MIKE by DHI UK and Ireland Blog

Forecasting for all: A workshop on MIKE customisable technologies, with a focus on operational real-time forecasting, warning and control
Date: Wednesday 22nd April 2015
Venue: Macdonald Ansty Hall Hotel, near Coventry, UK
Cost: Free event!
Registration: www.dhi-uk.info/register

We would like to welcome you to a 1-day workshop on recent developments in forecasting technologies. The session will be led by global leaders in the field, and will be illustrated will real life case studies detailing how forecasting systems have been designed, implemented and are in operational use today; providing forecasts, warning and informing the control of flood defences or operational processes in order to optimise capacity of sewerage infrastructure.

There is now under two weeks to sign up for this free event!

The loose programme for the day is outlined below:

1. Introduction
2. Slow Response Runoff Modelling and ‘Real Time’ Simulations – A Swedish Perspective (Andy Wilson, DHI Sweden)
Andy Wilson (from DHI Sweden but a native of Scotland) will give an update to a presentation he delivered at the CIWEM Urban Drainage Group in November 2014 where he talked about modelling of slow response runoff, in particular focusing on long term/continuous simulations (rather than event based hydrology). Andy will illustrate his presentation with applications from both Sweden and Scotland, and will talk about the importance of Rainfall Dependent Infiltration (RDI).
3. Urban flood forecasting
Use of total catchment hydrology (including groundwater with MIKE SHE)
This part of the day will introduce the concept truly integrated catchment modelling, using MIKE SHE. The session will discuss the importance of groundwater in flood forecasting projects.
Rainfall Radar integration (city-wide urban forecasting)
We will demonstrate how operational real-time forecasting, warning and control can informed by high resolution Local Area Weather Radar (LAWR). LAWR can provide distributed rainfall measurements in a spatial resolution ranging from 500x500 m to 100x100 m, with a 5 minute or 1 minute time, up to a distance of 20 km from the radar (for quantitative estimation). It can also provide an online animation of rainfall within the complete LAWR range.
MIKE CUSTOMISED Real-time examples

4. Walkthrough on the building of a modular, on-line riverine flood forecasting system (equally applicable to urban networks and marine applications)
During this session we will show you the processes you would need to follow in order to go from a standalone model (such as a 1D or a 2D hydraulic model), to a live operational flood forecasting system. Using the example of an existing MIKE11, we will consider simplifications that may need to be made to the model in order to make the model suitable for flood forecasting. That revised model will then be taken into the MIKE Customised platform. From there we will look at boundary conditions and in particular how to provide live feeds into the flood forecasting platform. This will then allow us to use the hydraulic model in flood forecasting mode. From here we will show how to stream the flood forecasting results live online.
Example of on-line river forecasting system
We will take the opportunity to look at an existing on-line river forecasting system that has been developed and currently operational on a day to day basis.

5. Scalability of MIKE CUSTOMISED technology
Introduction to information management systems (making data from other models more useful and valuable)
This session will cover IMS, in particular showing how data from a wide range of technology platforms and vendors can be integrated into our systems.

6. Innovative flood forecasting technologies
Probabilistic forecasting with stochastic structures in quasi-2D networks
This session will consider probabilistic flood modelling using large scale, quasi-2D river and flood-cell networks with stochastic structures in MIKE 1D (our new MIKE 11 engine).
Fast 2D solvers (simplified numerical schemes and high performance computing)
This session will cover both simplified numerical schemes and high performance computing (using GPU cards and/or Linux clusters) options available to you.

7. Discussion on Marine forecasting applications (coastal flooding, harbours and shipping, etc)
Throughout the day there will the opportunity to discuss the concepts discussed in your particular context and potential application.

Lead trainer
Ole Larsen (DHI) with support from Torben Strange Jensen and Steve Flood

What will you get out of the day?
You should leave the day with a solid understanding of the technology available, and the steps you would need to take in order to move your project forward. You can also meet our experts and start discussion with potential collaborators.

What do you need to do next?
The training course is completely free, so simply sign up for the training day here www.dhi-uk.info/register. This training event will be delivered as part of a wider Symposium. However, there is no obligation to attend the earlier events (see www.dhi-uk.info/symposium for more details).

We look forward to seeing you!

Kind regards
The ACADEMY by DHI

Advanced Bathing Water Forecasting - Aarhus Water Case Story



Integrated, real-time control and warning for urban areas and receiving waters - multiple benefits from improved bathing water quality to effective flood risk management (incl. integration of numerical models, rainfall radar, automated operation of control structures, etc) - see also http://dhiuk-demos.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-aarhus-project-aarhus-vand-under.html

Improved Water Quality via integrated real time control of combined sewer system and wastewater treatment plant during rain, including the reopening of a cased river.



The main challenge for the city of Aarhus is the recreational area Lake Brabrand close to the city center that drains via the small river Aarhus to Aarhus harbour. The urban development in the area is rapid and will continue to be so in the coming years. The river and the harbour will also become important recreational elements. The water in the lake, river and harbour is adversely affected by CSOs, storm water drains and effluent from wastewater treatment plants. Read more >>>

More information: -

• Paper: Operational Real Time Control and Warning System for Urban Areas and Receiving Waters
• Project: PREPARED

Local Area Weather Radar for Urban Hydrology

Climate change can be expected to affect prevailing patterns of precipitation with extreme rain events becoming more frequent and more intense. This will increase the pressure on water collection systems and wastewater treatment plants. Warning and forecasting systems provide necessary tools for authorities and operators to plan ahead and make the right decisions. Accurate predictions can be made if sufficient data are available. However, the greatest uncertainty when modelling the response of drainage systems to rainfall is the rainfall itself.

The standard approach is to use rainfall measured by one gauge but traditional rain gauges provide data with low temporal and spatial resolution. When using rain gauges, it must be assumed that the rainfall is homogenous over the whole model area, which may be as large as a whole city. For the prediction of potential surface water flooding as a result of extreme rain events, this assumption is not valid.

Weather radars, in contrast to rain gauges, provide high resolution data over a relatively large area, the equivalent of many synthetic rain gauges in one installation. However, dedicated weather radars are expensive. Local Area Weather Radar (LAWR), developed by DHI from modified marine radar and using interpretation algorithms, can provide high resolution rainfall data at a much lower cost. Such systems are already installed in many cities worldwide. They detect the first raindrop falling and track the precipitation as it falls. This provides accurate rainfall data with high spatial resolution, which is suitable for input to flood warning and forecast models.

LAWR Advantages and Integration

• Distributed rainfall measurements in a spatial resolution ranging from 500x500 m to 100x100 m with a 5 minute or 1 minute time resolution up to 30 km from the radar
• Online animation of rainfall within the complete LAWR range
• Up to a few hours' forecast (online) of coming rain events for use in optimisation of sewer and treatment plant capacity
• Fully integrated with MIKE URBAN (from release 2007) which facilitates the import of LAWR data, visualisation of the event over the model and its catchments and simulation with fully distributed rainfall
• LAWR data is supported by the full MIKE by DHI software suite

The image above shows a rain event imported into MIKE URBAN. It illustrates a classical problem - only part of the drainage system is receiving rain. If a user wants to analyse such an event based on a single gauge several kilometres away it would yield a very poor result. LAWR data provides the user with a whole range of new opportunities. It is possible to see the event move and evolve over the drainage system, and see which catchments receive the heavy intensities.