Grantee Research Project Results
2022 Progress Report: A Sustainable Center for Crowd-Sourced Water Infrastructure Modeling
EPA Grant Number: R835950Center: Gulf Coast HSRC (Lamar)
Center Director: Ho, Tho C.
Title: A Sustainable Center for Crowd-Sourced Water Infrastructure Modeling
Investigators: Hodges, Ben R. , Cleveland, Theodore G. , Barrett, Michael E. , Ames, Daniel P. , Leite, Fernanda , Berglund, Emily , Urbonas, Ben , Pechacek, Linda D , Brashear, Bob
Current Investigators: Hodges, Ben R. , Cleveland, Theodore G. , Barrett, Michael E. , Ames, Daniel P. , Leite, Fernanda , Berglund, Emily , Urbonas, Ben , Brashear, Bob , Rowney, A. Charles
Institution: Brigham Young University , The University of Texas at Austin , North Carolina State University , Texas Tech University , Urban Watersheds Research Institute
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2021 (Extended to August 31, 2023)
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2021 through August 31,2022
Project Amount: $3,999,803
RFA: National Center for Sustainable Water Infrastructure Modeling Research (2014) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Water Quality
Objective:
Project 1: Project Title: Parallel solver for transient analyses
Objective of Research: Develop an efficient parallel solver for transient analyses in complex networks.
Project 2: project Title: Improved hydraulic network solver for SWMM
Develop an approach to solving the Saint-Venant equations for open-channel sewer network flow that can be used for massively parallel computer
Project 3: Project Title: Outreach to the SWMM and EPANET communities
Build the foundations for a sustainable community of model developers and users.
Project 4: Project Title: On-line implementation of models for training.
Develop and deploy a software-as-a-service implementation of EPANET/SWMM for on-line access and running of the codes for training purposes.
Project 5: Project Title: Community web portal and model repository
Develop a web-centered community for SWMM and EPANET
Progress Summary:
Project 1:
Several software programs have been developed to model transient flow in water systems, and more specifically, using the method of characteristics (MOC) to find a solution for the flow equations derived in accordance to the so-called elastic theory. Although the numerical scheme of the MOC approach is considered to generate numerically accurate solutions, it is often characterized by longer running times and, thus, is limited by its computational efficiency. The ability to provide high-fidelity solutions in short simulation times, and to preserve the topological and geometrical characteristics of the real system is especially important for practical applications involving modeling large-scale water systems with hundreds to thousands of pipes and junctions. This work presents a novel complete hybrid algorithm that parallelizes MOC by integrating shared-and distributed-memory schemes, as well as vectorizing the equations for inner points and basic boundary conditions, such as, pipe junctions, reservoirs, dead-ends, valves, and pumps. Specifically, the new approach exploits vectorization to compute the MOC equations in parallel using either CPUs or GPUs. This project is ongoing in FY21 as we further develop the model and prepare manuscripts for publication.
Project 2:
The new methods for open-channel and closed channel flow have been developed and tested using Python code and implemented in Fortran 2008 in the SWMM5+ engine. Results show that we can obtain mass conservation and stable solutions with much less computational effort than the existing SWMM computational engine. Further implementation and testing of the new algorithms are in progress. In FY21 we released the Alpha (preliminary) code release. For FY22 we expect to release the Beta code to the public for debugging and analyses.
Project 3: The Center has conducted extensive outreach at professional and technical conferences to provide opportunities for the community to evaluate the approaches being taken in the new SWMM computational engine. However, this work has been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic so we have pivoted to using virtual engagement with the broader community. The Center has revamped the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to better support the virtual engagement strategies.
Project 4:A prototype on-line implementation was built using apache2 with cgi-bin to run command-line implementations of EPANET and SWMM. An up-loader script was built to allow client access to create and populate directories containing input and output files. These implementations require use of .inp files -- users can edit the files, but need to know the file structure. A prototype web service using TightVNC and noVNC was migrated to a commercial host on x86-64 architecture. This exploratory work allows NCIMM built/managed data center to serve working instances of EPANET/SWMM with the GUI intact through a web-browser. The client only needs a relatively modern browser and a data center supplied password. The prototype is demonstrated at https://youtu.be/D6VPSfFMQvw/ The demonstration site has been used in several teaching contexts and a journal paper is in progress. Network lag is an issue, and the help utility in SWMM is not rendering correctly (that’s a consequence of running on a Linux host and not inherent problem with the software). We have developed AWS instances to replace the commercial host (Amazon is also commercial, but has a very favorable pricing structure). This project is ongoing in FY21 with a focus on making the online system more robust/efficient and creating the user manuals.
Project 5:Prototype development is underway for of NCIMM website and community user portal to support software and training for SWMM and EPANET models. We are developing a cyber-infrastructure back-end to allow model sharing and analyses. A working prototype of a web-based implementation is available, with an interface that allows file editing. Users must know the .inp file structure to edit models effectively. This project is ongoing in FY22 as we work to complete the cyber-infrastructure back-end and develop user manuals.
Future Activities:
Project 2: Development and testing of the new algorithms will continue in the next project year. Public distribution of the Version 1.0 code release is planned for early Q2 of FY23.
Project 3:Continue to develop community relationships with web-based strategies to build sustainable open-source collaborations for the future of SWMM and EPANET.
Project 4: Write a makers-manual for remote builds of AWS instances for EPANET and SWMM online deployment with the ordinary GUIs in Linux hosts/containers. The AWS Windows instances work without fuss, but serving them through NCIMM managed web server is an ongoing research. Build prototype web service using TightVNC and noVNC on arm64 architecture. Write users manuals for these web-based tools. A SWMM implementation is completed and is being pre-populated with training vignettes derived from the NCIMM.
Project 5:Completed cyber-infrastructure back-end to allow model sharing and analyses. A client manual with examples for the on-line implementation is in-progress.
Journal Articles: 21 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 74 publications | 24 publications in selected types | All 21 journal articles |
|---|
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Abokifa AA, Maheshwari A, Gudi RD, Biswas P. Influence of dead-end sections of drinking water distribution networks on optimization of booster chlorination systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2019;145(12):04019053. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Abokifa A A, Xing L, Sela L. Investigating the impacts of water conservation on water quality in distribution networks using an advection-dispersion transport model. Water 2020;12(4):1033 |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Abokifa A, Sela L. Integrating spatial clustering with predictive modeling of pipe failures in water distribution systems. URBAN WATER JOURNAL 2023;20(4):465-476 |
R835950 (2021) |
Exit |
|
|
Berglund EZ, Pesantez JE, Rasekh A, Shafiee, ME, Sela L, Haxton T. Review of modeling methodologies for managing water distribution security. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2020;146(8):03120001 |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Hodges B. Conservative finite-volume forms of the Saint-Venant equations for hydrology and urban drainage. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 2019;23(3):1281-1304. |
R835950 (2021) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Hodges B, Sharior S, Tiernan E, Jenkins E, Rano-Briceno G, Davila-Hernandez C, Madadi-Kandjani E, Yu C. Introducing SWMM5+. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 2024;150(10) |
R835950 (Final) |
Exit |
|
|
Hodges BR, An artificial compressibility method for 1D simulation of open-channel and pressurized-pipe flow. Wate2020;12:6:1727. |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Morales-Hernandez M, Sharif MB, Gangrade S, Dullo TT, Kao S, Kalyanapu A, Ghafoor SK, Evans KJ, Madadi-Kanjani E, Hodges BR. High performance computing in water resources hydrodynamics. Journal of Hydroinformatic 2020;22(5):1217–1235 |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Riaño-Briceño G, Sela L, Hodges B. Distributed and vectorized method of characteristics for fast transient simulations in water distribution systems. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 2021;37(2):163-184 |
R835950 (2022) |
Exit |
|
|
Salomons E, Sela L, Housh M. Hedging for privacy in smart water meters. Water Resources Research 2020;56(9):e2020WR027917 |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Tiernan ED, Hodges BR. A topological approach to partitioning flow networks for parallel simulation. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering 2022;36(4):04022010. |
R835950 (2021) |
Exit |
|
|
Wang S, Taha A, Sela L, Giacomoni M, Gatsis N. A new derivative-free linear approximation for solving the network water flow problem with convergence guarantees. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 2020;56(3). |
R835950 (2021) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Xing L, Sela L. Unsteady pressure patterns discovery from high-frequency sensing in water distribution systems. Water Research 2019;158:291-300. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit |
|
|
Yu C, Hodges BR, Liu F. A new form of the Saint-Venant equations for variable topography. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 24:4001-4024, August 2020. |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Zhuang J, Sela L. Impact of emerging water savings scenarios on performance of urban water networks. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2019;146(1):04019063. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit Exit |
|
|
Abokifa AA, Sela L. Identification of spatial patterns in water distribution pipe failure data using spatial autocorrelation analysis. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2019;145(12):04019057. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Abokifa AA, Katz L, Sela L. Spatiotemporal trends of recovery from lead contamination in Flint, MI as revealed by crowdsourced water sampling. Water Research 2019:115442. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit Exit |
|
|
Abokifa A, Biswas P, Hodges BR, Sela L. WUDESIM:a toolkit for simulating water quality in the dead-end branches of drinking water distribution networks. Urban Water Journal 2020;17(1):54-64. |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Hodges BR, Liu F. Timescale interpolation and no-neighbour discretization for a 1D finite-volume Saint-Venant solver. Journal of Hydraulic Research 2019:1-7. |
R835950 (2019) R835950 (2020) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Riaño-Briceño G, Hodges BR, Sela L. PTSNet:A Parallel Transient Simulator for Water Transport Networks based on vectorization and distributed computing. Environmental Modelling & Software 2022;158:105554. |
R835950 (2022) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Wang S, Taha AF, Sela L, Gatsis N, Giacomoni MH. State Estimation in Water Distribution Networks through a New Successive Linear Approximation. In2019 IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2019 Dec 11 (pp. 5474-5479). IEEE. |
R835950 (2020) |
Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
water distribution system, model calibration, numerical solver, open-channel flow, parallel computing, Software as a Service, On-Line SWMM, On-Line EPANETRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2021 Progress Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2018 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
21 journal articles for this center