WaterWare: Technical Description

The WaterWare system provides and integrated framework for easy access to advanced tools of data analysis, simulation modeling, rule-based assessment and multi-criteria decision support for a broad range of water resources management problems.

Release Description R6.0 (PDF)
Release Description R5.0 (HTML)

For a short introduction to the WaterWare system, see:

WaterWare: an introduction: On-line PowerPoint presentation

Fedra, K., Kubat, M., and Zuvela-Aloise, M. (2007): Web-based water resources management: economic valuation and participatory multi-criteria optimization. Proceedings of the Second IASTED International Conference WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT August 20-22, 2007, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
ISBN Hardcopy: 98-0-88986-679-9 CD: 978-0-88986-680-5 On-line paper (PDF)

Fedra, K. (2005) Water Resources Simulation and Optimization: a web based approach.: IASTED/SMO 2005, Oranjestad, Aruba, August 2005.
On-line Paper (PDF) Conference Presentation (PPT)
WaterWare Tutorial (presented at Aruba): On-line PowerPoint presentation (190 slides ...)

Fedra, K. (2004) Water Resources Management in the Coastal Zone: Issues of Sustainability.: In: Harmancioglu, N.B., Fisitikoglu, O., Dalkilic, Y, and Gul, A. [eds.]: Water Resources Management: Risks and Challenges for the 21st Century. Proceedings of the EWRA Symposium, September 2-4, 2004, Izmir, Turkey, Volume I, 23-38 pp.
On-line Paper (PDF)

Fedra, K. (2002) GIS and simulation models for Water Resources Management: A case study of the Kelantan River, Malaysia.: GIS Development, August 2002, 6/8, pp. 39-43.
On-line Paper (HTML)

Fedra, K., and Jamieson, D.G. (1996) An object-oriented approach to model integration: a river basin information system example.: In: Kovar, K. and Nachtnebel, H.P. [eds.]: IAHS Publ. no 235, pp. 669-676.
On-line Paper (HTML)

For a more detailed description of the functionality, please refer to:

The on-line User and Reference Manuals for WaterWare

System modules

WaterWare is designed as a modular system; it can integrate a range of information resources:

Geographic background data including administrative divisions, land use and land cover, population data, transportation networks, water bodies, orography (DEMs), satellite imagery and aerial photography, that are managed with the embedded GIS;
Observation time-series data, including the linkage to on-line monitoring stations, and the statistical analysis of these time series data, for the support of basin monitoring programs.;
River Basin Objects for a range of different water demand and supply nodes as well as sources of pollutants; an embedded rule-based expert system simplifies the task of estimating unmeasured attributes;
River Networks shared between the WRM and STREAM models, linked to the River Basin Objects;
A range of water resources simulation models, including:
- RRM, a daily rainfall-runoff model including the estimation of specific sediment yield and turbidity, with automatic calibration options;
- WRM, a daily, basin wide water resources model with groundwater coupling (conjunctive use); primary output are supply/demand ratios and reliability of supply; a heuristic (genetic programming) optimization module finds efficient water allocation strategies;
- STREAM, daily water quality model, processing WRM hydrological output, for DO/BOD and conservative or first-order decaying pollutants;
- BLTM a local, short term (hourly time-step) water quality model for accidental releases and spills, with a rule-based expert system module to estimate ecological damage such as fish kills using an aquatic toxicology data base;
- IWD, a seasonal (daily time step) irrigation water demand model;
- XGW, a 2D groundwater flow and transport model.
- A generic interface to external models, e.g., for
  - erosion and sediment transport
  - a 3D coastal flow and water quality model
Decision support tools, ranging from
- screening-level environmental impact assessment for water resource development projects to complex
- optimization models for cost-efficient water allocation or the design of optimal investment strategies in wastewater treatment equipment to
- operational control, based on a real-time hybrid expert system.

User Manuals, tutorials

WaterWare has an extensive set of on-line user and reference manuals (web accessible hypertext formats). An optional module provides interactive tutorials, using an advanced distance-learning system.

User Interface

These main components are integrated with an interactive and graphical user interface designed for users with little or no computer experience.

An extensive data base (with HTML output formats for easy browsing) provides background information on legislation, pollutants, emission sources and coefficients, models, health effects, and control technologies.

WaterWare supports both X11 (CDE) clients on workstations or PC with X11 emulation (required screen resolution: 1280*1024, 256 simultaneous colors) or (possibly remote, low-bandwidth) clients with Java enabled web browser software (required screen resolution: 1024*768, 256 simultaneous colors).

Platform support

WaterWare is currently supported for Linux systems, and UNIX servers (e.g., SUN Sparc/Solaris). The system is designed for distributed, web-based access, supporting multiple clients through the Internet.

The main logical server (from a single machine to a HPC cluster) maintains the data bases, models, and dynamic page generation for the interactive tools using server-side technologies, mainly cgi and PHP, and an Apache web server. As an alternative, an X11 based version, sharing the same data bases, is also available.

Clients can be PC based, and need a standard web browser (PC based, distributed WAN clients) or an X11 server/emulator (LAN clients).

For a WaterWare server, a high-end multi-processor PC/workstation or server is recommended; this may be augmented by a cluster of dedicated servers for specific tasks such as the RDBMS, web server, compute servers, etc. Configuration depends on the number of simultaneous users and the models installed; computing power on-demand for demanding models such as the optimization tools can be supplied through a distributed ASP model, together with complete mirror installations including on-line technical and application support, real-time CRM, distance learning components, and backup and disaster recovery options.

A graphics resolution of 1280*1024 (true color) is required for the X11 platforms; PC based clients (web browser) require at least 1024*768 pixels screen resolution.

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