Storage Nodes in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM

Subject:   Storage Nodes in InfoSWMM and H2OMAP SWMM

Figure 1 shows how to use the various constants, coefficients and exponents in the Storage or Wet Well data of H2OMAP SWMM.     If you have a Wet Well or Storage Diameter you should convert the Wet Well diameters into an Area with the units of either square feet or square meters.  The computed area will then be a constant or coefficient in the Attribute Browser.  You would only use the exponent or a table of depth and area if the Wet Well area varies with depth. 

 

Figure 1.  Options for Defining a Storage Node in H2OMAP SWMM or SWMM 5

Water Age in InfoSewer

Note:   Water Age in InfoSewer

InfoSewer and H2OMAP Sewer have a Water Quality option called Time of Concentration (TOC) or Water Age that allows the modeler to estimate the residence time in his or her Sewer Network.    The use of Water Age is simple, you just pick TOC(AGE) as the Water Quality Constituent in the Quality Tab of Run Manager for an EPS simulation and the program will automatically assign a Water Age of 0 hours to all loading Manholes (Figure 1).    The Water Age is another estimate of the travel time in your network in which travel time is the volume of pipes / the average velocity in each pipe.    You can compute the Water Age for each node and in the middle of each link (Figure 2).   

 Figure 1.  Map Display of Water Age in InfoSewer

Figure 2.   The Water Age in Each Link is Calculated based on the Current Flow and Volume of the network about the Upstream Node of the Link.

Singapore NEWater Program

From Toilet To Tap

Paul Rozin argues that we need to overcome our disgust with recycled water. He offers Singapore's NEWater as an example of effective marketing:

Four treatment plants throughout the country take sewage, filter it through several membranes, and expose it to ultraviolet light to make it safe to drink. Now 30 percent of the country’s total water demand is met using reclaimed (i.e., recycled) sewage. The program’s success was due in part to a dedicated communications team that conducted a massive public education campaign, which included a TV documentary. But Singapore also made the decision to release the cleaned-up wastewater into reservoirs, where it got re-treated along with regular tap water. This extra step was hygienically redundant but psychologically vital in helping Singaporeans accept NEWater as a fact of life.

The above animation was created by primary school students in Singapore.

God Created the World, But the Dutch Created the Netherland

God Created the World, But the Dutch Created the Netherlands

By 

 | 

Posted Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, at 10:10 AM ET

1346076599595

Horace Dediu's presentation on the history of Amsterdam features the amazing land reclamation map above. Utrecht, which is now inland, used to be a port. And Amsterdam is where the ocean used to be. Haarlem is part of the mainland but looks to be located on what was once a barrier island.

It's a commonplace of economics that they're not making any more land, but this is a powerful reminder that once upon a time it was actually pretty common for technologically advanced societies to build more land. Leaving that era behind us is probably a good idea (imagine the environmental impact review!), but that only makes it all the more important to try to use the land we do have wisely.

Indoor Plumbing Is an Amazing Invention

Indoor Plumbing Is an Amazing Invention

By 

 | 

Posted Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, at 3:25 PM ET

107168125
A young woman washes her face at a newly built deep water well in 2010

Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images.

Robert Gordon has a working paper out making some not-particularly-persuasive, super-pessimistic, speculative claims about the future of American economic growth that does include, as an aside, this very persuasive observation about consumer surplus:

A thought experiment helps to illustrate the fundamental importance of the inventions of [Industrial Revolution] #2 compared to the subset of [Industrial Revolution] #3 inventions that have occurred since 2002. You are required to make a choice between option A and option B. With option A you are allowed to keep 2002 electronic technology, including your Windows 98 laptop accessing Amazon, and you can keep running water and indoor toilets; but you can’t use anything invented since 2002.
Option B is that you get everything invented in the past decade right up to Facebook, Twitter, and the iPad, but you have to give up running water and indoor toilets. You have to haul the water into your dwelling and carry out the waste. Even at 3am on a rainy night, your only toilet option is a wet and perhaps muddy walk to the outhouse. Which option do you choose?

The answer, obviously, is that indoor plumbing is more important than the combination of everything that's been invented in the past 10 years. Indoor plumbing is a really amazing invention.

But I think it's actually quite important to not mix and match arguments about subjective utility with arguments about GDP and economic growth. I'd gladly give up small kitchen appliances (toasters, microwaves, coffee machines, food processors, and even my beloved immersion blender) rather than Wikipedia. Giving all that stuff up would be annoying, but I could make coffee with a French press, and I'd really hate to lose Wikipedia. But the high subjective value I place on Wikipedia doesn't change the fact that the manufacture, sale, distribution, and marketing of small kitchen appliances is a substantial industry creating tons of jobs and economic activity in a way that Wikipedia doesn't. These are just different things.

Still—take a moment to sit back and try to appreciate the stupendous difference in your quality of life that comes to you courtesy of indoor plumbing.