Data Management System (DMS) for Time Series

Abstract

ABSTRACT AGENCIES collecting hydrometeorological or related information—precipitation, streamflow, temperature—find that the volume of data increases rapidly. At the same time, new techniques in hydrologic and water quality analysis are being developed, and they require more kinds of data and create greater problems in management. Modern analytical methods are computer based. Consequently, it is desirable to have a data retrieval system within the same software to allow direct transfer of information. Hydrocomp Inc. has de-veloped a data management system as part of the modernization and improvement of its analysis tools. This system is a component of a new release of Hydrocomp simulation software called Hydrocomp Simulation Processor II (HSPII). This paper describes Data Management System (DMS) capabilities. In addition to storing and retrieving a considerable amount of information collected as time series, the system can be used to perform a variety of analyses on transformations of these data and print out in tabular or graphical form the original data series or its transformation. By use of compression techniques, space required for data storage is reduced to a minimum. Oper-ation of the system is controlled by a special lan-guage called Hydrocomp Programming Language (HPL), a command oriented language which is flexible and easy to learn. The package was designed to be extendable; new commands can be easily added. DMS is suitable to a wide variety of applications; it can store and process any data collected as a sequence in time. It is a useful analytical tool presented for agencies who are considering a con-version to modern computer-based data management.