Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

In the Surface-water Modeling System, you have the option of adding either a 2D or a 3D bridge to your SRH-2D model. But what are the differences between 2D and 3D bridges, and how can you know which one is the best fit for your SMS project? There are pros and cons to each, so we will briefly explore each option, and hopefully by the end you’ll have a better idea of what works best for you.

Starting in SMS 13.3, the 3D Bridge component that was used in previous versions was retired in favor of 3D Structures. 3D Structures can be used to build 3D bridges as well as culverts, and can also be used to calculate overtopping, an option that wasn’t available with 3D Bridges.

For 2D bridges, you have many options to help you customize your bridge, such as setting the bridge width, type and number of piers, abutments, etc.. (For the full list, go to this page of our wiki). All of the options that exist for 2D bridges are also available when building a 3D bridge. Using the 3D structures coverage to build your bridge allows for even more customization, including being able to shape the bridge ceiling so there is variation rather than being a constant along the full length.You can also use the 3D structures dialog to add a UGrid to the Project Explorer so that you can see what the bridge will look like with the mesh. The 3D structures coverage dialogue is able to generate a mesh footprint for your bridge, which automatically includes voids in the mesh for your piers so you don’t have to create them manually.

If you have questions about the specifics of building a 3D bridge, check out the new 3D Structures tutorials, or our wiki page on 3D Structures to get a more thorough introduction.

Building a 3D bridge into your project is an excellent option when you want to go the extra mile with the visual representation of the bridge. Although the idea of using a 3D bridge for everything may sound great because of the extra visualization options, a 3D bridge isn’t going to be necessary, or even practical, for every project. SMS’s calculations will turn out the same regardless of which bridge type you pick. 2D bridges are often a better choice if you’re looking for just a quick representation for your bridge, or if you’re modeling multiple bridges at the same time. Having multiple 3D bridges can slow down the processing speed in a way that having multiple of their 2D counterparts wouldn’t.

Head over to SMS and try out the 2D and 3D bridge building tools in 13.3 today!

The Ground-water Modeling System (GMS) 10.8 beta includes a model interface that is brand new to the software. HydroGeoSphere (HGS) is a unique three-dimensional control-volume finite element simulator developed by Aquanty that is meant to be able to handle all parts of the terrestrial water cycle. It uses a globally-implicit approach to simultaneously solve the 2D diffusive-wave equation for overland/surface water flow and the 3D form of Richards’ equation for variably saturated groundwater flow. This is different from the many other models that simulate only a portion of the hydrologic cycle. HGS includes components for precipitation, evaporation, overland flow, infiltration, recharge, and more. HGS can simulate both surface and subsurface water flow simultaneously for each time step.

In GMS, the base components for an HGS model include: an unstructured (UGrid), HGS coverages, and an HGS simulation. GMS allows multiple HGS simulations to exist in a single GMS project. A 3D UGrid of the project area is required before building an HGS simulation. There can also be multiple UGrids in one project, although only one UGrid can be assigned to each simulation.

The coverages specific to HGS are boundary conditions, observations, and hydrographs. GMS uses feature objects to define the boundary conditions on an HGS boundary conditions coverage. This includes points, arcs, and polygons. The observations coverage allows you to set observation points that will collect time series information during the simulation run. The hydrograph coverage records hydrograph data during the simulation run.

HGS defines materials with domains and zones. The domain contains information about the type of material. The domain is then assigned a zone number, which is then assigned to a polygon. Multiple domains can be assigned to the same zone.

There’s a lot more to HydroGeoSphere than we can cover in one blog post. If you’d like to learn more about HGS, Aquanty has numerous resources on their website. You can look at the HGS Theory Manual or the HGS Reference Manual. They regularly post webinars on their blog and on their LinkedIn. You can also find videos about how to use HydroGeoSphere as well as presentations that have been made by Aquanty’s staff on their YouTube page. We also have our own HGS tutorials that can walk you through the steps of building an HGS model.

We hope you’re excited about the addition of HydroGeoSphere into GMS 10.8, because we certainly are! Download GMS 10.8 to try out HGS today!

When creating a surface-water model, your model will make use of bathymetry data as either elevation or depth. Knowing how the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) represents depth versus elevation is vital when it comes to creating, running, and understanding a model. SMS uses several different numerical models, and some models require that depth be negative and elevations be positive, while other models require the opposite.

It can become confusing when trying to remember what is needed for each model, which is why the decision was made to standardize how SMS treats elevation and depth across all models. SMS treats all depth values as negative and all elevation values as positive. That way you don’t have to remember how data needs to be entered for each model. If depth data is entered with positive values, SMS will read the data as part of the land elevations, which will produce incorrect calculations.

Some of the most used models where you may see that the elevation values have been changed to fit SMS’s conventions after importing are CMS-FLOW, CMS Wave, and CGWAVE. If you’re not sure whether or not the imported elevation data has been changed and would like to check, then this is a great time to make use of the Mesh module’s find function. Under both the Nodes menu and the Elements menu you’ll see a Find… option listed. You can use this to quickly locate a specific node or element inside of SMS to compare the elevation data with the model’s files outside of SMS.

If SMS has changed the values of the elevation data to account for the required negative depth value, there is no need to be concerned about how this will affect the end result for your model. SMS automatically adjusts the data to match the convention of the model when the project information is exported to the model executable.

Take this information and head over to SMS, more confident that your project’s elevation data will be handled correctly.

It's been a good year here at Aquaveo and a lot has happened that we're proud of, so we’d like to close out the year by reviewing some of our biggest highlights. We released new versions of our software, including new tools and features. We released SMS (Surface-water Modeling System) 13.3, WMS (Watershed Modeling System) 11.2, and GMS (Groundwater Modeling System) 10.8 beta.

Significant upgrades were made to the color ramp in the contour section of the display options. Many new pre-generated contour color and customization options were added to help you get your project looking just right. But for those of you who prefer to stick with what you know best, the old color ramp options remain available to you through the Legacy options button.

We're excited about what we've got going on in our toolboxes. The toolbox option has made it to WMS with version 11.2, and there are new tools in the toolboxes for GMS and SMS. SMS has tools for backing up meshes and restoring previous meshes., Both GMS and SMS have new tools for generating unstructured grids. This is just a sample of what has changed in the toolboxes. Take a look for yourself to see all the different tool options that have come with the newest versions of our software.

SMS 13.3 has new 3D structure modeling capabilities, which you can learn about on our wiki or use our new 3D Structures tutorials for a more hands-on learning experience. We've also added four new models in SMS 13.3's free community edition: ADCIRC, AdH, CMS-Flow, and STWAVE.

We partnered with Aquanty to bring the HydroGeoSphere model to GMS 10.8 beta. The HydroGeoSphere model can help you more accurately replicate the complex processes involved in the terrestrial part of the hydrological cycle.

WMS 11.2 now includes the WinTR-20 model in the TR-20 interface. WinTR-20 is an updated version of the TR-20 model used in both the WinTR-20 and TR-55 programs. You can learn about what this entails on our wiki, or by using our new tutorial on the WinTR-20 interface.

For Arc Hydro Groundwater (AHGW), we released a version that is compatible with ESRI's ArcGIS Pro. AHGW Pro contains significant updates to the arc hydro groundwater tools and makes use of ArcGIS Pro’s online platform.

We continue to develop our Tethys products, including CityWater. We were pleased to have released the Automated GSSHA Watershed Analysis (AGWA) , an online web application for managing watershed models.

We are also excited about our work with GEOGloWS and our other development partners. We are looking forward to our continued collaboration.

As excited as we are about what happened this past year, we’re even more excited about what 2024 will bring. We can tell you that there will be even more new tools in the Toolbox. We expect to release the full version of GMS 10.8 early in 2024. Also expect more new features for all of your favorite water modeling applications.

You've helped make this year a great one, and we hope you'll come along with us and do the same in 2024!