains onto it.

Rain garden (2014)

GreenRoof: Green Roofs are another variation of a bio-retention cell that have a soil layer laying atop a special drainage mat material that conveys excess percolated rainfall off of the roof. Green Roofs (also known as Vegetated Roofs) are bio-retention systems placed on roof surfaces that capture and temporarily store rainwater in a soil growing medium. They consist of a layered system of roofing designed to support plant growth and retain water for plant uptake while preventing ponding on the roof surface. The thickness used for the growing medium typically ranges from 3 to 6 inches.

Intensive extensive green roofs

InfilTrench: infiltration trenches are narrow ditches filled with gravel that intercept runoff from upslope impervious areas. They provide storage volume and additional time for captured runoff to infiltrate the native soil below.

Infiltration trench (6438020585)

PermPave or Permeable Pavements Continuous Permeable Pavement systems are excavated areas filled with gravel and paved over with a porous concreteor asphalt mix. Continuous Permeable Pavement systems are excavated areas filled with gravel and paved over with a porous concrete or asphalt mix. Modular Block systems are similar except that permeable block pavers are used instead. Normally all rainfall will immediately pass through the pavement into the gravel storage layer below it where it can infiltrate at natural rates into the site's native soil. Pavement layers are usually 4 to 6 inches in height while the gravel storage layer is typically 6 to 18 inches high. The Capture Ratio is the percent of the treated area (street or parking lot) that is replaced with permeable pavement.

Cistern: Rain Barrels (or Cisterns) are containers that collect roof runoff during storm events and can either release or re-use the rainwater during dry periods. Rain harvesting systems collect runoff from rooftops and convey it to a cistern tank where it can be used for non-potable water uses and on-site infiltration. The harvesting system is assumed to consist of a given number of fixed-sized cisterns per 1000 square feet of rooftop area captured. The water from each cistern is withdrawn at a constant rate and is assumed to be consumed or infiltrated entirely on-site.

VegSwale: Vegetative swales are channels or depressed areas with sloping sides covered with grass and other vegetation. They slow down the conveyance of collected runoff and allow it more time to infiltrate the native soil beneath it. Infiltration basins are shallow depressions filled with grass or other natural vegetation that capture runoff from adjoining areas and allow it to infiltrate into the soil.

Wet ponds are frequently used for water quality improvement, groundwater recharge, flood protection, aesthetic improvement or any combination of these. Sometimes they act as a replacement for the natural absorption of a forest or other natural process that was lost when an area is developed. As such, these structures are designed to blend into neighborhoods and viewed as an amenity.

Dry ponds temporarily stores water after a storm, but eventually empties out at a controlled rate to a downstream water body.

Sand filters generally control runoff water quality, providing very limited flow rate control. A typical sand filter system consists of two or three chambers or basins. The first is the sedimentation chamber, which removes floatables and heavy sediments. The second is the filtration chamber, which removes additional pollutants by filtering the runoff through a sand bed. The third is the discharge chamber. Infiltration trench, is a type of best management practice (BMP) that is used to manage stormwater runoff, prevent flooding and downstream erosion, and improve water quality in an adjacent river, stream, lake or bay. It is a shallow excavated trench filled with gravel or crushed stone that is designed to infiltrate stormwater though permeable soils into the groundwater aquifer.

A Vegatated filter strip is a type of buffer strip that is an area of vegetation, generally narrow and long, that slows the rate of runoff, allowing sediments, organic matter, and other pollutants that are being conveyed by the water to be removed by settling out. Filter strips reduce erosion and the accompanying stream pollution, and can be a best management practice.

Other LID like concepts around the world include sustainable drainage system (SUDS). The idea behind SUDS is to try to replicate natural systems that use cost effective solutions with low environmental impact to drain away dirty and surface water run-off through collection, storage, and cleaning before allowing it to be released slowly back into the environment, such as into water courses.

In addition the following features can also be simulated using the features of SWMM 5 (storage ponds, seepage, orifices,Weirs, seepage and evaporation from natural channels): constructed wetlands, wet ponds, dry ponds, infiltration basin,non-surface sand filters, vegetated filterstrips, vegetated filterstrip and infiltration basin. A WetPark would be a combination of wet and dry ponds and LID features. A WetPark is also considered a constructed wetland.

SWMM5 components

The SWMM 5.0.001 to 5.1.007 main components are: rain gages, watersheds, LID controls or BMP features such as Wet and Dry Ponds, nodes, links, pollutants, landuses, time patterns, curves, time series, controls, transects, aquifers, unit hydrographs, snowmelt and shapes (Table 3). Other related objects are the types of Nodes and the Link Shapes. The purpose of the objects is to simulate the major components of the hydrologic cycle, the hydraulic components of the drainage, sewer or stormwater network and the buildup/washoff functions that allow the simulation of water quality constituents. A watershed simulation starts with a precipitation time history. SWMM 5 has many types of open and closed pipes and channels: dummy, ciruclar, filled circular, rectangular closed, rectangular open, trapezoidal, triangular, parabolic, power funciton, rectangular triangle, rectangle round, modified baskethandle, horizontal ellipse, vertical ellipse, arch, eggshaped, horseshoe, gothic, catenary, semielliptical, baskethandle, semicircular, irregular, custom and force main.

The major objects or hydrology and hydraulic components in SWMM 5 are:

1. GAGE rain gage
2. SUBCATCH subcatchment
3. NODE conveyance system node
4. LINK conveyance system link
5. POLLUT pollutant
6. LANDUSE land use category
7. TIMEPATTERN,dry weather flow time pattern
8. CURVE generic table of values
9. TSERIES generic time series of values
10. CONTROL conveyance system control rules
11. TRANSECT irregular channel cross-section
12. AQUIFER groundwater aquifer
13. UNITHYD RDII unit hydrograph
14. SNOWMELT snowmelt parameter set
15. SHAPE custom conduit shape
16. LID LID treatment units

The major overall components are called in the SWMM 5 input file and C code of the simulation engine: gage, subcatch, node, link, pollut, landuse, timepattern, curve, tseries, control, transect, aquifer, unithyd, snowmelt, shape and lid. The subsets of possible nodes are: junction, outfall, storage and divider. Storage Nodes are either tabular with a depth/area table or a functional relationship between area and depth. Possible node inflows include: external_inflow, dry_weather_inflow, wet_weather_inflow, groundwater_inflow, rdii_inflow, flow_inflow, concen_inflow, and mass_inflow. The dry weather inflows can include the possible patterns: monthly_pattern, daily_pattern, hourly_pattern and weekend_pattern.

The SWMM 5 component structure allows the user to choose which major hydrology and hydraulic components are using during the simulation:

1. Rainfall/runoff with infiltration options: horton, modified horton, green ampt and curve number
2. RDII
3. Water Quality
4. Groundwater
5. Snowmelt
6. Flow Routing with Routing Options: Steady State, Kinematic Wave and Dynamic Wave

SWMM 3,4 to 5 converter

The SWMM 3 and SWMM 4 converter can convert up to two files from the earlier SWMM 3 and 4 versions at one time to SWMM 5. Typically you would convert a Runoff and Transport file to SWMM 5 or a Runoff and Extran File to SWMM 5. If you have a combination of a SWMM 4 Runoff, Transport and Extran network then you will have to convert it in pieces and copy and paste the two data sets together to make one SWMM 5 data set. The x,y coordinate file is only necessary if you do not have existing x, y coordinates on the D1 line of the SWMM 4 Extran input data[ set. You can use the command File=>Define Ini File to define the location of the ini file. The ini file will save your conversion project input data files and directories.

The SWMMM3 and SWMM 3.5 files are fixed format. The SWMM 4 files are free format. The converter will detect which version of SWMM is being used. The converted files can be combined using a text editor to merge the created inp files.== SWMM 5 Climate Change AddOn ==

SWMM-CAT Climate Change AddOn

The Storm Water Management Model Climate Adjustment Tool (SWMM-CAT) is a new addition to SWMM5 (December 2014). It is a simple to use software utility that allows future climate change projections to be incorporated into the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). SWMM was recently updated to accept a set of monthly adjustment factors for each of these time series that could represent the impact of future changes in climatic conditions. SWMM-CAT provides a set of location-specific adjustments that derived from global climate change models run as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) archive (Figure 4). SWMM-CAT is a utility that adds location-specific climate change adjustments to a Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) project file. Adjustments can be applied on a monthly basis to air temperature, evaporation rates, and precipitation, as well as to the 24-hour design storm at different recurrence intervals. The source of these adjustments are global climate change models run as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) archive. Downscaled results from this archive were generated and converted into changes with respect to historical values by USEPA's CREAT project (http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/climate/creat.cfm).

Table 3. SWMM5 Input File Data Section Names

Input Section	Input Section	Input Section	Input Section	Input Section
TITLE	OPTION	FILE	RAINGAGE	TEMP
EVAP	SUBCATCH	SUBAREA	INFIL	AQUIFER
GROUNDWATER	SNOWMELT	JUNCTION	OUTFALL	STORAGE
DIVIDER	CONDUIT	PUMP	ORIFICE	WEIR
OUTLET	XSECTION	TRANSECT	LOSSES	CONTROL
		POLLUTANT	LANDUSE	BUILDUP
WASHOFF	COVERAGE	INFLOW	DWF	PATTERN
RDII	UNITHYD	LOADING	TREATMENT	CURVE
TIMESERIES	REPORT	COORDINATE	VERTICES	POLYGON
LABEL	SYMBOL	BACKDROP	TAG	PROFILE
MAP	LID_CONTROL	LID_USAGE	GWF	ADJUST

The following steps are used to select a set of adjustments to apply to SWMM5:

1) Enter the latitude and longitude coordinates of your location if available or its 5-digit zip code. SWMM-CAT will display a range of climate change outcomes for the CMIP3 results closest to your location.

2) Select whether to use climate change projections based on either a near term or far term projection period. The displayed climate change outcomes will be updated to reflect your choice.

3) Select a climate change outcome to save to SWMM. There are three choices that span the range of outcomes produced by the different global climate models used in the CMIP3 project. The Hot/Dry outcome represents a model whose average temperature change was on the high end and whose average rainfall change was on the lower end of all model projections. The Warm/Wet outcome represents a model whose average temperature change was on the lower end and whose average rainfall change was on the wetter end of the spectrum. The Median outcome is for a model whose temperature and rainfall changes were closest to the median of all models.

4) Click the Save Adjustments to SWMM link to bring up a dialog form that will allow you select an existing SWMM project file to save your adjustments to. The form will also allow you to select which type of adjustments (monthly temperature, evaporation, rainfall, or 24-hour design storm) to save. Conversion of temperature and evaporation units is automatically handled depending on the unit system (US or SI) detected in the SWMM file.

Figure 4. The EPA SWMM5 Climate Change Program

EPA stormwater calculator based on SWMM5

Other external programs that aid in the generation of data for the EPA SWMM 5 model include: SUSTAIN, BASINS, SSOAP and the EPA’s National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) which is a desktop application that estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States (including Puerto Rico). The estimates are based on local soil conditions, land cover, and historic rainfall records (Figure 5).

Figure 5. The EPA stormwater calculator for simulating long-term runoff with LID and climate change.

SWMM platforms

A number of software packages use the SWMM5 platform. These include:

• PCSWMM
• XPSWMM
• EPA-SWMM
• GeoSWMM
• Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
• InfoSWMM
• H2OMapSWMM
• SWMMLive
• Giswater

See also

• SWAT model
• Stochastic empirical loading and dilution model
• WAFLEX
• DSSAM model
• Hydrology
• Infiltration
• Hydraulics
• Surface runoff
• Drainage basin
• Precipitation (meteorology)
• Antecedent moisture
• Evapotranspiration
• EPANET
• Rainfall
• Hydrological transport model
• Computer simulation
• Water pollution
• Water quality
• Surface-water hydrology

References

1. ^ Metcalf and Eddy, Water Resources Engineers, and University of Florida 1971. Storm Water Management Model, US EPA, Washington, D.C. Vol. I - Final Report, 11024DOC 7/71. Vol. II - Verification and Testing, 11024DOC 8/71. Vol. III - User's Manual, 11024DOC 9/71. Vol. IV - Program Listing, 11024DOC 10/71.
2. ^ Huber, W. C., J. P. Heaney, M. A. Medina, W. A. Peltz, H. Sheikh, and G. F. Smith. 1975. Storm Water Management Model User’s Manual, Version II. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio.
3. ^ Huber, W. C., J. P. Heaney, S. J. Nix, R. E. Dickinson, and D. J. Polmann, 1981. Storm Water Management Model. User's Manual Ver. III, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
4. ^ Huber, W. C. and R. E. Dickinson, 1988, Storm Water Management Model. User's Manual Ver. IV, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
5. ^ Roesner, L.A., R.E. Dickinson and J.A. Aldrich (1988) Storm Water Management Model – Version 4: User’s Manual – Addendum 1 EXTRAN; Cooperative Agreement CR-811607; U.S.EPA; Athens, Georgia.
6. ^ Rossman, Lewis A., Storm Water Management Model User’s Manual, EPA/600/R-05/040, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (June 2007)
7. ^ Rossman, Lewis A., Storm Water Management Model Quality Assurance Report, Dynamic Wave Flow Routing, EPA/600/R-06/097, September 2006

SWMM 5 Vendors

• InfoSWMM based on SWMM 5.1.009
• H20MAP SWMM based on SWMM 5.1.009
• PCSWMM Professional 2D based on SWMM 5.1.009
• InfoWorks ICM and ICM SE Imports and exports SWMM 5.1.009
• InfoWorks ICMLive Imports and exports SWMM 5.1.0099
• SWMMLive based on SWMM 5.1.009
• GeoSWMM based on SWMM 5.0.022, Model can be exported to SWMM 5.0.022
• XPSWMM based on SWMM 5.0.022
• SewerGEMS based on SWMM 5.0.022
• h3O based on SWMM 5.0.022
• Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis based on SWMM 5.0.022
• Mike Urban based on SWMM 5.0.022
• InfoWorks CS Imports and exports SWMM 5.0.022
• DigitalWater CS(In Chinese) based on SWMM 5.0.022
• FLO-2D PRO based on SWMM 5.0.022
• Giswater open-source software, optimized for SWMM 5.0.022 but it also works with SWMM 5.1.007

External links

• EPA National Stormwater Calculator - SWMM 5 Based
• EPA SWMM 5.1.009 page
• SWMM 3,4 to 5 Conversion Tools
• SWMM 2000+
• PAGINA DE SWMM EN CASTELLANO
• Pre SWMM 5.1.002 Installs
• CHI Journal of Water Management Modeling
• CHI SWMM4/5 Knowledge Database
• CHI SWMM5 Code Viewer

Categories

Balaji Srinivasan at Startup School 2013 - Ideal Speech

Innovyze Releases InfoSWMM Generation V14, Spearheading New Era in GIS-Centric Smart Wastewater and Stormwater Modeling

Featuring Many Key Innovative Improvements, New Release Gives Communities Groundbreaking Network Simulation Power and Full Compatibility with the Latest USEPA SWMM 5

Broomfield, Colorado, USA, August 11, 2015

In its ongoing quest to equip the wastewater industry with the world’s most comprehensive and innovative smart network modeling and management solutions, Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, today announced the worldwide availability of the V14 Generation of its industry-leading InfoSWMM for ArcGIS (Esri, Redlands, CA).InfoSWMM V14 provides unique new capabilities and enhancements that comprise the most advanced approach to guiding and optimizing collection systems planning, design, operation and management.

A complete ArcGIS-centric urban drainage modeling solution, the full-featured InfoSWMM analysis and design program delivers the highest rate of return in the industry. All operations of a typical sewer system — from analysis and design to management functions such as water quality assessment, pollution prediction, sediment transport and deposition, urban flooding, real-time control, and record keeping — are addressed in a single, fully integrated geoengineering environment. The program’s powerful hydraulic and water quality computational engine is based on an enhanced version of the latest USEPA SWMM 5, which is certified by FEMA. These features and more deliver an enhanced modeling experience and greater realism of displayed results — advantages that translate to increased productivity, reduced costs, higher accuracy, better efficiency, and improved designs.

InfoSWMM also serves as a robust base platform for advanced modeling, operational, short-term and long range planning, capital planning, urban stormwater treatment and analysis, and analytics-driven asset management extensions. Some of these critical applications includeInfoSWMM 2D (two-dimensional surface flood modeling), SWMMLive (real-time urban drainage modeling), CapPlan (risk-based capital planning and asset performance modeling), InfoSWMM Sustain (optimal selection and placement of LIDs/BMPs), InfoSWMM SFEM(dynamic sewer flow estimation model), InfoMaster (GIS-centric analytics-driven asset management), and RDII Analyst (rainfall-dependent inflow and infiltration planning and analysis).

The release of InfoSWMM V14 extends previous generations’ capabilities with a number of new features, improvements, and groundbreaking innovations in geoengineering productivity and efficiency as well as an improved user experience. These advances greatly simplify, accelerate, and integrate urban drainage network engineering, helping wastewater and stormwater engineers develop better designs and operational improvements faster. Among the new enhancements are:

• A new Modified Rational Method that reads IDF tables and allows user-defined time of concentration for each subcatchment.
• New monthly adjustments for hydraulic conductivity used for rainfall infiltration and exfiltration from storage nodes and conduits.
• A new feature that allows LID drains to send their outflows to a different node or subcatchment than the parent subcatchment in which they were placed.
• A new option for conveyance system outfall nodes to send their outflows onto a subcatchment, to simulate irrigation or complex LID treatment options.
• A new LID practice, Rooftop Disconnection, that allows users to explicitly model roof runoff with an optional limit on the flow capacity of downspouts.  
• A new optional soil layer to Permeable Pavement or Porous Pavement LID’s, enabling modeling of a sand filter or bedding layer beneath the pavement.
• Several new built-in variable names for use in custom groundwater flow equations for porosity, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, infiltration rate and percolation rate.
• A new Groundwater Summary table to report multiple groundwater statistics for each subcatchment with groundwater definitions.
• Minimum Variable Time Step which limits the smallest time step that can be computed under variable time stepping for dynamic wave flow routing. In previous releases this figure was fixed at 0.5 seconds, which remains the default. The smallest value now available is 0.001 sec.
• An improved Node Depth Summary report table that shows the maximum depth recorded at the Reporting Time Step so it can be compared to the maximum depth attained over all routing time steps, also shown in the table.
• A new variable “Node Volume” added to the Rule Control premises.
• A new extension on Rule Control premises that allows comparison of a node or link variable at two different locations (e.g. IF NODE 123 HEAD > NODE 456 HEAD).

“Our priorities have always been to advance the frontiers of smart network modeling technology and support our customers’ successes by helping them be more productive, innovative and competitive — imperative in today’s economy,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “This major InfoSWMM release delivers on our promise to equip our customers with the ultimate ArcGIS-centric decision support tool for sewer collection and urban drainage systems. Like its predecessors, InfoSWMM V14 sets a new standard for quality and high-performance network modeling and management with unrivaled power and speed, cutting-edge capabilities, rich functionality and ease of use. From top to bottom, it is designed for record modeling performance that enables users to increase their productivity and quality while achieving their engineering, sustainability and business goals. We will continue to work hard to provide our customers with the best GIS-centric modeling solutions to help them build, manage and operate sustainable and resilient hydraulic infrastructure systems and drive engineering success.”
Pricing and Availability
Upgrade to InfoSWMM V14 (and H2OMAP SWMM V14) is now available worldwide by subscription. Subscription members can immediately download the new version free of charge directly from www.innovyze.com. The Innovyze Subscription Program is a friendly customer support and software maintenance program that ensures the longevity and usefulness of Innovyze products. It gives subscribers instant access to new functionality as it is developed, along with automatic software updates and upgrades. For the latest information on the Innovyze Subscription Program, visit www.innovyze.com or contact your local Innovyze Channel Partner.
About InnovyzeInnovyze is a leading global provider of wet infrastructure business analytics software solutions designed to meet the technological needs of water/wastewater utilities, government agencies, and engineering organizations worldwide. Its clients include the majority of the largest UK, Australasian, East Asian and North American cities, foremost utilities on all five continents, and ENR top-rated design firms. With unparalleled expertise and offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the Innovyze connected portfolio of best-in-class product lines empowers thousands of engineers to competitively plan, manage, design, protect, operate and sustain highly efficient and reliable infrastructure systems, and provides an enduring platform for customer success. For more information, call Innovyze at +1 626-568-6868, or visit www.innovyze.com.
Innovyze Contact:Rajan RayDirector of Marketing and Client Service Manager
Rajan.Ray@innovyze.com
+1 626-568-6868

Innovyze Offers Free Award-Winning GIS-Centric Water Modeling Software to Universities Worldwide Free Student Edition of Industry Leading InfoWater and InfoSWMM Aimed at Giving Students Hands-On Experience, Better Preparing Industry-Ready Workforce and Shaping the Future

Innovyze Offers Free Award-Winning GIS-Centric Water Modeling Software to Universities Worldwide

Free Student Edition of Industry Leading InfoWater and InfoSWMM Aimed at Giving Students Hands-On Experience, Better Preparing Industry-Ready Workforce and Shaping the Future

Broomfield, Colorado, USA, August 4, 2015

Fulfilling its promise of continually raising the bar in water resources engineering education and expanding the world of learning, Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, today announced the availability of its industry-leading GIS-centric water and wastewater modeling software free to students and professors at higher education institutions worldwide. This special student edition of both InfoWater and InfoSWMM, limited to sixty links, is designed to provide universities worldwide with a simple, flexible way to use advanced, high performance water modeling software in their classrooms and labs. It will help students learn and develop important skills in the design, planning, operation and management of sustainable water distribution and wastewater/stormwater collection systems that will help them stand out in the job market.

Innovyze understands that civil engineering students need to be academically and professionally prepared for an engineering career. For students and professionals alike, there is no substitute for hands-on experience. Knowing this, more and more universities are helping students gain access to state-of-the-art and practical tools used in the classroom whenever and wherever they need them. By tailoring their undergraduate and graduate courses around Innovyze technology, engineering faculty members can be assured they are helping their students have direct access to the powerful tools and latest advances in smart water resources modeling technology they need to succeed— not only in the classroom, but ultimately as professional engineers.
“Innovyze InfoWater and InfoSWMM software has become a standard for many of the world’s largest water and wastewater utilities and top engineering firms,” said Scott Yost, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky. “I can see this software being used by the best engineering schools. The Student Analysis and Design Workbooks are also excellent. Having training and education in this mission-critical technology is a major asset in validating our students’ expertise to prospective employers as well as preparing them for a rewarding career.”

Built atop ArcGIS (Esri, Redlands, CA), InfoWater’s innovative network modeling technology addresses every facet of utility infrastructure management and protection — delivering the highest rate of return in the industry. The software seamlessly integrates sophisticated predictive analytics, systems dynamics and optimization functionality directly within the powerful ArcGIS setting. From fire flow and dynamic water quality simulations, valve criticality and energy cost analysis to pressure zone management and advanced Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm optimization, the suite comes equipped with everything water utility owner-operators need to best plan, design, operate, secure and sustain their distribution systems.

InfoWater also serves as a base platform for advanced smart network modeling, operation, capital planning and asset management extensions. Among these critical applications are IWLive (real-time operations and security); InfoWater UDF (unidirectional flushing);CapPlan (risk-based capital planning); InfoMaster and InfoMaster Mobile (asset integrity management and condition assessment); InfoWater MSX (multi-species modeling); InfoWater BTX (event/particle backtracking); InfoSurge (surge/transient analysis); Sustainability (carbon footprint calculation); BalanceNet (real-time energy management and operations optimization); PressureWatch (real-time network hydraulic integrity monitoring); QualWatch (real-time network water quality integrity monitoring); SCADAWatch (real-time business intelligence and performance monitoring); DemandWatch (water demand forecasting); and DemandAnalyst (real-time water demand and diurnal pattern estimations).

As a complete ArcGIS-centric urban drainage modeling solution, the full-featured InfoSWMM analysis and design program delivers the highest rate of return in the industry. All operations of a typical sewer system — from analysis and design to management functions such as water quality assessment, pollution prediction, sediment transport and deposition, urban flooding, real-time control, and record keeping — are addressed in a single, fully integrated geoengineering environment. The program’s powerful hydraulic and water quality computational engine is based on an enhanced version of the latest SWMM 5.1.010, which is endorsed by the USEPA and certified by FEMA. These features and more deliver an enhanced modeling experience and greater realism of displayed results — advantages that translate to increased productivity, reduced costs, higher accuracy, better efficiency, and improved designs.

InfoSWMM also serves as a robust platform for advanced modeling, operational issues, short-term, long-range and capital planning, urban stormwater treatment and analysis, and analytics-driven asset management extensions. Some of these critical applications includeInfoSWMM 2D (two-dimensional surface flood modeling), CapPlan (risk-based capital planning and asset performance modeling),InfoSWMM Sustain (optimal selection and placement of LIDs/BMPs), InfoSWMM SFEM (dynamic sewer flow estimation model), InfoMaster(GIS-centric analytics-driven asset management), and RDII Analyst (rainfall-dependent inflow and infiltration planning and analysis).
A comprehensive Student Design and Analysis Workbook is also included for each program. In addition to background theory, the workbooks provide step-by-step approaches to water and wastewater network model construction, simulation and analysis, and are illustrated with a variety of carefully selected case studies to reinforce the hands-on nature of learning. By representing real-life network modeling situations, the workbooks are ideal for students to familiarize themselves with the day-to-day problem-solving work in engineering practice.

“Innovyze is committed to fostering technical achievement and technological advancement, both in teaching and research, throughout the engineering community,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “At a time when universities are faced with tighter budgets, our Student Software Edition offers these institutions the tools they need to teach their students using state-of-the-art technology and prepare them for rewarding professional careers. It allows students who are interested in the field of environmental and water resources engineering to train on the sophisticated technology used by leading water and wastewater utilities and progressive consulting engineering companies on a daily basis. This gives them an unbeatable competitive advantage and helps them to thrive. It also prepares them with the skills they need to meet industry demands, sustain our water infrastructures, advance our economies, and build a better world.”
Pricing and Availability
Special student edition of InfoWater and InfoSWMM along with their Student Design and Analysis Workbooks are available to download free of charge from the Innovyze website at http://www.innovyze.com/education/student/.
About InnovyzeInnovyze is a leading global provider of wet infrastructure business analytics software solutions designed to meet the technological needs of water/wastewater utilities, government agencies, and engineering organizations worldwide. Its clients include the majority of the largest UK, Australasian, East Asian and North American cities, foremost utilities on all five continents, and ENR top-rated design firms. With unparalleled expertise and offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the Innovyze connected portfolio of best-in-class product lines empowers thousands of engineers to competitively plan, manage, design, protect, operate and sustain highly efficient and reliable infrastructure systems, and provides an enduring platform for customer success. For more information, call Innovyze at +1 626-568-6868, or visit www.innovyze.com.
Innovyze Contact:Rajan RayDirector of Marketing and Client Service Manager
Rajan.Ray@innovyze.com
+1 626-568-6868

Viewpoint: Handling storm water: Let's learn from others - Pensacola Florida

Viewpoint: Handling storm water: Let's learn from others

Pensacola3:26 p.m. CST February 1, 2015

(Photo: Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com)

Source:  http://www.pnj.com/story/opinion/2015/01/30/viewpoint-handling-storm-water-learn-others/22606595/

Storm water infrastructure – be it pipes, ponds, or rain gardens – is typically designed to convey or capture runoff flows associated with a design storm, the magnitude of which is based on a probability distribution of observed rainfall events (Weather and Climate 101).

One of the underlying assumptions of this design approach is that the rainfall probability distribution is static. However, recent climate trends across much of the country indicate large events are occurring with greater frequency, casting doubt on the notion of a rainfall distribution that is static in time and that storm water infrastructure designed by our current design storm approach can be expected to provide the intended level of service throughout its lifetime. Something that our community experience firsthand in April 2014 with an extreme rain event that caused catastrophic impacts to homes, businesses and roadways. Is this an indication of more things to come?

According to climate researchers from Antioch University, the upper Midwest is one area of the country where large events have been observed with greater frequency in the recent climate record. In response, the University of Minnesota has teamed with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, the cities of Minneapolis and Victoria, and climate researchers from Antioch University and Syntectic International to evaluate potential impacts to storm water infrastructure due to climate change. They are using the EPA Storm Water Management Models to examine the effects of a range of midcentury precipitation scenarios, derived from regionally downscaled global climate models, on the existing storm water infrastructure in two case studies: (1) a built-out residential pipe shed in South Minneapolis and (2) the growing community of Victoria located at the urban-rural fringe of the metro area.

According to climate models, the current 10-year storm by which the storm sewer network in these communities was designed is expected to increase 25 percent (5.1 inches) to 150 percent (10.1 inches) by the mid-21st century under moderate to pessimistic emissions scenario.

Using this range as rainfall input in EPA SWMM, they are seeking answers to the following questions: Can we make informed, local-scale infrastructure adaptation decisions in the midst of uncertainty surrounding long-term climate projections? How resilient is the existing storm water infrastructure to projected changes in precipitation? To what extent is flooding expected to increase in these communities? How do we predict changes in climate interact with predicted population growth and development patterns in our communities? Can storm water systems be adapted (e.g., through pipe upsizing or increasing the infiltrative capacity of the landscape through Low Impact Design/Development to provide a similar level of service under mid-21st century climate projections? What are the costs of adapting (or not adapting) storm water infrastructure? These are questions we too have been asking ourselves these last few months.

In addition to examining these questions, they have initiated a public outreach program aimed at engaging local stakeholders in community-driven adaptation planning for storm water management. They've held several workshops in Minneapolis and Victoria, and are developing a framework from which other communities can proceed with their own adaptation planning process. While the adaptive process will hold many commonalities across communities, the actual measures adopted may look very different. For instance, as indicated by their modeling for this project, adapting Minneapolis' existing storm water system to a "most-likely" mid-century precipitation scenario will require a combination of pipe upsizing, detention (likely in the form of underground storage), and infiltration. The projected costs for these upgrades ranged from $40 million to $70 million across the 1,100-acre pipe shed.

In contrast, Victoria's existing storm water network was found to be relatively resilient to projected precipitation increases; even under the most pessimistic climate scenario, excess flooding could be contained completely in streets below the curb elevation or within public open spaces such as parks and golf courses. The resiliency of Victoria's storm water system can be attributed to development policies such as buffer setbacks and wetland conservation that have acted to preserve ecosystem services related to hydrologic regulation.

The point of all this? Well, as we learned with the presentation from David Waggoner at IHMC on July 16 and at the city-county storm water symposium on July 18, we can learn from other communities on how we can implement strategies within our own community and watershed that addresses effective storm water management.

Within the last few months we have made great strides in identifying and addressing key storm water issues and concerns with the implementation of the city-county Storm Water Advisory Team and work currently being conducted by Arcadis.

We have already taken steps to address some of these issues with places like Admiral Mason Park and Corrine Jones Park. We still have work to do, but that's OK, we'll get there. Our approach needs to be multifaceted and holistic; we can't piecemeal our approach or it won't be effective. We need to look at our basins from a big picture view. If we just focus on the southern portion of the basin we will not efficiently address the issue. We start in the northern portion of basin addressing storm water before it even gets to the southern portion of the basin.

And the approach should encompass a multitude of storm water management strategies … rain gardens, pervious pavement and more.

Our initial focus should be on retrofitting and upgrades for existing, grandfathered structures, but not with just a Band-aid approach or the status quo. That no longer works, never has. Let's do things differently. Connecting with the community has been a strategy in help determining the best approach. Kudos to all those who have been involved and engaged in this endeavor; it's important for all us to have a seat at the table.

Here's some food for thought as we move forward with our storm water management issues and growth in general: Perhaps it's time that we revisit how we build (or rebuild). Through the implementation of Low Impact Design/Development we can manage storm water in a way that works better than traditional means. LID is an approach to land development (or re-development) that works with nature to manage storm water as close to its source as possible.

There are several economic and environmental benefits associated with LID.

Some of the ecological benefits include:

•The LID site planning process sets aside key natural features and focuses development into clustered patterns on the remaining land.

•The LID planning process results in housing that makes more efficient use of land and conserves critical natural features such as wetlands, vegetated buffers, and drinking water protection areas.

•The reduction of impervious surfaces reduces the amount of surface runoff and through the infiltration of storm water, recharges the groundwater system, thereby restoring the natural hydrologic cycle. This preserves groundwater supplies and base flow to streams and wetlands.

Economic benefits include:

•LID can increase property values.

•LID provides important benefits to the municipality, the developer, and the general public.

•LID reduces nonpoint source pollution.

•LID reduces demand on public storm water infrastructure.

•LID promotes recharge to and the preservation of aquifers.

•LID reduces building costs.

•LID will help considerably with addressing storm water. Improved storm water conditions means improved water quality.

We need a management strategy that sufficiently addresses historical, present, and future (potential) storm water management issues and concerns. The initial cost might be greater upfront, but it'll be worth it to protect people's homes and businesses. It's pay now or pay later. Let's do what's best for the community as a whole.

Gutierrez is executive director of Earth Ethics Inc.