SWMM6 & SWMM5 Enablement

Stormwater modeling notes, decoded.

SWMM5, SWMM6, XPSWMM, InfoSWMM, InfoSewer, OpenSWMM, and ICM — engine internals, error messages, calibration, and hard-won field wisdom from Robert Dickinson.

Browse error-message fixes EPA SWMM downloads

Peaking flow in InfoSewer Steady State applied as Total Flow in an EPS Simulation

· June 22, 2014
One of the advantages of the three Run options in InfoSewer (Bullet 1 in the image) which are Steady Sate, Design and Extended Period or EPS Modeling is that you can use Peaking Flow Factors for the Steady State Loading Manholes (Bullet 2 in the image).  Unfortunately, you cannot use Peaking Factors for EPS simulations which is often a modeling issue.  However, you can copy the Total Flow for each node in the Steady State Output Report and use this Total Flow as an EPS "other" loading (Bullet 3 in the image).  In an EPS Simulation you can use the Advanced Force Main Modeling option and automatically have flow splits for Force Mains and model more complicated Force Main configurations.  If you just simulate the EPS for one hour then you have a quasi steady state simulation with Total Flow (Unpeakable + Peakable) and the Advanced Force Main Solution.
A list of steps you need to take to use the Peak Flow from a Steady State Run in an EPS Simulation include
1.       Use Peaking Factor in InfoSewer for Steady State
2.      Copy Total Loads at Manholes
3.      Use the Total Loads in an EPS simulation
4.      Run the EPS Simulation for a short period of time
5.      If might help to have two scenarios for this copy and pasting
6.      Use the Advanced FM solution for only the EPS Simulation
Peaking flow in InfoSewer Steady State applied as Total Flow in an EPS Simulation

How to make a smaller model out of your larger InfoSWMM or H2OMap SWMM network

· June 11, 2014
How to make a smaller model out of your larger InfoSWMM or H2OMap SWMM network:
  •       Make a domain and then an active facility from the domain for your larger network
  •       Export the Active Newtork in the current scenario to SWMM 5
  •       Import the smaller model from SWMM 5 into a different InfoSWMM model
  •       You now have a smaller model in InfoSWMM or H2OMap SWMM.

Steps to Make a Smaller Model from an InfoSWMM or H2OMap SWMM Model

d/D, q/Q for a Link in SWMM 5, InfoSWMM and H2oMap SWMM

· June 08, 2014
d/D, q/Q for a Link in SWMM 5, InfoSWMM and H2oMap SWMM

 How do we look at the various measures of "fullness" in a pipe of link in SWMM 5?  Here we look at some graphs from InfoSWMM.

 d/D is the pipe depth over the full depth of the link
q/Q is the current link flow over Qfull for the link (Q full is the full flow of a link based on Manning's equation)  This Qfull is based on the bed slope of the link.   You can have a q/Q or q/Qfull greater than 1 if the water surface slope is greater than the bed slope of a link.  This is especially true for flat links where SWMM 5 has a minimum slope of 0.001

 The image shown below shoes that at the peak flow in the links is greater than 1 even though the pipe is not full (d/D less than 1) for this model of flat slopes.  Qfull is a comparison metric and not the result of the simulation.  
d/D, q/Q for a Link in SWMM 5, InfoSWMM and H2oMap SWMM

Urban frogs adapting to Urban Stormwater Networks in Taiwan

· June 06, 2014
Urban frogs adapting to Urban Stormwater Networks in Taiwan

"The frogs have learned to overcome that limitation by calling from within storm drains, since the drains enhance both volume and duration, allowing the frogs' calls to reach receivers both nearby and farther away.
"Concrete drains are miniature canyons, but are not analogous to anything in Mientien tree frog natural habitats," the researchers say. "Therefore, it is interesting to find those frogs preferentially calling in the drains." The frogs have taken the human built environment and turned it into a tool, rather than an obstacle to overcome, allowing their species to survive an environment dominated by our species."

Cool Inlets, Suds, LID Images from Twitter

· June 04, 2014




New SWMM 5.1.006 is now available from the EPA Site

· June 02, 2014
New SWMM 5.1.006 is now available from the EPA Site

http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/

with these engine changes

-------------------------
Build 5.1.006 (5/19/2014)
-------------------------

Engine Updates:

1.   The updating of the next time that detailed LID results
     should be written to file during a simulation was modified 
     to avoid an off-by-one error.

2.   The number of decimal places for hourly evaporation written
     to a detailed LID report was increased.
     
3.   The amount of soil water available for evaporation in
     LID units with soil layers wasn't being limited by the
     water remaining below the wilting point.

4.   The equation that computes the rate of water infiltrating
     into permeable pavement LIDs had a misplaced parenthesis.

5.   There was a units conversion error in computing the
     contribution of a pollutant in direct precipitation
     to the water quality on a subcatchment.
































Overflow in InfoSewer




 · 
May 29, 2014





"Discover the unique water retention capabilities in InfoSewer 💧🛠️:
  • Unlike InfoSWMM, InfoWorks ICM, and InfoWorks CS, InfoSewer maintains its composure under pressure. During Extended Period Simulations (EPS), even when the Hydraulic Grade Line (HGL) kisses the Rim Elevation, no water escapes the chamber and loading manholes. 💦🚫
  • However, keep a watchful eye on those Wet Wells! They will release water once filled to the brim. 🌊🕳️
  • One critical output parameter to monitor is 'Overflow'. Here's a quick guide:
    • Overflow Equation: Overflow = Flow in Link - Q full for the Link
    • Understanding Overflow:
      • A negative Overflow value signals an unfulfilled pipe; it's not at full capacity based on q/Qfull. 📉
      • A positive Overflow indicates a full house; the pipe has reached its max. 📈
    • Measuring Units: Overflow's units align with the units of Flow in InfoSewer.
Stay in control of your network's flow dynamics with InfoSewer's precision in water management 🔍💡."








What is Overflow in InfoSewer?


























SWMM 5 Groundwater and Node Elevation Relationship Options




 · 
May 12, 2014






If you want the SWMM 5 groundwater Subcatchment routing to use the the aquifer water table elevation, the node invert elevation and the depth of water in the receiving water node then you should use values of 0, blank and blank for Surface Water Height, Channel Bottom Height and Water Table Elevation, respectively (Figure 1).  As shown in Figure 2, if the Groundwater starts out at the same elevation as the receiving water node the flow can be both negative and positive into the groundwater comparatments as the depth in the node and the infiltration for the Subcatchment change.












Figure 1. SWMM5 Groundwater Elevations








Figure 2. SWMM 5 Groundwater and Node Elevation Relationship Options































How to Change the Spatial Coordinates in Arc Map for InfoSWMM and InfoSewer




 · 
May 06, 2014








If you have an unknown coordinate system in InfoSewer or InfoSWMM, this is one way to fix the unknown coordinate issue.







Here
is how you fix the coordinate issue so you can view your model in Google Maps:



1    1.   Use export manager and save a
shape file of your manhole or junction data,
2.      Next (there are a lot of ways
to do this) use Arc Map Tools and define the saved shape file as Australian GDA1994 MGA 1956
3.      Now, merge your InfoSWMM Model with the newly created and newly defined
Australian GDA1994 MGA 1956 shape file
4.      Next, change the project
spatial reference to Australian GDA1994 MGA 1956 and zoom to
your layers
5.      You now can have a 
background image layer and
6.      You can see the streets next
to the inlets of your model in Google Maps.




Arc Map Tools for Defining the Projection of a Shapefile









































Release of SWMM 5.1.005




 · 
May 01, 2014







-------------------------
Build 5.1.005 (4/23/2014)
-------------------------

Engine Updates:

1.  A problem with reading hydraulic results from a hot start
    file was fixed.

GUI Updates:

1.  The appearance of the Open File Dialog with preview panel
    was improved.

2.  In the property Editor for storage nodes, the Ponded Area
    property was made read-only since storage nodes are not
    allowed to pond water.

3.  Some issues with pop-up topic windows in the Help file
    being obscured by the main Help window were fixed.




http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/#Downloads

































Release of SWMM 5.1.004




 · 
April 22, 2014







-------------------------
Build 5.1.004 (4/14/2014)
-------------------------

Engine Updates:

1.  Support for the Ignore RDII analysis option was added to
    the engine.

GUI Updates:

1.  A refactoring bug that ignored any changes to numerical
    precision made in the Program Preferences dialog was fixed.

2.  Another refactoring bug from 5.1.003 that caused projects
    with groundwater aquifers not to run was fixed.




http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/#Downloads




































Top 10 #tips and tricks for @Snagit in a short, illustrated PDF guide




 · 
April 19, 2014










I love Snagit and Jing, which are very good screen capturing and editing programs.  The 2nd Tweet allows you to download a PDF file of Tips from Snagit


































Release of SWMM 5.1.003 




 · 
April 15, 2014







------------------------
Build 5.1.003 (4/8/2014)
------------------------
Engine Updates:

1.  A new property, the Upper Zone Evap. Pattern, was added to
    the Aquifer object. It allows one to adjust the aquifer's
    upper zone evaporation fraction by month of the year.

2.  A bug in writing/reading RDII flows to the new binary RDII
    file was fixed.

GUI Updates:

1.  A refactoring bug that prevented SWMM from working
    correctly for users with non-US Windows regional settings
    was fixed.

2.  A refactoring bug the prevented the Group Delete feature from
    working was fixed.

3.  Issues with stay-on-top forms obscuring modal dialog forms,
    with the Browser panel disappearing if its width was made too
    small and with not being able to browse the Help system when a
    modal form had focus were fixed (these unforseen issues were
    caused by the switch to Delphi XE2 from Delphi 7).

4.  The Aquifer Editor form was updated to accept the new upper
    evaporation pattern property.






http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/


































SWMM 5.1 Update History Or Key Changes




 · 
March 27, 2014






SWMM 5.1 Update History

http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/#Downloads




Build 5.1.002
-----------------------
Engine Updates:

1.  A bug that prevented hotstart files with the latest format
    from being read was fixed.

2.  Only non-ponded surface area is saved for use in the dynamic
    wave surcharge algorithm (when water depth is close to the
    node's crown elevation). 

GUI Updates:

1.  Creation of auxilary forms on startup was moved from the
    main form's OnActivate event to its OnCreate event, while
    creation of the map form was moved tothe OnShow event.

2.  The routines for saving and reading the main form's position
    and size in the swmm5 .ini file were modified.

3.  A memory leak related to copying cells from the grid editor
    used in various dialogs was fixed.

-----------------------

Build 5.1.001

-----------------------

Engine Updates



New Features:

=============

1.  SWMM can now read the new file format for precipitation

    data retrieved online from NOAA-NCDC.



2.  A new choice of infiltration method, the Modified Horton

    method, has been added. This method 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.



3.  RDII interface files created internally by SWMM are now

    saved in a binary format to reduce storage space. The ASCII

    text format for these files is still supported for users

    that find it desireable to create the files outside of SWMM.



4.  Two new categories of LID controls, one for Green Roofs and

    another for Rain Gardens, have been added so they no longer

    have to be configured from the Bio-Retention Cell control

    (although that option still remains). The Green Roof uses

    a new Drainage Mat layer to store and convey the water that

    percolates through the soil layer.



5.  Users can now add their own groundwater outflow equation to

    a subcatchment, to be used in place of or in addition to the

    standard equation. Similar to treatment functions, the equation

    can be any mathematical expression that uses the same ground-

    water variables that appear in the standard equation.



6.  Evaporation of water from open channels has been added.



7.  A new conduit property named Seepage Rate (in/hr or mm/hr)

    has been added to model uniform seepage along the bottom

    and sloped sides of a conduit.



8.  Infiltration from storage units is now referred to as

    seepage, to be consistent with seepage from conduits. The

    only required parameter is a seepage rate (in/hr or mm/hr).

    Previous data files that supply a set of Green-Ampt

    infiltration parameters will still be recognized.



9.  Separate accounting and reporting of evaporation and

    seepage losses in storage units is now made.



10. Open rectangular channels now have a new parameter that

    specifies if one or both side wall surfaces should be

    ignored when computing a hydraulic radius (to provide

    improved support for quasi-2D modeling of wide channels

    and overland flooding).



11. New Dynamic Wave Analysis options have been added for

    the maximum number of iterations and head tolerance used

    at each time step. The percentage of time steps where

    convergence is not achieved is also now reported.



12. Users can now set the flow tolerances that determine if

    flow routing calculations can be skipped because steady

    state conditions hold.



13. Control rules can now use a conduit's OPEN/CLOSED status

    in both premise conditions and action clauses.



14. The meaning of the link view variable "Capacity" has been

    changed. For conduits it is now the fraction of the full

    cross section area filled by the flow, while it is the

    control setting for all other types of links (the meaning

    of the control setting varies by link type -- see the Help

    file or the Users Manual).



15. The link Froude number view variable has been replaced with

    the link's flow volume, the subcatchment Losses variable has

    been replaced by two new variables - Evaporation and

    Infiltration, and upper groundwater zone Soil Moisture has

    been added as a new view variable.



16. The Node Inflows Summary table of the Status Report now

    includes a new column that lists the mass balance error

    in volume units for each node.



17. A new summary table, Link Pollutant Load, has been added

    that displays the total mass load of each pollutant that

    flows through each link.



Improvements:

=============

18. Using a Drain Delay time of 0 for Rain Barrel LIDs now means

    that the barrel is allowed to drain continuously, even as it

    is filling during wet weather periods.



19. The requirement that an impervious surface must be dry

    (have no more than 0.05 inches of standing water) before

    it could be subjected to street sweeping has been dropped.



20. After runoff ceases and a land surface goes dry due to

    evaporation, any remaining mass of pollutant originating

    from direct deposition or upstream runon is assumed to be

    unavailabe for future washoff (it shows up as Remaining

    Buildup in the mass balance report).



21. The way that wet weather washoff inflow loads are

    interpolated across a flow routing time step was modified

    to produce a better match between the reported total runoff

    load and total quality routing inflow load.



22. The method used to select a time step for processing RDII

    unit hydrographs was modified to consider the case where

    K (the ratio of rising limb to falling limb duration) is

    below 1.0.



23. When the moisture content of the upper groundwater zone

    reaches saturation, the depth of the lower saturated zone

    is now set equal to the full aquifer depth (minus a small

    tolerance).



24. Conduits with negative slopes whose absolute value is

    below the Minimum Slope option will have their slope

    changed to the positive minimum value, thus allowing

    them to be analyzed using the Steady Flow and Kinematic

    Wave routing options.



25. The Avg. Froude Number and Avg. Flow Change columns in the

    Flow Classification Summary table have been replaced with the

    fraction of time steps that flow is limited to normal flow

    and the fraction of time steps that flow is inlet controlled

    (for culverts).



26. An error condition now occurs if a pump's startup depth

    is less than its shutoff depth.



27. Only the upstream node for orifice and weir links is now

    checked to see if its maximum depth needs to be increased

    to meet the top elevation of the orifice or weir opening.



28. Weirs are no longer allowed to operate as an orifice when

    they surcharge. Instead any excess flow will flood the

    upstream node.



29. A warning message is now written to the Status Report if

    the crest elevation of a regulator link is below its

    downstream node's invert.



30. When a reporting time falls in between a computational time

    step during which a pump's on/off status changes, the reported

    pump flow is the value at either the start or end of the time

    step depending on which is closer to the reporting time (i.e.,

    no interpolation is used).



31. Control rule conditions can now accept elapsed time or

    time of day values as decimal hours in addition to hours:

    minutes:seconds.



32. The test for a control rule condition equaling a specified

    elapsed time or time of day was modified to more accurately

    capture its occurrence.



33. If the Water Quality analysis option is disabled then the

    binary results file no longer contains any pollutant values

    (of 0) for all time periods.



34. Hot Start files now contain the complete state of the watershed

    and conveyance system, so that future simulations can start up

    correctly where they left off.



35. The following changes to error reporting were made:

    - Error 319 was re-numbered to 320 and a new Error 319

      was added for a rainfall data file with unknown format.

    - Format errors in external time series files are now

      listed as Error 363 (invalid data) instead of Error

      173 (time series out of sequence).



36. Warning messages written to the Status Report are now

    single spaced instead of double spaced. See report.c.



37. The Link Summary table in the Status Report now lists conduits

    with negative slopes in their original orientation instead of

    in their reversed state.



Bug Fixes:

==========

38. A refactoring bug from 5.0.022 that prevented snowmelt

    from infiltrating has been fixed.



39. Snowmelt rate during rainfall conditions and the updating

    of the antecedent temperature index were were not being

    converted from the six hour time interval used in Anderson's

    original NWS snowmelt model to the hourly basis used in SWMM.



40. A refactoring bug that failed to set the maximum number of

    characters high enough for a line read from a user-prepared

    rainfall data file has been fixed.



41. The optional Maximum Volume parameter for Horton

    infiltration was not allowing any recovery of infiltration

    capacity between storm events.



42. Evaporation from the lower groundwater zone was being

    computed from the rate remaining after surface and upper

    zone evaporation was considered instead of from the

    unadjusted rate (with a reduction afterwards if it exceeds

    the remaining available rate).



43. An error in applying the Vegetation Volume Fraction parameter

    to swales was corrected.



44. The time from the last rainfall used to determine when a

    Rain Barrel should begin to empty wasn't being computed

    correctly.



45. An erroneous error message for Rain Barrel LIDs with a

    zero Void Ratio has been fixed (the Void Ratio parameter

    should be ignored for Rain Barrels).



46. The display of extraneous infiltration results in detailed

    reports for Rain Barrel LIDs has been eliminated.



47. The check on no street sweeping for a subcatchment during

    wet periods was checking rainfall over the entire study

    area instead of just the subcatchment.



48. An erroneous warning message regarding negative offsets for

    pumps when elevation offsets are used has been eliminated.



49. A possible divide by zero error for trapezoidal channels

    with zero bottom width has been eliminated.



50. A program crash that occurred when the Ignore Routing

    option was selected and results were to be saved to a

    Routing Interface file has been fixed.



51. Projects that had no subcatchments or had the Ignore

    Runoff switch selected were not able to evaporate water

    from storage units.



52. Weekday and weekend hourly time patterns for Dry Weather

    inflows are now correctly applied in a mutually exclusive

    manner.



53. The Node Flooding Summary table in the Status Report now

    correctly lists the peak depth of ponded water above the

    node's maximum depth (i.e., its rim or ground elevation)

    instead of above its invert elevation.



54. Occasional problems caused by the date/time functions not

    returning an hour between 0 and 23 (for hourly time patterns)

    and being off by 1 second (when writing results to outflow

    interface files) have been fixed.



55. A bug introduced in release 5.0.017 that caused the

    concentration after first-order decay in a storage node to

    be ignored has been fixed.



56. A bug in the Total Elapsed Time listed at the end of the

    Status Report for runs taking longer than 24 hours of

    computer time was fixed.



57. A correction was made for the slope correction factor used

    for mitered culvert inlets.



58. The procedure for finding the surface area of a storage unit

    given its volume was corrected for the case where the

    storage curve has a section of decreasing area with depth.



59. The procedure for finding a cross-section area given a

    section factor value was corrected for the case where the

    section factor table does not have its highest value as

    the last entry in the table.



60. An error in computing the hydraulic radius of the Rectangular-

    Triangular conduit shape as a function of flow depth was

    corrected.



GUI Updates



1.  The entire GUI code was ported from Delphi 7 into Delphi XE2.



2.  Different color themes for the user interface can be

    selected from the Program Preferences dialog.



3.  The "Data" Browser panel is now named as the "Project"

    Browser.



4.  The Object Toolbar has been eliminated. Visual objects

    are now added to the map in the same manner as non-visual

    objects -- by selecting their category from the Project

    Browser and then clicking the Browser's "+" button (or

    by selecting Project | Add... on the main menu).



5.  The LID Control and LID Usage editors were re-designed to

    accomodate the new LID control options.



6.  Modifications were made to accept the new engine features

    mentioned above (modified Horton infiltration, seepage rate

    parameter for conduits, side wall option for rectangular

    channels, and the additional Dynamic Wave routing options).



7.  Modifications were made to accept the updated set of output

    view variables.



8.  The summary results tables that used to appear as part of the

    Status Report have been moved into a separate Summary Report

    that makes it easier to view and sort them.



9.  The Time Series Plot selection dialog was modified to allow

    more than one kind of object/variable pair to be plotted.



10. The Graph Options dialog was modified to allow a vertical

    axis to be inverted (as when plotting an inverted rainfall

    hyetograph on the same graph as a runoff hydrograph).



11. The option to compute evaporation using the Hargreaves

    equation wasn't being saved along with the rest of a project.



12. If pollutants are defined for a project but the Water Quality

    analysis option is not selected, then after a new analysis is

    made pollutants will no longer be listed as theme variables in

    the Map Browser nor will they be available for graphs, tables

    or statistical reports.



13. The columns for the [XSECTIONS] section of a saved project

    file now includes a heading label for "Culvert Code".