Calibrated Virtual Urban Water Systems software tool for one partner city. Software

Transcription

1 Calibrated Virtual Urban Water Systems software tool for one partner city Software

2 COLOPHON Title Calibrated Virtual Urban Water Systems software tool for one partner city - Software Report number: PREPARED Deliverable number: D6.2.3 Author(s) W. Rauch 1, C. Urich 1,2, P. Bach 2, R. Brown 2, A. Deletic 2, B. Ferguson 2, H. De Haan 2, D. T. McCarthy 2, M. Kleidorfer 1, M. Mair 1, M. Sengthaler 1 and R. Sitzenfrei 1 1 University Innsbruck 2 Monash University Quality Assurance Simon Tait, University of Sheffield This report is: PU = Public

3 Contents 1 General and Context 2 2 Software Framework DynaMind Source Code Wiki Binaries 5 3 Calibration example Societal Transitions Module Urban Development Model Biophysical Module 7 4 References 9 PREPARED January 2014

4 1 General and Context To enable the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient urban water system a new generation of software tools has been developed that supports engineers, planners, stakeholders and scientists in the design and management of the increasingly complex urban water system. The virtual urban systems tool DAnCE4Water (Rauch et al., 2012) (see figure 1) has been developed in D6_2_1 (see report for details) integrating key elements in the transition of the urban water system. It included modules such as the social transition module (STM) simulating the influence of society on the evolution of the urban water system, the urban development module (UDM) explicitly modelling the spatial evolution of the urban environment, and the biophysical module (BPM) modelling the evolution of the urban water system. Figure 1: DAnCE4Water Model Structure The software tool has been calibrated in collaboration with Melbourne Water using the Scotchman s Creek case study to replicate the historic development of the urban water system from 1972 to Details on the calibration of the model are found in the PREPARED deliverable reports D and D In the following text, the software is briefly described in terms of entry points for download. The software is hosted on a homepage of the University of Innsbruck, Austria as being too large and too complex for direct storage. PREPARED January 2014

5 2 Software 2.1 Framework DynaMind The model DAnCE4Water has been developed within a software product of the University of Innsbruck denoted DynaMind. The official webpage of DynaMind, dynamind-toolbox.org, provides general information on the project itself as well as references to advanced material and guidelines. DynaMind is freely available as open source software using the GPL license. The DynaMind Framework is based on VIBe, a tool for generating virtual case studies including the urban environment and the urban drainage system. In DynaMind the computational framework has been enhanced and generalised to enable the simulation of complex dynamic urban environments and their infrastructure. Simulations can be defined by modules (small working tasks within a simulation) and the data flow between them. A module has in-ports to receive data from the outside. The data are then processed in the module and sent to out-ports. Raster and vector data can be used. Different modules can be linked together to create a simulation workflow that is executed in parallel by the DynaMind core. DynaMind comes with a set of basic modules. This includes simple modules for data import and export, complex modules (for example the generation and adaptation of combined sewer networks or the placement of ground water heat pump systems) as well as modules for data visualisation. New modules can easily be integrated in DynaMind by using C++ or Python. DynaMind is an open-source GIS modelling toolbox similar to the ArcGIS - model builder. The idea is that small reusable modules can be linked together to describe a complex workflow in an urban environment. E.g. the evolution of a small city Figure 2: DynaMind Example of City Evolution The heart of the DynaMind-Toolbox is DynaMind a small efficient core written in C++. The core provides easy to use interfaces to develop new modules in C++ or Python and to access the data in the data stream. PREPARED January 2014

6 The DyanMind-Toolbox comes with: Modellbuilder a easy way to set up and edit your simulation a set of modules to import, edit, create and export data DynaMind-BasicModules DynaMind-Sewer DynaMind-DAnCE4Water: This set of modules encompasses the total software developed in the frame of this project. Figure 3: DynaMind GUI Application Example 2.2 Source Code The source Code is available under GPL2 license as repository on github ( and includes core, executable, graphical user interface, some basic modules and applications for testing and validation purposes. Compiling the source requires several external packages and depending on the operating system, the user may follow the how-to pages on the github wiki For Linux systems: Toolbox-on-Linux For Windows systems: DynaMind-Toolbox-on-Windows 2.3 Wiki Along with useful information on compiling, the Wiki of Dynamind ( offers detailed information on the internal structures, APIs and guidelines for developers, as well as manuals to included modules and tools. Application and core settings, file formats and how-to documents have also been added to the wiki. PREPARED January 2014

7 2.4 Binaries For Windows platforms, the Download section on the Dynamind homepage ( offers precompiled binaries as an installer package for a more convenient way of using Dynamind without knowledge of any programming language. The most current release as well as older versions get published there and updated once a new stable release becomes available. PREPARED January 2014

8 3 Calibration example Calibration of DAnCE4Water has been made on the example of Scotchman s creek in Melbourne. The idea was to evolve a model of the urban system including the societal, urban and biophysical dynamics by evolving the urban system 38 years from 1972 to Details of the calibration are found in PREPARED report D Here only some examples are outlined. 3.1 Societal Transitions Module The initial composition of the stormwater water system was derived from a narrative of the historical development. The figure shows the simulated uptake of decentralised technologies (more specifically one cluster of the simulations in terms of median, 1 st and 3 rd Quartile over the simulation period. The ordinate values are an abstract but numerical expression of the power of the decentralised solution in the context of all available solutions (see D for details). The simulated data is compared against the numerical expression of the actual historical development. Overall, the STM was able to reproduce the development pattern of the societal transition. Figure 4. Analysis of Cluster 3 of simulation results against the historical scenario 3.2 Urban Development Model As the results in Figure 5 show, the UDM evolves explicitly the spatial pattern of the urban environment at the level of detail of single building lots (usual denoted as parcel level ). The model is based on an agent based modelling approach representing the key actors and their action in the urban environment that proved to reproduce the urban development patterns. PREPARED January 2014

9 Parks and Open Space Undeveloped Residential & Commercial Industrial Figure 5: Urban Development in Scotchman s Creek DAnCE4Water between 1972 and Biophysical Module The bio-physical module deals with the development of water infrastructure solutions both technical and biological ones as well as their impact on the natural watercourses. The developed model connects newly developed areas algorithmically with the urban drainage system and was able to model the evolution of the drainage network from Figure 6: Centralise Drainage Infrastructure in 1975 PREPARED January 2014

10 Relative Frequency of Tech Use Relative Frequency of Tech Use Figure 6 shows a snapshot of the drainage infrastructure in As the comparison of the real world (left) with the generated infrastructure shows the model was able to replicate the characteristics of the urban drainage network. Based on the urban form and the current state of the societal system the decentralised infrastructure component of the BPM determines placement opportunities of four key technologies (biofilters, ponds & basins, surface wetlands and swales) to meet the pollution target at the respective times. The pollution targets have been reconstructed based on historical data. Figure 7 shows the models response of the model to the STM results where an increasing demand for ecological health led to an uptake of decentralised technologies in Wetlands Biofilters Present Figure 7: Infrastructure Uptake Present Time PREPARED January 2014

11 4 References Urich, C; Burger, G; Mair, M; Rauch, W (2012): DYNAMIND - A Softwaretool for Integrated Modelling of Urban Environments and their Infrastructure. In: Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Hydroinformatics - HIC Understanding Changing Climate and Environment and Finding Solutions. Hamburg PREPARED January 2014