MIKE by DHI UK and Ireland Blog

Previews of MIKE by DHI Release 2012

As in previous issues of our newsletter, we would like to disclose a preview of the upcoming MIKE by DHI software package 2012, which is scheduled to be released this September. The release will contain various new and exciting features, which we hope will improve your experience when using the software products, both with regard to usability, productivity, and enhanced applications.

Climate Change Tool: Sea Level Rise included

One of the interesting news in version 2012 of the Climate Change Tool is that Sea Level Rise scenarios are now included. The Climate Change Tool works on existing model setups and modifies the boundary conditions according to a chosen forecast (Global Circulation Model and Emission Scenario) and forecast year.

The changes in sea level are obviously of crucial interest for a number of applications, for example related to coastal defence works. In version 2012 of the tool, global mean sea level change is included as assessed in the IPCC Assessment Report No 4 and in three posterior estimations, in all cases for three different emission scenarios.

In order to evoke the Sea Level Rise changes, the user has to define:

• Selected sea level rise model (including choice of lower, mean or upper level)
• Projection year
• Emission scenario

Click on the figure to enlarge.


FEFLOW 6.1: Watching the calibration quality
 
Another new feature concerns the calibration quality in FEFLOW 6.1. The calibration process is one of the most important and often most elaborate working steps when modelling groundwater systems. Having an easy and prompt response of the match between field data and computed values significantly reduces effort.

In FEFLOW 6.1, in-line visualisation of the local calibration quality at observation points assists the user during the calibration process (see figure). The deviation from the calibration target is depicted as an error bar where different colours accentuate possible violation of confidence intervals. Scatter plots finally summarise the overall match between measured and computed values.

Click on the image to enlarge.


For more information, please contact Alexander Renz, DHI-Wasy, Germany.
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Cities

Release 2011 of MIKE URBAN is another significant milestone. Important new features have been added that further support the work flow, increase your productivity and set new standards for what can be done in urban water modelling.

Water distribution

Release 2011 is another need-to-have release for water distribution modellers. A range of new features to enhance the usability have been implemented such as:

1 Pressure dependent demands
Traditionally, water demands are defined prior to the simulation and thus independent of the actual pressure. With Release 2011, the Wagner equation can be used to adjust the node demands based on the available pressure. This makes it possible to simulate system shutdown, maintenance and intermittent water supply systems.

2 Reliability analysis
The Reliability Analysis Tool allows you to analyse hydraulic and water quality results of any steady state or extended period analysis and to investigate the reliability in terms of exceeded maximum and/or minimum values of pressures, flows, water quality, or any other result item.

Simplification tool

The simplification tool has been enhanced to include:

• The choice of what not to simplify
• Change in flow direction as a new pipe-merge criteria
• Easy comparison of results from detailed and simplified models
• Detailed summary reporting on what has been merged and removed
• Saving simplification settings in a file
• Batch execution of multiple simplifications based on several settings files

Tools for Building and Maintaining Models

Release 2011 of MIKE URBAN includes three new tools to increase your efficiency when building and maintaining models:

1 Database comparison and redoing modifications
This tool will report on differences between two MIKE URBAN databases. Records that are different will be reported as changed, deleted or added. For records which have changed, the attributes that are different will be highlighted. The differences can be saved to a file, which can be used to automatically redo the changes at a later stage, eg when redoing modifications after import.

2 Combining detailed and simplified models
This tool can be used to combine a detailed and a simplified model into a mixed model with both detailed and simplified areas.

3 Comparing results between models
With this tool you can compare two sets of model results at selected locations in batch mode.

Boundary Display in Map View

Boundary conditions are displayed in the map view including: discharge and water level boundaries in MOUSE and SWMM models, rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration in catchments, as well as water demands in WD models.

Generic Features

Amongst the new generic features in 2011 in particular the climate change tool adds value for MIKE URBAN users. This tool provides climate model output (approved by IPCC) and applies these to make climate change assessment through automated modification of boundary conditions.
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Kathrine Richardson at the MIKE by DHI Conference 2010

Professor Kathrine Richardson, Chairperson of the Danish Government's Commission on Climate Change Policy talks as a keynote speaker at the 2010 MIKE by DHI Software Conference in Copenhagen. The title of the presentation is "The Changing Human - Earth Relationship" and it is about the change in paradigms caused by the realization that human activities are directly affecting the Earth System.

Part 1:

Part 2:

For more videos from the 2010 MIKE by DHI Software Conference in Copenhagen please visit http://www.mikebydhi.com/Events/MIKEByDHI2010/Videos.aspx
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Climate change scenario modelling

Climate change is a reality and it is impacting us through water first!

We are starting to see the consequences in terms of increased frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, more extreme waves, as well as changes in our ecosystems.

Decision makers around the world rely on water professionals to provide the best possible answers to questions on how we can adapt to climate change in the safest and most cost-effective way.

With Release 2011, the key MIKE products include a new Climate Change scenario modelling tool. Water modellers can now provide fast and consistent answers to climate change questions.

How it works

The Climate Change tool is based on the CO2 emission scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Scientists around the world use Global (or General) Circulation Models (GCMs) to predict the changes in temperatures and precipitation for these IPCC scenarios. It is these predictions that are included with Release 2011 and used as the basis for the Climate Change tool.

To create a new scenario, select: -
1. An existing baseline MIKE model
2. The emission scenario to be simulated
3. The GCM or GCMs to be used for the scaling
4. The year in the future that the simulation should represent

The scaling method is both global and efficient. Based on the GCM output, it modifies your baseline model boundary data. This makes it suitable for fast assessments and screening studies. Thus, many adaptation options can be compared and the best solutions found. The Climate Change tool can also make use of more detailed data such as from Regional Circulation Models.

Included in Release 2011

The new Climate Change tool is a standard feature in Release 2011 of the following MIKE by DHI products: -

• MIKE 11
• MIKE 21
• MIKE FLOOD
• MIKE SHE
• MIKE URBAN