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HEC-HMS
Proposed Activities
Activity | Funded (Y/N) | Cost | Delivery Date |
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Technology Transfer - MMC Calibration Workshop | Y | $50,000 (HEC labor) |
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Technology Transfer - MMC Monthly Working Sessions | Y | $7,000 (HEC labor) |
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Technology Transfer - New Tutorials and Webinars | Y | $30,000 (HEC labor) | |
Testing HEC-HMS in the CAVI (CWMS 3.5) | Y | $50,000 (HEC labor) | |
Technology Transfer - Field Support | Y | $50,000 (HEC labor) | |
Find and Fix Bugs | Y | $50,000 (HEC labor) | |
New Feature - Improvement to Ensembles (continued from FY24) | N | $50,000 (HEC labor) | |
New Feature - Automated Optimization (continued from FY24) | Y | $100,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Flag to Suppress Version Update Window | Y | $8,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Check Box for Blending | Y | $20,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Automated Spatial Results Export | Y | $60,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Dynamically Adjust Project DSS file to Current Forecast DSS File | Y | $30,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Update Action Buttons in CAVI | Y | $20,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Design for Capability to Keep Old Results in Plots | Y | $15,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Specified Release Method For Evaporation | Y | $38,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Add Observed Inflow, Outflow, and Storage for Reservoir Elements | Y | $30,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Add More Information to Tool Tips within Snow Components Editor | Y | $5,000 (HEC labor) |
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New Feature - Enable the Use of the Combined Parameter Editor within native HEC-HMS Interface | Y | $10,000 (HEC labor) |
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MMC Calibration Workshop
The team is currently planning on hosting a three-day workshop to assist districts in making their HEC-HMS models run more efficiently. This workshop will help offices struggling to implement CWMS due to long model runtimes or complicated model setups. The workshop is planned to be hosted at SWF, April 8-10, 2025.
MMC Monthly Working Sessions
The MMC hosts monthly working sessions on the CWMS Modeling Group within Microsoft Teams, allowing HEC-HMS modelers to get support from experts. The team will continue to participate in these meetings, as they have proven valuable to the field. These sessions are a valuable way to provide field support, answer questions, and demonstrate important capabilities of the software to attendees. HEC-HMS monthly working sessions are scheduled for the first Wednesday of the month and any and all questions about application of HEC-HMS are welcomed. If there are specific topics to cover, reach out to HEC staff and material can be developed and reviewed at the beginning of the monthly sessions.
New Tutorials and Webinars
With the addition of new or improved features, tutorials and webinars will be developed to help inform the field and to assist modelers with using the new features.
Planned tutorials and webinars include:
- Application of the automated forecast optimization tool.
- Application of blending improvements.
- Georeferencing existing projects and modifying the subbasin and reach delineation.
Testing HEC-HMS in the CAVI (CWMS 3.5)
Testing builds of HEC-HMS in the CAVI is essential to ensuring compatibility is not impacted with new builds of either application. Testing prior to release limits the issues that might be encountered by the field. The team has put an emphasis on improved testing procedures in the past few years and will continue those efforts moving forward.
Field Support
The team will continue to provide direct support to users when they encounter HEC-HMS/CWMS related issues. Providing this support helps users overcome any issues encountered so they can continue to use the software for their water management operational needs. Please use Discourse, Teams, or reach out to the HEC CWMS Modeling Team when requesting support.
Find and Fix Bugs
If bugs are reported (from users or from within the development team), the team will work to fix the issues. Once resolved, the team will test the new code to ensure the bugs have been fixed prior to releasing a new version of the software.
Improvement to Ensembles (not funded)
In FY24, work on ensemble computes via HEC-HMS and incorporating those features into CWMS targeted an MVP (minimally viable product); therefore additional work to streamline ensembles within the CAVI will be completed. This will allow for HEC-HMS native ensembles to be computed within the CAVI, giving modelers the capability to run ensemble computes if desired.
Automated Optimization
Assistance to quickly calibrate an HEC-HMS model has been a highly requested software improvement over the past couple of years. The HEC-HMS team started development of new capabilities where HEC-HMS automatically adjusts zonal override factors while calibrating the model from upstream to downstream locations with observed flow. This new capability adds HEC-HMS's model optimization feature to forecast runs. Model Optimization is a feature that uses observed data to automatically estimate parameters. Adding this feature will give the modeler a starting point to use when calibrating their model run, which will save time when running a forecast.
Flag to Suppress Version Update Window
This is to add a flag to suppress the HEC-HMS update model confirmation window for the automated testing of CWMS.
Check Box for Blending
This feature will add a quick toggle option for blending, eliminating the requirement to reenter blending parameters each time the user wants to turn the blending feature back on.
Automated Spatial Results Export
This work will allow CWMS users to view HEC-HMS generated spatial results (initially statistical outputs) directly within the CAVI. Users will be able to configure how spatial results are saved in HEC-HMS which are then accessed through CAVI. Viewing HEC-HMS spatial results through CAVI allows modelers to get a quick understanding of the calibration of their model and know where they might want to focus their efforts, saving the modeler time when calibrating.
Dynamically Adjust Project DSS file to Current forecast.dss File
Currently, HEC-HMS saves forecast results to a project specific DSS file and then copies all results to the CAVI forecast.dss file. When running the HEC-HMS forecast from HEC-HMS, rather than through CAVI, the results are not automatically copied to the forecast.dss file which can lead to confusion about the HEC-HMS model results that HEC-ResSim and HEC-RAS are using. This work will ensure all HEC-HMS results are within the forecast.dss file, as well as reduce the need for larger DSS files within the HEC-HMS model. This can help reduce files sizes (make creating a CWMS forecast quicker) and removes the need of copying results from one file to another.
Update Action Buttons in CAVI
This activity will remove unneeded options and relocate buttons to more applicable tabs within the CAVI. This will make the CAVI more streamlined and more user friendly.
Design for Capability to Keep Old Results in Plots
The team will investigate the feasibility of adding an option to HEC-HMS plots that will allow the user to display the prior results for easy comparison while calibrating. This has potential to save time while calibrating, as well as assist users in visualizing how modifying parameters impacts the model results.
Specified Release Method For Evaporation
This work will research the feasibility in adding the ability to account for evaporation within the specified release method for reservoir elements in HEC-HMS. The specified release reservoir routing option is the fastest option when simulating reservoir storage and discharge; however, the outflow structures option is the only option that includes the ability to compute evaporation losses. The first step is to determine if adding evaporation losses to the specified release routing method results in a quicker means for accounting of evaporation, compared to methods already available in HEC-HMS. If the new feature is quicker, then the team will implement the modifications in HEC-HMS.
Add Observed Inflow, Outflow, and Storage for Reservoir Elements
Currently, the HEC-HMS reservoir element displays the observed discharge, pool elevation, and tailwater stage. Additional observed data options that include reservoir Inflow and Storage will be added. This allows the modeler to see more observed data within HEC-HMS, to help calibrate the model.
Add More Information to Tool Tips within Snow Components Editor
More information will be added to tool tips within the snow components editor to add suggested values and/or ranges for various snowmelt parameters. As the implementation of snowmelt modeling increases, this will help modelers understand reasonable values or ranges of values for each parameter the model requires.
Enable the Use of the Combined Parameter Editor within native HEC-HMS Interface
The team will add the ability to access the Combined Parameter Editor directly within HEC-HMS for users who prefer to work within the native application.