Integrating GIS, CIS and Telemetry Systems to Develop an Integrated Modelling System

Abstract

In 2000 Essex and Suffolk Water (a UK water services company located east of London) invited tenders for the construction of `All Mains' models for their water distribution network. A key requirement of the project was sustainability (due to the costs associated with field tests), the models had to be updated when new GIS, CIS and telemetry data became available. Additional requirements included calibration targets, the use of a set of standard demand profiles based on SIC codes and the support of the Safege Piccolo modelling package. Crowder Consulting were chosen to undertake this project by developing a new modelling module for our existing management information application NETBASE. The outcome was a model management system that could link to any GIS, CIS and Telemetry system, allow the models to be built, edited and validated. The models could then be exported to any modelling application (currently EPANET and Piccolo are supported) for analysis and then loaded back into the NETBASE database to analyse the model results. Rather than developing a custom data warehouse, an Oracle Database was used enabling the development team to concentrate their efforts on the analysis and interface tools. The data sources for the project were the clients GIS (Geographical Information System) system, CIS (Customer Information System) system and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems. To create the flow and demand profiles a Profiles Library was developed. The profiles library enabled the profile creation process to be automated so that it was possible to quickly and easily create demand profiles for individual users and monitoring points. Demand profiles were created using the customers annual consumption, a standard profile based on the customers SIC code and seasonal factors. Profiles were created for peak, summer, winter and typical demands. Custom profiles were created for users with unusual demand patterns using logged data captured as part of the field test. Model calibration was also automated using a RMS goal-seeking algorithm to automatically roughen groups of pipes until a calibration target was reached. Although not all the models could be calibrated using this method it provide an effective first pass solution. When calibration was completed it was validated (by the modelling team) and a report generated for the client. Models were calibrated on a sector by sector basis and then finally combined into a single model for a demand area. Sustainability was achieved by using the database as a buffer between the source data and the models and developing a set of import applications that enabled the incoming data to be `quarantined' while it was validated before the model was updated. This proved particularly effective at safeguarding the changes that had been made to the system to model features such as pumping stations and reservoirs (typically not included in GIS systems in the UK) as is was possible to load new GIS data around features while retaining changes. This paper was presented at the 8th Annual Water Distribution Systems Analysis Symposium which was held with the generous support of Awwa Research Foundation (AwwaRF).