WASY GmbH is now part of DHI group

It is our great pleasure to announce that WASY GmbH, Institute for Water Resources Planning and Systems Research, Germany has become part of the DHI group.

Besides providing consultancy services and customized solutions WASY GmbH is a well-known software vendor providing high quality products. With this merger we expand our comprehensive software portfolio for the environmental management and planning projects in two important areas, advanced groundwater modelling and GIS-based information management systems.

Big Waves at Waimea Bay, Hawaii – Part 2

This exciting project was described in previous newsletter, see part 1. Now Simon Brandi Mortensen from the Technical University of Denmark has successfully completed his research project with the objective to study waves at Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, using the state-of-the art Boussinesq wave model included in the MIKE 21 software package.

Simon Brandi Mortensen states that “once realizing the complexity and sensitivity of the wave dynamical processes occurring within the domain combined with the potential sources of error associated with this study, it is in fact excessively impressive that the Boussinesq model actually succeeds in providing a fair to good prediction of the wave and wave induced current conditions for all 3 stations.” However, it was found that the model had a tendency to overestimate the amount of wave reflection occurring especially from the steep cliffs and rocky outcrops along the entry of the bay but also from the beach shoreline.

The full MSc. report (155pp, pdf-file) can be downloaded here (Please register to download).

Professor Per Madsen, Technical University of Denmark, supervised the project. Professor Kwok Cheung, University of Hawaii, and Henrik Kofoed-Hansen, DHI were co-supervisors.

For more information about the project please contact Simon Brandi Mortensen sbm@dhigroup.com and Henrik Kofoed-Hansen  (hkh@dhisoftware.com) for information about MIKE 21.

So, which groundwater model should I chose?

For groundwater modelling we have until now offered MIKE SHE, which is a unique software product for a great number of groundwater applications. However, we can now also offer an alternative product, namely FEFLOW, which is recognized by groundwater modellers around the World as the leading high-end groundwater package for fluid flow and transport of dissolved constituents and/or heat transport in saturated and variable saturated porous media.

FEFLOW is the obvious choice, when you deal with complex groundwater flow and transport problems. As described below EFLOW provides you with a unique approach when investigating complex topographies/geometries and flow patterns that need complex and local refinements and/or coarsening of the computational mesh. This has been proven by groundwater modellers all over the World. Today the number of installations of FEFLOW exceeds 2,200.

FEFLOW is the preferred tool for a wide range of different types of complex problems. To mention a few: Dewatering of mines or water management in connection with infrastructure constructions; dam seepage, fractured flow and transport problems; and density dependent flow in e.g. coastal regions.

MIKE SHE does not offer the same range of dedicated groundwater flow and transport solutions as FEFLOW does. However, it must be the obvious choice of when dealing with local and regional surface water and groundwater model applications, including complex interaction of the rivers and flood plains on the soil and groundwater systems. MIKE SHE is recognized as the ideal choice for watershed/catchment management and planning, and has numerous of excellent references for wetland studies with SW and GW flow interaction, both in rural and urban settings. Conjunctive use studies, regional and local groundwater development and protection, land use change impacts are other typical applications; and last but not the least MIKE SHE is now often chosen for spatially distributed rainfall-runoff modelling, where you can simplify the groundwater flow description for fast simulations. MIKE SHE has been presented in several previous newsletters, which can be downloaded from www.dhigroup.com.

With FEFLOW and MIKE SHE we are able to support you with methodologies to solve almost every flow and transport problems in porous media ranging from small scale complex fluid dynamics cases to regional groundwater investigations. We will be happy to advise you to find the right modelling package for your problem.

We expand our GIS-based solutions

Both WASY and DHI have close and long-time business partnership with ESRI, the leading GIS software provider. This merger gives us new opportunities to strengthening this relationship further and providing a range of new sophisticated dynamic GIS software packages and solutions.

DHI has been offering a range of tools for urban modelling and river basin modelling, and data management. With the WISYS system developed by WASY we are strengthening the GIS string of our software portfolio considerably, with a unique data information system for the water sector. WYSIS has features and reporting facilities which makes it ideal for EU Water Framework Directive projects, an area where we now can provide the entire range of solutions from data management to modelling.

For further information please contact Børge Storm at brs@dhigroup.com

DHI Software 2008

DHI Software 2008 which is slated for release at the end of this year will likely include features that leverage some of the new technologies provided by Microsoft with the release of Microsoft Windows Vista. The Microsoft Vista technology is by Microsoft back-ported to both Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server; but not to Windows 2000.

This implies that DHI Software 2008 will not be made available for Windows 2000.

The supported platforms will be:

• Windows XP
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows Vista

Windows Server "Longhorn" – if released in due time for DHI Software 2008

MIKE URBAN 2007 - New key features

MIKE URBAN 2007, which has been just released, provides you many new features as well as with enhanced performance. The key new features are:

Model Manager

• Smart wizard for the Import and Export tool
• Wizard based simplification tool
• Enhanced longitudinal profile
• Statistical calculations extended with additional calculated values
• Flagging on record and attribute level

CS MOUSE

• CS RR: UHM & RDI
• CS PF: Storm water inlet element (side inlet function between two nodes, with flow capacity computed on the basis of inlet geometry and street slope)
• CS PF: Long side-weir formulation
• CS PF & Control: Valve formulation, including all CS Control functionality
• CS Control: Support of rectangular weirs (i.e. upside down rectangular gate)
• CS PT: Water age formulation (Simulation of water age build-up in CS MOUSE network)

CS SWMM

• Engine updated from EPASWMM 5.0.005b to support EPASWMM 5.0.008
• Automatic catchments connections and processing for calculating impervious areas based on different land-use layers
• Result conversion tool for converting SWMM5 results (Hydrological and Hydraulic) to MOUSE result format (CRF and PRF)

Water Distribution

• PID analysis enhancements

We will bring you more details on the new features in the upcoming issues of this newsletter.

LOAD Calculator - a new MIKE 11 link

The LOAD Calculator was released in 2005 as an add-on tool for the MIKE BASIN WQ model. In the 2007 release the LOAD Calculator is now also available as an extension to MIKE 11 GIS. As in the MIKE BASIN WQ model the LOAD Calculator can be applied to generate pollution source boundaries for any MIKE 11 ECO Lab model. It only requires that a rainfall runoff model (RR) is included (fully coupled) in the MIKE 11 HD setup.

The tool is used for calculating pollution loads from both point and non-point sources. The required input data comprise shape files representing livestock and fertilizer statistics, population distribution, point sources and/or land use distribution. The user must specify the expected annual or daily loads per capita, head or hectare, reduction factors (or retention coefficients), and a few other parameters. The output aggregates all pollutant sources at sub-catchment level (RR catchments) and adds new entries into the MIKE 11 boundary editor (*.bnd11 – file) distinguishing between contributions from non-point and point sources, non-point sources being correlated to rainfall runoff while point sources are assumed independent of runoff.

Additional outputs include total annual loads split into a number fractions according the origin of the sources, and the statistics are added directly to the catchment feature class. This way the calibrated loads can be easily displayed using the build-in plot functionalities in ArcMap providing an overview of the relative importance of the different types of sources, e.g. point sources from industries and domestic sewers, non-sewered populations and agricultural non-point sources.

The LOAD Calculator is especially useful when working with large MIKE 11 model setups including many RR cathcments and including many pollution sources. In tool strongly facilitates the procedures for simulating different pollution load scenarios in MIKE 11 ECO Lab, in particular scenarios reflecting changes in both the geographical distribution and magnitude of both non-point and point sources.

For further information please contact Flemming Thorbjørn Hansen at fth@dhigroup.com or Børge Storm at brs@dhigroup.com

MATLAB DFS interface

The new MATLAB DFS interface version 2007 is ready for download.

The new MATLAB DFS interface library is a major extension compared to the previous version (2004). The new version supports e.g. read and write of flexible mesh data (dfsu 2D and 3D).

You can download the software and an extensive user guide here

For more information please contact Dr Jesper Grooss at jgr@dhigroup.com

View your 2D data in ArcMap

View your 2D data in ArcMap using the new free dfs2 plug-in for ArcGIS

The new plug-in is designed for viewing dfs2 files (eg. output from MIKE 11, MIKE 21or MIKE Flood) is designed for viewing dfs2 files with multiple time steps and items within ArcGis. More on features here…

The new dfs2 plug-in has already been applied in a number of projects. A few examples are described below.

Sample case from Thailand

The plug-in was used in a recent flood forecasting project for Chi and Mun rivers basins in northeast Thailand. In a fully automated setting, the project has provided forecast personnel with the capability to manage real-time data, carry out forecast simulations, examine computed dfs2 flood inundation maps in ArcGIS environment and disseminate early warnings to the vulnerable populace.

The flood inundation maps produced by the system are based on the following data and technologies:

1. Real-time observations of point rainfall in the river basins and point water level at selected river locations
2. A hydrological and hydraulic forecasting model based on MIKE 11, which includes data assimilation technology for updating the model state on the basis of observed data
3. An ArcGIS based system, MIKE FLOOD WATCH, that integrates 1 and 2, above

More information on the technologies applied can be found at:

• http://www.dhigroup.com/MIKE11
• http://www.dhigroup.com/MIKEFLOODWATCH

Predicted flood inundation along the Chi River.

Sample case from Spain

The new ArcGIS tool was used in the investigation of a potential Dam break in the village of Crevillente, Spain. The tool was used to present the inundation maps simulated by MIKE21, in the ArcGIS environment.

The study was carried out in corporation with the University of Alicante, with the objective to determined the flood risk for a particular plot of land in the event of a breach of the Crevillente dam,  and additionally to determine, if the area was in a flood risk zone, what types of preventives actions should be put in place in order to avoid loss of life.

The figure shows two examples of flood maps imported into ArcGIS using the dfs2 plug-in. On the left the present situation, and on the right a flood protection wall has been included.

More information can be found on
http://www.dhigroup.com/?sc_itemid={B850949A-68A1-4486-A3DC-4E6CDEAFF3B6}

System requirements

The plug-in requires ArcGIS 9.1 is installed on the PC. The plug-in has been developed for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional Edition.

Where to download and how to install?

You can either download the installation program from here or directly install the plug-in from the DHI Software 2007 DVD. Please follow the installation instructions carefully and read the release note.

For more information please contact Henrik Kofoed-Hansen at hkh@dhigroup.com

FEFLOW for advanced groundwater modelling

FEFLOW is a high-end 3D groundwater simulation system for groundwater flow, mass and density dependent heat transport. Major application areas include:

• Well-head protection
• Salt water intrusion
• Groundwater remediation
• Groundwater-surface water interaction
• Geothermal energy production
• Mine dewatering
• Dam seepage
• Fracture flow and transport

FEFLOW is based on finite element technique, which allows you to develop complex unstructured meshes that closely mirror the natural and man-made features in the landscape. With unstructured meshes you can represent features such as complex river paths, geological fractures, detailed flow pattern around wells and complex representations of sloping layers and anisotropy. You can define local mesh refinements and coarsening which provides an efficient reduction in element numbers and improve the computational efficiency in particular when dealing with regional models.

For large modelling areas, the mesh generation is supported by sophisticated automation algorithms to ensure efficient work flow.

FEFLOW guarantees stability and effectiveness of the solution by offering highly sophisticated sparse-matrix PCG-type as well as algebraic multi-grid solvers.

FEFLOW can handle GIS and CAD data for data import and export at all stages of modelling, e.g. to provide geographical input for mesh generation, parameter distribution, etc. Where appropriate, different regionalization methods are provided to transfer the basic data to the finite elements or mesh nodes. Using GIS, attribute data can be directly transferred to the groundwater model. Alternatively, all data input can be performed manually or by importing ASCII files.

FEFLOW provides planar, cross-sectional and 3D visualisation features. Using the FEFLOW Explorer, three-dimensional visualizations of all model parameters and modelling results can be produced creating a unique overview of your model.

WISYS for water information management

WISYS is an ArcGIS-based comprehensive information system for river basin management with special regard to the EU Water Framework Directive. Typical applications include:

• Management of water resources and programs based on the European Water Framework Directive;
• Water Information Systems;
• Dissemination of easy-access interactive information

The WISYS information system provides the authorities and organizations responsible for implementation of the European Water Framework Directive with the optimal tool for database and GIS-based recording, management, use of economical information, and dissemination of information to the public. The WISYS object model has been developed and optimised over a number of years. It implements fully the EU WFD 'Water Bodies Horizontal Guidance Document' (2002) and the 'Guidance Document Implementing the GIS Elements of the WFD' (2002) as well as other available standards.

WISYS includes a number of editing tools, such as the Surface Water Manager, the Water Body Manager and the Event Manager (incl. Event Projection Tool ), to generate or modify information in an integrated and consistent manner.

With the Water Quality Manager surface water body quality classification based on measured values can be accessed, and underlying water body types with associated quality class parameters can be accessed and reviewed.

With the Layout Manager interactive cards with any required content can be generated in accordance with one of the predefined standard layouts. Via the WISYS Web spatial distributed environmental information can be made accessible to the public. Additionally, the employees of various participating authorities can rapidly obtain an overview via this platform (e.g. designed as an Intranet).

The GeoDAta eXchange software (also available as a stand-alone package) is a GIS tool supplied with WISYS especially designed for import and export of spatially oriented data (e.g. shape files, coverage) to a normalised geo-database structure (SDE or Personal SDE) or from the latter. This is a unique and efficient tool for initial migration of available digital data to the WISYS system.

WGEO for geo-referencing, geo-imaging and transformation of spatial data

WGEO provides an efficient tool for referencing coordinates based on one system to another. The growing number of tasks involving the recording, administration and analysis of digital geographical data is reflected in an increasing use of geographical information systems (GIS) used. When digital geographic data are not yet available for a given area they are typically obtained by scanning existing analogue data. Any such data must be referenced to as a world coordinate system. WGEO, which comes in three different versions, addresses this issue efficiently. WGEO comes in different versions:

WGEO Basis, include:

Geo-referencing

• Geo-referencing of raster images
• Geo-referencing with affine or trapezoidal transformation (processing of pixels) or
• registration (generation of registration files) only
• Applying world coordinates by keyboard, through import, or with geo-referenced reference map

Simple geo-imaging

• Cropping and deleting using rectangular or custom (polygon) areas
• Combining of geo-referenced images (copy and paste)
• Inverting, rotation in 90° increments, changing colour depth, compression, and geo-transformation format available for geo-referenced images

WGEO Professional includes additionally:

Module for the processing of large geo-referencing projects

• Project-controlled data management
• Transparent geo-referencing on background maps
• Image catalogues and shape themes as background information for
• transparent geo-referencing
• Filter techniques to optimise contrasts

MIKE URBAN: Smart wizard for the Import and Export tool

The powerful capabilities of import and export tool were a bit cumbersome in the previous versions of MIKE URBAN. We have therefore concentrated on developing an easy-to-use wizard, guiding the user through all possible import and export options. The new wizard helps you select one of the predefined types of import or export or define the new one (e.g. import data from shapefiles), helps you define the data dictionary (e.g. matching attributes), provides easy access to the frequently used options. The "old type of import and export" is still available (under Advanced Import and Export) and it gives you access to complex data transfer definitions such as definition of look-up relations, for example.

Illustration: Import and Export wizard helps you to select the type of import or export you want to use

Illustration: Import and Export wizard makes the data dictionary construction easy and straightforward

Requires MIKE URBAN 2007

Editing/viewing mesh/dfsu data files

In Release 2007 the default editor/viewer for mesh/dfsu data files is set to the new Data Manager when opening a file in Windows Explorer or in the new Project Explorer. In the File Associations dialog you can change this setting easily. Open MIKE Zero, select options and User settings and set file association for dfsu and mesh files to Data Viewer (see below screen dumps).

Please also note when you double-click the file the default editor will be used, but you may open file with another editor by right-clicking the file in the Project Explorer and select `Open With' instead of `Open'. This will present you with a list of available editors and an option to set the selected editor as the new default editor for the specific file type.

For further information please contact Mr. Henrik K. Hansen at hkh@dhigroup.com

Editing and animating objects in Plot Composer

In release 2007 the Plot Composer consists of two tab controls:

1. Edit, where you can insert new plot objects and edit the plot properties for the individual plots
2. Animate, where you can animate multiple plots objects simultaneously.

In Edit you have the possibility to access the edit functionalities for the individual plot objects by selecting the plot object and right-clicking the mouse.

In Animate the plot object(s) cannot be edited. The time step to be displayed is defined by the Animation toolbar, from which you have the possibility to animate and step forwards and backwards in time and furthermore control the time steps to be stored in a video.

Note that for the Time Series plot object, a vertical line is displayed on the x-axis to indicate the active time step in the animation.

For further information please contact Dr. Ann Skov at ans@dhigroup.com

Upcoming Events

DHI DK User Group Meeting and Training Sessions , Hørsholm , Denmark , 8-9 May 2007

This year the DHI DK UGM will focus on our software as key tools to support the decision process, for instance in connection with climate change projects. The events will be conducted in Danish and will also offer the opportunity for Scandinavian speaking customers and potential SW users to be informed about Release 2007. On the second day you will receive the opportunity to apply the new functions in practice.

For further information please contact Ms Loni Skov Madsen, DHI Denmark or visit the DHI UGM website.

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WODCON XVIII "GLOBAL DREDGING" Convention, 27 May -1 June 2007, Lake Buena Vista , Florida , USA.

DHI Singapore and DHI DK will present real-life applications of DHI modelling tools in technical panels.

For further information please contact Ms Tham Sugin, DHI Singapore.

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27th ESRI International User Conference, 18-22 June 2007, San Diego , California , USA.
Details to be announced.

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32nd IAHR International Congress "Harmonizing the Demands of Art and Nature in Hydraulics", Venice, 2-6 July 2007

Join Intecno-DHI , Italy , and DHI DK at our stand in the exhibition area n. P1! DHI environmental modelling will be presented in specialised workshop during the Conference.

For further information please contact Intecno-DHI, Italy.

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9th DHI UK User Group Meeting, September 2007
Details to be announced.

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DHI Sweden User Group Meeting & ESRI Conference, Stockholm , Sweden , September 2007
Details to be announced.

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DHI Italy User Conference , Italy , October 2007
Details to be announced.

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"Enviro Asia 2007", 27-30 November 2007, Suntec City , Singapore.

DHI Singapore is exhibiting at DHI stand. For further information please visit DHI Singapore website or contact Ms Tham Sugin, DHI Singapore.

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2008

5th Asiatic-Pacific DHI Software Conference, Auckland , New Zealand , March 2008
Details to be announced.