Innovyze Releases Award-Winning InfoSWMM SFEM, Breakthrough Solution for Wastewater Master Planning

Release Supports Short-Term and Long Range Evaluation and Planning Processes for Wastewater Utilities Worldwide

Broomfield, Colorado, USA, November 19, 2013

Redrawing the boundaries of wastewater collection system modeling, Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, today announced the release of InfoSWMM SFEM (Sewer Flow Estimation Model). Extensively tested by the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation and winner of the City’s 2013 Quality and Productivity Improvement Award, this revolutionary dynamic sewer flow estimation software changes the way wastewater utilities around the world combine GIS data with dynamic network modeling and advanced analytics to expand and maintain large, complex and rapidly aging wastewater collection systems. Its primary strength is the ability to accurately estimate current and future sewer system flows to help users evaluate sewer system capacity and overloaded sewer mains with a high risk of collapse, and determine the condition of sewers. Armed with this information, wastewater utilities can plan improvements that mitigate or avoid adverse public health and economic impacts and keep the sewer system operating effectively well into the future, even in the face of limited budgets and growing populations.

Wastewater infrastructure in the United States is clearly aging, and capital spending is unable to keep pace with needs. There are between 700,000 and 800,000 miles of public sewer mains in the country, and capital investments in those pipes account for between 80% and 85% of all wastewater system investment requirements. Fixing and expanding the pipes will address sanitary sewer overflows, combined sewer overflows, and other pipe-related issues. The recently released ASCE 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructures gave the nation’s wastewater a near failing grade of D — a very slight improvement from the D minus given in the previous Report Card, issued in 2009. Yet this critical infrastructure is projected to see the largest investment gap, falling 73% short of needs. This gap will only widen with time, and addressing it will become increasingly more expensive. This state of affairs does little to assuage the public’s health and economic needs or maintain its confidence in the ecological health of the nation’s waterways, and it presents a significant challenge to wastewater utilities charged with consistently providing safe, reliable service.

An invaluable wastewater master planning tool, InfoSWMM SFEM was developed to support the short-term and long-range planning needs of wastewater utilities worldwide. The program uses census, land use and other planning data to estimate current and projected population and wastewater flows. It automatically defines tributary basins and estimates flows within the basins.

Users can then conduct several levels of planning studies to assess current sewer system capacity and future capacity needs, identify hydraulic deficiencies, and determine sound and cost-effective system improvements, flow routing, and operation plans. In addition, the model can be effectively used to identify strategic flow gauging locations, calibrate estimated flows, manage industrial discharges and perform general planning analyses.

“With powerful customer and industry-driven innovations, the new InfoSWMM SFEM meets not only utilities short-term planning needs, but also long-range master planning efforts up to a century in the future,” said J. Erick Heath, P.E., Innovyze Vice President, Director of Americas Operations. “Because it is so easy to learn and use, it will quickly transform our users’ day-to-day sewer modeling tasks and dramatically improve their workflows. Wastewater utilities can now quickly evaluate sound infrastructure improvement options far more effortlessly than ever before.”

“InfoSWMM is a standard for mainstream geocentric sewer system modeling and management,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, F.ASCE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “Users are continuously demanding more from their sewer modeling software, and Innovyze has again responded to their calls. We developed the most powerful and comprehensive solution available for dynamic sewer flow estimation in terms of usability, functionality and performance. InfoSWMM SFEM makes even the most sophisticated and challenging sewer system analysis fast and easy, regardless of users’ technical expertise. This effectively extends its benefits across the entire enterprise. We are very proud to offer this groundbreaking new power tool to our clients.”

How Inlets and Overland Flow Junctions work in InfoSWMM

The overland flow junction does have an invert and rim elevation, it is usually part of a road system and you can drain Subcatchment flow to the overland flow junction.   If an Inlet node is flooded the excess water can flow out of the inlet to the street through the overland flow junction.  There is a virtual link between the Inlet Junction and the Overland Flow Junction.

What are the Options for LID Inflow and Outflow In SWMM 5?

What are the Options for LID Inflow and Outflow in SWMM 5?

The Runoff Surfaces in SWMM 5 are:

1.      Pervious area with either Green Ampt, Horton or CN Infiltration
2.     Impervious area without Depression Storage or Initial Losses
3.     Impervious area with Depression Storage or Initial Losses

Outflow Options for the Runoff in SWMM 5 are:

1.      Pervious from Impervious
2.     Impervious from Pervious
3.     The Subcatchment Node Outlet Or Another Subcatchment based on the Outlet Name

The LID inflow in SWMM 5 can be from:

1.      The pervious area
2.     The pervious area plus a fraction of the impervious area
3.     The Rainfall on the LID Area
4.     A LID can cover the entire Subcatchment and can get all of the Flow from another Subcatchment as well as the Rainfall on the Subcatchment

The LID outflow in SWMM 5 can be to:

1.      The outlet of the Subcatchment
2.     The pervious area of the Subcatchment

Note: These options also apply to InfoSWMM and H2OMap SWMM 

The Effect of the LID Percent Impervious Treated in SWMM5

The Effect of the LID Percent Impervious Treated in SWMM5

If you use the option percent impervious treated for LID's on a Subcatchment then a percent of the impervious flow is routed to the LID.  For example, 50 percent of roof runoff to a LID Swale.  It has the impact of reducing the peak and total runoff fro the whole Subcatchment but increases the LID only flow.  From the SWMM 5 help file  "The percent of the impervious portion of the subcatchment's non-LID area whose runoff is treated by the LID practice. (E.g., if rain barrels are used to capture roof runoff and roofs represent 60% of the impervious area, then the impervious area treated is 60%). If the LID unit treats only direct rainfall, such as with a green roof, then this value should be 0. If the LID takes up the entire subcatchment then this field is ignored"

Figure 1.   LID's get 50 percent of the impervious flow which reduce the overall flow from the Subcatchments.

Figure 2.  No Impervious Flow to the LID. 

From CHI - International Conference on Stormwater and Urban Water Systems Modeling, Toronto Canada (February 26 and 27) - Call for papers

47th Annual International Conference
Toronto, Canada
February 26-27, 2014

Call for papers Have you implemented a good idea recently? Do you have hard facts and figures? If so, you should consider presenting at this conference. Your audience will be large (>100) and comprise equally active and thoughtful professionals.

The annual International Conference on Stormwater and Urban Water Systems Modeling is a forum for professionals from across North America and overseas to exchange ideas and experience on current practices and emerging technologies. This is the 47th annual SWMM Users Group Meeting, the 23rd in the current series of annual Toronto conferences, and the 34th to be held in Canada. The atmosphere is relaxed, presentations are of a high standard and by accepting papers up to the last few weeks before the event, a spontaneity is achieved which gives this conference special character. Who will be attending? ·         Civil Engineers ·         Environmental Engineers ·         Consultants ·         Instructors and Researchers from universities and research institutions ·         Municipal and Government Engineering professionals ·         Public Works personnel ·         Policy Makers ·         Fluvial Geomorphologists ·         Urban Geographers ·         Aquatic Biologists ·         Ecologists ·         Landscape Engineers and Architects ·         Other scientists and engineers Suggested topics: ·         2D Modeling ·         LIDs, BMPs, TMDLs and Wetlands ·         Urban water system modeling ·         GIS, FM/AM and CAD systems ·         Decision analysis systems ·         Bio-computing (genetic algorithms and neural networks) ·         Using computer models to resolve real pollution problems / eco-restoration ·         Surface water quality modeling ·         Modeling impacts on aquatic systems / habitats ·         Stormwater / pollution management modeling ·         Urban drainage system design and analysis ·         Field data monitoring and instrumentation ·         Climate change and system security ·         Policy, legislation, permitting and enforcement Submitting a Paper: ·         Notices of intent to submit a paper are invited immediately ·         One-page abstracts are due as soon as possible (must include title) and at the latest byFebruary 3rd, 2014 ·         The final paper is due at the conference Notices of intent to submit an abstract should include a title or topic that you wish to cover, a brief outline if possible, and the names and contact information of the authors involved. For more information about submitting papers, please visit the Author information page and Paper formatting instructions. Abstract acceptance will be intimated promptly, and format requirements emailed to the authors. If you have any questions about abstract submittal, please email or phone 519-767-0197. The Conference is endorsed by: ·         ASCE Urban Water Resources Research Council ·         Ontario Ministry of Environment ·         American Water Resources Association ·         US Environmental Protection Agency ·         Conservation Ontario ·         Canadian Society of Civil Engineering For more information about the conference and to register, please visit www.chiwater.com Please take a moment to forward this notice to a colleague and we look forward to seeing you there. Best Regards, Meghan Korman Conference Organizer Computational Hydraulics International (CHI) Tel. (519) 767-0197 meghan@chiwater.com If you have any other questions, please contact CHI. You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our conference emails.

CHI | 147 Wyndham Street North | Suite 202 | Guelph | Ontario | N1H 4E9 | Canada

Innovyze President Dr. Paul F. Boulos Assumes Presidency of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers

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Innovyze President Dr. Paul F. Boulos Assumes Presidency of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers

Broomfield, Colorado, USA, October 29, 2013 — Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, today announced that its President, COO and Chief Technical Officer, Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, F.ASCE, has assumed the position of President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He succeeds Robert G. Traver, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Director of the Villanova Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering and Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Villanova University (Villanova, PA), who will now serve as Past President. Dr. Boulos was first elected to the AAWRE Board of Trustees in 2009. In his new role, Dr. Boulos will continue working to strategically position AAWRE as the leading national and global expert certification organization for water resources engineering professionals. Dr. Boulos is one of the world’s foremost experts on water resources and navigation engineering and author of nine authoritative books and more than 200 technical articles on issues critical to the water and wastewater industry. He is the recipient of numerous honors from national and international scientific and engineering societies, governments, universities, and NGOs. Among them are notable technical awards for excellence in scholarship from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also received the U.S. Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of America’s highest accolades; the Pride of Heritage Award from the Lebanese American Foundation; and the Alumni of the Year Award by the Lebanese American University, and was inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Hall of Distinction, the highest honor the university bestows on its alumni. He was given Honorary Diplomate status by AAWRE as well as Distinguished Diplomate status in Navigation Engineering by the Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port & Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE), both academies’ top honors. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Diplomate (by Eminence) of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. Dr. Boulos serves on the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese American University (New York, NY and Beirut, Lebanon) and ACOPNE; the Boards of Directors of Innovyze, MWH Global (Broomfield, CO), America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc./AMIDEAST (Washington, D.C.); and the Dean’s International Council of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL). He has been a member of advisory boards and councils for many organizations, including the Buck Advisory Council of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (Novato, CA), the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI), the USEPA Science Advisory Board, the Urban Water Resources Research Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), and the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. Dr. Boulos received his Doctorate, Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Kentucky and his Bachelor degree in General Science from the Lebanese American University. He has also completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. “The strength and influence of AAWRE are a direct result of the tireless dedication shown by its Board members and staff,” Boulos said. “This distinguished circle of industry leaders has shown a passionate level of commitment to sharing its time, talent and resources with our members and the entire water resources profession. Being a part of this organization and its work is a privilege. I am honored to build on the superb work of Dr. Traver, and I look forward to collaborating with him and the Board to initiate and support innovations that improve the practice, elevate the standards, advance the cause and future of the water resources engineering profession.” The American Academy of Water Resources Engineers was created by the American Society of Civil Engineers and its Environmental and Water Resources Institute to improve the practice, elevate the standards, and advance the profession of water resources engineering. Key AAWRE goals are to identify and certify engineers with specialized knowledge in water resources for the benefit of the public; recognize the ethical practice of water resources engineering at the expert level; enhance the practice of water resources engineering; support and promote positions on water resources issues important to the public health, safety and welfare; and encourage life-long learning and continued professional development. For more information on AAWRE, visit www.aawre.org.

About Innovyze Innovyze is a leading global provider of wet infrastructure business analytics software solutions designed to meet the technological needs of water and wastewater utilities, government industries, and engineering organizations worldwide. Its clients include the majority of the largest UK, Australasia 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.

How to Use the Compare Report Command in H2OMap SWMM and InfoSWMM

How to Use the Compare Report Command in H2OMap SWMM and InfoSWMM

1.       Run all of your scenario using Batch Simulation and Select Conduit Summary from the Report Manager
2.      Select all of your scenarios using  the Compare Report Icon
3.      You will have a lot of columns so Using the Format Report Icon select a few report variables to view
4.      You will now have a table with the Peak flow or Peak Depth for all Scenarios
5.      h/t MJ for the suggestion

How to Use the Compare Report Command in H2OMap SWMM and InfoSWMM

ALCOSAN Wet Weather Plan Link

A link to the ALCOSAN Wet Weather Plan for Allegheny Country, Pennsylvania

http://www.alcosan.org/Portals/0/Wet%20Weather%20Plan/Section%204.0%20thru%204.4.pdf

How InfoSWMM uses Calibration or monitored data during a Simulation

How InfoSWMM uses Calibration or monitored data during a Simulation

The calibration data is used in the Calibrator Addon (which uses a Genetic Algorithm  to calibrate RDII, Subcatchment, Infiltration, Groundwater, Pipe, Node or Pump input data to calibration data) by running a model many times to optimize the fit (Figure A).  The fit between measured and simulated results can be viewed in the Output Report Manager with comparison statistics on the graph (Figure B).  The monitored data is linked to your model using the Calibration Tool (Figures C, D and E) and the GA Calibration process is controlled by many best fit options (Figure F). 

Figure A.  GA Calibration in InfoSWMM, Each of the Calibration parameters in your model have Min and Max Constraint levels

Figure B.  Calibration data and Flows or Node depth are compared directly in the Output Manager of InfoSWMM.

Figure C.  How to Enter the Calibration Data in the Tools Menu.

Figure D.  Calibration data can be node depth, node head, inflow, flooding, quality, link flow, link velocity, link HGL, Runoff, Snow Depth and Groundwater in ASCII files.

Figure E.    The Calibration data can be selected and Editing in the Tools Dialog.

Figure F.  The options for running the Calibrator Addon to InfoSWMM

How to Define Green Ampt Infiltration in ICM

Here are the steps to make a Subcatchment with Green Ampt Infiltration in ICM:

1.       You use the Subcatchment, Land Use and Runoff Surface Tabs in the Subcatchment Grid (Bullet 1)
2.      The Subcatchment Tab has three Runoff Areas for Impervious with Depression Storage or Initial Loss, Impervious with no Initial Loss and Pervious Area (Bullet 2)
3.      The Runoff Surface percentages on the Subcatchment are connected to the Land Use Tab by the Land Use ID, in this example we are using Runoff Surfaces 22, 23 and 24 (Bullet 3)
4.      The Runoff Tab defines the Runoff Surfaces defined in the Subcatchment Tab and Land Use Tab (Bullet 4)
5.      You can define the Routing Model per Runoff Surface or SWMM in this case (Bullet 5)
6.      The type of Runoff Surface and Surface Type for each Runoff Surface or GreenAmpt for Runoff Surface ID of 24 (Bullet 6)
7.      The Depression Storage or Initial Loss Value for each Runoff Surface in the Runoff Surface Tab (Bullet 7)
8.     The Green Ampt Infiltration Parameters are defined to the right in the Runoff Surfaces Tab (Bullet 8)

a.      Suction in inches or millimeters

b.      Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity in inches/hour or mm/hour

c.       Deficit as a fraction

  

Figure 1.  Steps in defining Green Ampt Infiltration for ICM

Hazen Williams and Force Mains in SWMM 5

A few tips for using Hazen Williams and Force Mains in SWMM 5.   A key fact is to remember ONLY one flow in the middle of the link is computed in SWMM 5 so you may have to add Break nodes, use a smaller time step and use a flap gate depending on how often your pumps turn on.  If you do not have numerical problems with the time step you should get exactly the same head loss as you do in steady state Hazen Williams calculators when you use InfoSWMM, H2OMap SWMM and SWMM 5.

Figure 1.  Larger Tip Image 

Figure 2.  SWMM 5 compares well to the Hazen Williams Head loss calculators

Ganesh ji and Modelling

I have always thought that Ganesh ji is an ideal God or Symbol for modellers or even modelers.    Here are a few of his characteristics including a large stomach, which you can combat by exercise - I love walking but find what works best for you.

Knowing How to Change Your Mind: A Three Minute Guide to Bayesian Reasoning       

NEW LESSON

with Julia Galef

Since you cannot really be 100 percent certain of a theory, a better way to put it to yourself is to say "I think this is very likely to be true."     http://bigthink.com/big-think-mentor/knowing-how-to-change-your-mind-a-three-minute-guide-to-bayesian-reasoning

My History with Various Versions of SWMM: SWMM3, SWMM4, SWMM5, XP-SWMM and InfoSWMM

Subject:   My History with Various Versions of SWMM: SWMM3, SWMM4, SWMM5, XP-SWMM and InfoSWMM

I first learned about SWMM in a brochure from the University of Florida when I was just a 17 year old senior in High School.  Water resources and the description of SWMM seemed to be worthy career goals at the time and I have been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work and develop many SWMM related products in my working life.   I am especially proud that SWMM 3, SWMM 4 and SWMM 5 are both public domain and open source software.  You can open up and look at the code and add features and internal tests on your own.   You can customize the input and output of SWMM 5 if you want to but most importantly you have direct access to the source code so you can verify the computational algorithms.

InfoSWMM is an Arc GIS extension that works in Arc Map but we at Innovyze are proud that we have superb import and export features to SWMM 5 from Arc Map and use the SWMM 5 engine as our engine solution.   You can look at the internal workings of the InfoSWMM engine by downloading the current SWMM 5 C code from the EPA website http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/   InfoSWMM also has all of the Arc GIS programming tools, Python programming,  editing and drawing features and Table of Contents attribute features to make a better model but that model will still use the open source SWMM 5 engine inside of InfoSWMM.    When you use InfoSWMM you are using the SWMM 5 engine  but with many extra input and output features to help prepare the data for the current SWMM 5 engine and analyze the SWMM 5 engine output  in maps, tables and graphs.

The following was edited to reflect the passage of time:
PS in 2013/2016. I am now at my 45th anniversary of 1st hearing about SWMM, my 41th anniversary of seeing Wayne Huber or Jim Heaney mention SWMM in an Introduction to Environmental Engineering Course at UF, my 39th anniversary of 1st seeing the SWMM 2 punch cards for a mainframe computer, my 37th aniversary of meeting Bill James of UG and the Future CHI and Larry Roesner of CDM and now with CSU, my 36rd anniversary of being a coauthor and coprogrammer of SWMM 3, my 28th anniversary of being a coauthor of SWMM4, my 24st anniversary of being a XP-SWMM developer, my 18th year anniversery of being a Visual SWMM developer at CAiCE, 18 years since I first heard of Paul Boulos and MWH Soft, 17 years since I first meet Lew Rossman, 16 years since I first started working on SWMM 5 while at CDM with all of my great CDM colleagues (Jim Smullen, Ted Burgess, Carl Chan, Khalid Khan etc) and Lew Rossman and Trent Schade at the EPA and now 9+ years at Innovyze with our worldwide network and dedicated engineers and developers.   I have also learned very much from our really good customers and their important/interesting models.

Odd, I thought I had a lot of experience before I joined Innovyze in 2008 but dealing with the synergy of support, development, sales and training for multiple software products around the world brings it with another level of understanding and insight into modeling and model development.  Thanks very much to all my Innovyze customers, Innovyze Management, Innovyze CSM's, Innovyze Developers, Innovyze Support Engineer and Innovyze in general. My special thanks to Paul Boulos, Roger Ro, Fayu Lai and Chun-Hou Orr for their support, brilliance and creativity.  I could also thank hundreds or customers but Stewart and MJ stand out in my mind as being the best and most creative and I wish them both well in their future.  Keith Hodsden and Paul Hsiung are also standout CSM's at Innovyze and I owe them a lot as does the engineering community in general.

I would be amiss if I did not mention my wife and three children/offspring who have had to live with the world SWMM for her whole married life or literally their whole lives in the case of my children.  I could not have done it without my wife's organizational skills, hard work and patience.  We have learned from our children their whole lives - they are also hard working, brilliant engineers and writers/developers who have always impressed me as being smarter their parents, which made them easy to raise.  Here is a short video about how they helped me with SWMM: A Short Film: What Is The Meaning of Life? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRQAIRBDVxw&feature=youtu.be … [inspired by @RDickinson & shot with @googleglass & edited w/ @givit] Thanks @boonsri

Best Regards,
Robert Dickinson

Edward Burtynsky's Water

Edward Burtynsky's Water  

Photographer Edward Burtynsky's latest project is called Water.

While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding, and very thirsty civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways. In this new and powerful role over the planet, we are also capable of engineering our own demise. We have to learn to think more long-term about the consequences of what we are doing, while we are doing it. My hope is that these pictures will stimulate a process of thinking about something essential to our survival; something we often take for granted -- until it's gone

via Kottke