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