RiverSpill: A Real-Time Emergency Response and Planning Tool

 William B. Samuels1, Rakesh Bahadur1, Jonathan Pickus1, David

Amstutz1 and Kevin McCormack2

1 Science Applications International Corporation, McLean, VA

 2 US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC

RiverSpill Capabilities

Downstream Tracing Operational for the Continental US Instantaneous and Continuous Release Chemical and Biological Agents Flow: Automated, User Selected, User Defined Inclusion of Temperature in Biological Calculations Enhanced User Control and Reporting Additional Databases

Water Treatment Plants, Sewage Treatment Plants, Dams, RMP Locations, Railroads, HUCs

Display of Hydrologic Units Find River Query

RiverSpill Capabilities(continued)

Upstream Tracing Operational for the Continental US Trace by Time or Distance Time Tracing Based on Mean or User Defined Flow Enhanced Reporting

Feature Inventory Query Individual Facilities

Additional Databases Water Treatment Plants, Sewage Treatment Plants,

Dams, RMP Locations, Railroads, HUCs Display of Hydrologic Units Find River Query

Release Type

Data Processing

Scenario Selection

Flow Calculations

Water Quality Calculations

Output Display

Prepare Data, USGS Gages, &

Reach Data

Set Origin Point

Real Time Gage t(Auto Detected)

Real Time Gage(User selected)

Flow Parameters from Reach File(Can be over-written by User)

Calculate Velocity Factor

Calculate Real TimeFlow, velocity, depth, area,

and time of travel

Get flow, stage, temperature

Solve Dispersion-decay

equation for Release Type

Instantaneous Release

Continuous Release

Peak Concentration

Peak ConcentrationNon-Peak

ConcentrationNon-Peak

Concentration

Tabular Display

Graphical Display

Tabular Display Tabular Display

Graphical Display

Tabular Display

Calculate flow path usingNetwork Analyst (Time and Length)

Is PWS Present? STOP

MassAgent Name

Decay RateLevel of Concern

NO

YES

SolutionType

SolutionType

Mass, Counts/massAgent Name

Decay RateLevel of Concern

AgentType

CHEMICAL

INSTANTANEOUS

BIOLOGICAL

CONTINOUSCHEMICAL

BIOLOGICALAgentType

ConcentrationAgent Name

Decay RateLevel of Concern

Concentration Counts/massAgent Name

Decay RateLevel of Concern

Downstream Tracing

Spill Site

Upstream Tracing

Origin

National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Pilot Project

Investigate the feasibility of integrating the NHD into

RiverSpill

NHD for 3Hydrologic Units

Reach File

NHD

•ERF1 (1 segment)

• Mean Flow = 506.72 cfs

• Mean Velocity = 1.54 fps

•NHD (55 segments)

•Mean Flow = 392 cfs (range: 324 - 443)

•Mean Velocity =1.2 fps (range: 1.15 - 1.23)

•USGS Real-Time gages

•Olentangy River at Delaware, OH (upstream gage)

•Mean Flow = 306 cfs

•Olentangy River at Worthington, OH (downstream gage)

•Mean flow = 371 cfs

Approaching Ground Truth

Upstream TracingUsing NHD