Recently there have been exhaustive studies completed that compare all the major hydraulic water modeling software. Some of the recent studies leave NO stone unturned. From one modeler to another, I highly recommend you do the same. To start, you really need to look within your agency and answer the basic questions. The type of questions you should ask yourself are, but not limited to;
- Data Management and Ownership of Data
- Annotation of Model Components
- Contour Plots of Model Result Areas
- Diagnostic Messaging (Error messages)
- Documentation Capabilities for Individual System Components
- Establishment of Open Links with Database Software
- Fire Flow Analysis Capabilities
- Graphing/Profiling of System Components/Model Results
- Links to Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- Links to SCADA system
- Online Help
- Scenario Management Capabilities
- Site Layout Capabilities
- Software User Support
- Water Hammer Analysis Capabilities
- Water Quality Analysis Capabilities
- Windows Environment
- On and on and on….
Buyer beware, some of the hydraulic modeling software on the market today are NOT based on a GIS platform. Software manufacturers have HUGH differences between them, which can make a night and day difference to the Owner and the End-User. It is highly recommended, before you purchase modeling software, get the manufacturer to provide you mulitple ON-SITE demonstrations.
Do not be afraid to ask the hardball questions. Like…
- Can you run your software with only Arcview, or do you need Arc Editor or ArcInfo?
- Create a contour of pressures in an ArcView environment. In contour creation, please demonstrate creation directly on the model itself. Show the routine how to export this into a personal geodatabase
- Change from one scenario to another while each time showing how each element set corresponds to which scenario.
- Show results of multiple scenarios overlaid in an ArcView environment.
- Demonstrate how you “deactivate” facilities so that they are not included as part of a model run and are not shown on the map. Example, deactivate a sub-division. Please discuss any limitations to the process.
- Demonstrate how you automatically assign elevations from a Shapefile of elevation contours. The shape file will be provided at the demonstration.
- Demonstrate your entire suite of network review and/or fix tools with respect to connectivity. Please show both the find and fix parts. Once fixed, run the model to show new results.
- Does your software work within ArcView 9.0? Please demonstrate.
- Is there minimum database hardware requirements?
- Is there a background process that runs on the database server to perform computational transactions?
- What are the minimum bandwidth requirements? Will staff be using this software at remote sites?
- On and on and on…
Yes some software is free; however the major drawback of it compared to commercial modeling programs is the use of the text editor for data input. It also lacks graphical (GIS) input capabilities and has NO technical support.
I am an end-user not a salesman. I purposely did not state any manufacturer’s names as to which software is better than the other. (That would be way too easy.) I strongly recommend the end-user (the Owner) must ultimately do the home work.
I hope this helps.
