User's guide to SSARRMENU

Abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Pierce County Department of Public Works, Washington, has developed an operational tool called the Puyallup Flood-Alert System to alert users of impending floods in the Puyallup River Basin. The system acquires and incorporates meteorological and hydrological data into the Streamflow Synthesis and Reservoir Regulation (SSARR) hydrologic flow-routing model to simulate floods in the Puyallup River Basin. SSARRMENU is the user-interactive graphical interface between the user, the input and output data, and the SSARR model. In a companion cooperative project with Pierce County, the SSARR model for the Puyallup River Basin was calibrated and validated. The calibrated model is accessed through SSARRMENU, which has been specifically programed for the Puyallup River and the needs of Pierce County. SSARRMENU automates the retrieval of data from ADAPS (Automated DAta Processing System, the U.S. Geological Survey’s real-time hydrologic database), formats the data for use with SSARR, initiates SSARR model runs, displays alerts for impending floods, and provides utilities to display the simulated and observed data. An on-screen map of the basin and a series of menu items provide the user with easy access to SSARRMENU’s capabilities. SSARRMENU runs on a personal computer in a Windows NTTM, version 4.0, operating environment that includes the U.S. Corps of Engineers’ distributed SSARR program, companion data management and workfile utilities, and internet connection. INTRODUCTION A real-time flood-alert system has been developed for the Puyallup River Basin in Washington State by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Pierce County Department of Public Works. The major components of the system consist of a real-time network of streamflow and meteorologic gages operated by the USGS, a calibrated watershed and flow-routing model, a database, a datacommunication network, and the user. SSARRMENU, the software program that ties all these components together, has two functions: (1) provide an interface between the user and the input, model, and output; and (2) display alerts of impending floods. A description of the watershed and flow-routing model, SSARR; how it was developed, calibrated, and validated; and an overview of the Puyallup Flood-Alert System (hereafter referred to as the Flood-Alert System) is described by Mastin (1999) in a separate report. This report is intended to provide the user with a practical guide for using the SSARRMENU (version 2K4.1) software to retrieve input data, make runoff simulations and view results, and provide a reference for system requirements and the many related files needed or generated by the program. The roles of the Flood-Alert System and SSARRMENU are illustrated by the generalized flow paths of data from the gage sites to the Pierce County Department of Public Works and within the computer for the Flood-Alert System (fig. 1).