Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST): Cost-effective integrated water management
Citation:
Detenbeck, N., A. Piscopo, AND R. Sullivan. Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST): Cost-effective integrated water management. WEF Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Symposium 2019: Integrated Stormwater Management, Fort Lauderdale, FL, May 08 - 10, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
Effective stormwater management requires collaboration among design and construction engineers, inspection and maintenance professionals, landscape architects, municipal stormwater program managers, environmental scientists, water resources managers, economists, communications specialists, decision makers and the public. Often, stormwater is perceived as a nuisance and addressed as a regulatory burden rather than a valuable resource. The impacts from extreme weather events (drought, flood, heat) highlight that we must strive for a flexible and multi-dimensional approach to stormwater management while leveraging the strengths of differing design and operation of stormwater infrastructure types – green, grey, and blue.This Symposium is crafted to deepen the technical knowledge of professionals involved with stormwater management and provide forums where leading issues in the sector are discussed. The workshop on WMOST will demonstrate to stormwater professionals how stormwater management can be part of an integrated water resource management strategy.
Description:
The purpose of the workshop is to introduce participants to the concept of integrated water resource management (IWRM) and to train federal, state, tribal, municipal/utility, nongovernmental organizations, and consultants in the use and applications of EPA's Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) version 3. WMOST was designed to facilitate the application of IWRM at the community and small watershed scales to find the most cost effective suite of management practices (stormwater, wastewater, drinking water, land conservation) to meet water quantity and water quality goals. WMOST accepts time series from common water quality models (e.g., Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Hydrologic Simulation Program in Fortran (HSPF), Stormwater Management Model (SWMM)) to define baseline conditions in the watershed. WMOST then interacts with EPA's System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN) tool to estimate potential reductions in runoff and pollutant loads from best management practices, produces input _les to submit to the Network-Enabled Optimization System (NEOS) server interface for optimization problems, and summarizes the most cost-effective management solutions to meet water quantity and quality targets. Topics to be covered include an introduction to integrated water resources management, an overview of WMOST, optimization problem formulation, import of SWAT/HSPF/SWMM baseline time series into WMOST, use of the stormwater management module, available management options, calibration and trouble-shooting, the optimization process, and scenario development. Workshop participants will also be introduced to robust-decision making and to multiple-objective optimization. Workshop participants will be provided with a CD of tool _les and background documentation to load onto their laptops. Exercises will be provided for a simple case study that participants can set up and run during the workshop or save for analysis at a later date. Sections on problem formulation and model scenarios will be interactive, soliciting feedback from participants on the watershed management issues they are addressing. If participants wish to run exercises themselves during the workshop, they should bring a laptop computer with WIFI capabilities with MS Excel 2013 or 2016 installed (32 bit version). Ideally participants will have downloaded and installed both WMOST v3 (https://www.epa.gov/ceam/wmost-30-download-page ) and SUSTAIN v 1.2 nonGIS (https://www.epa.gov/waterresearch/system-urban-stormwater-treatment-and-analysis-integration-sustain ) ahead of time; if not they should have administrative privileges for installation during the workshop. HOWEVER, participants are welcome to attend the workshop without a computer with the understanding that one will not be provided.