Sistema de Información Hidrológica
COMISION NACIONAL DEL AGUA
Programa de Modernización del Manejo del Agua
Hydrological Information System (HIS) Development Phase 2
Informe No. 48 - 01 México, diciembre diciembre de de 2000 2000 México,
Organización Meteorológica Mundial
WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (WMO) COMISIÓN NACIONAL DEL AGUA (CNA) PROGRAMA DE MODERNIZACIÓN DEL MANEJO DEL AGUA
(PROMMA) SUBDIRECCIÓN GENERAL TÉCNICA (SGT) GERENCIA DE AGUAS SUPERFICIALES E INGENIERÍA DE RÍOS (GASIR) GERENCIA REGIONAL RÍO BRAVO (GRRB)
REPORT No. 48-01
Hydrological Information System Development Phase 2
Consultancy Missions to Mexico 31 July to 12 August 5 - 27 September 11 - 29 October 5 November to 9 December, 2000
Ian McLaurin WMO Consultant (Canada)
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Executive Summary A hydrologic information system (HIS) collects, processes, manages and disseminates data and information related to the hydrologic cycle of water. Rainfall falls to the ground, where it percolates into the groundwater, or runs off into river flow to lakes, reservoirs and the oceans. From plants and open surfaces, the water evaporates into the atmosphere to complete the cycle. The hydrologic information system described in this report collects the data on rainfall, evaporation, river, lake and reservoir levels and their flows, and produces reports for the use of the water managers. It is initially to provide for the data and information needs of Gerencia Regional Río Bravo (GRRB) and Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (CILA) in the Río Bravo Basin in response to the implementation of a network of telemetric monitoring stations. Subsequently, it is to become the foundation for a HIS to be used throughout Mexico by the Comisión Nacional del Agua (CNA) and its Regional Gerencias1 and Gerencia de Aguas Superficiales e Ingeneria de Ríos (GASIR) and by CILA. The functionality required of a hydrologic information system and the general design of the system and software were defined in WMO/PROMMA Report No. 17, Hydrological Information System - Requirements and Design; Ian McLaurin; August, 1998. Working from that starting point, detailed design and computer programming were carried out in 1999. In December of 1999 Version 1 of the HIS was installed on the computers of the real-time receive site in the offices of GRRB's Subdirección Técnica in Monterrey. That work was documented in a report entitled WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25, Hydrologic Information System - Development Phase 1, Parts 1 to 3; Ian McLaurin; December, 1999. Phase 2 of the development began mid year in 2000 resulting in the installation and training of Version 2 the software in Monterrey, in the offices of CILA in Cd. Juárez, and for evaluation purposes, in the Lerma-Chapala basin in the offices of GRLSP and the basin council's information center. Phase 2 was done cooperatively with developers from Envirotech Tecnologías Ambientales, SA de CV (ETA) who have prepared a separate report2. The HIS has been implemented with an Access database and programs in Visual Basic that access that database across the network. There is a sub-module for sub-offices for the remote entry of the daily manual readings for climate, river and reservoir data files. Another module retrieves the data from the Handar receive site for the data telemetered through the GOES satellite. The computational program converts the raw input data automatically into verified and corrected data for derived parameters such as river flow and reservoir storage. This includes the handling of differences in time zones, units, datums, etc, and the automated verification of the data against expected ranges of values. An alarm module provides alerts of high or low conditions by a pop-up window on any computer on the LAN and/or by e-mail. Statistical processes compute the daily and monthly averages, extremes and totals to be available to the users of the system. Reports can be produced of the climatic conditions, daily river flows, reservoir conditions, basin water accounting etc. in tabular, graphical, and map forms on the computer screen and paper. The program operates in Spanish and English and was provided on an installation CD-ROM complete with 282 pages of documentation with "help" functionality. 1
"Gerencia" translates approximately as Managing Office Informe OMM/PROMMA No. 49. Sistema de Información Hidrológica - Manual del Usuario y Manual de Autoinstrucción; Envirotech; noviembre 2000
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The HIS is being used operationally in Monterrey and is ready for use in Cd. Juárez and could be used as-is in a limited manner in Lerma-Chapala. For use of the full functionality of features such as the alarms, additional configuration will need to be done by the users. To achieve an acceptable level of confidence, data verification actions need to be undertaken by the users, especially in such areas as sensor corrections and the stage-discharge rating curves. Processes to assist in this will need to be added to the HIS. Other areas of recommended and requested enhancements include links with the systems for the CNA national databanks and processes to acquire and decode data from real-time systems other than the Río Bravo receive sites. To make the HIS truly effective, improvements are recommended to systems that are outside of the software. Improvements need to be made to the telecommunications infrastructure and adjustments made to the division of work to enable the real-time system to be monitored and the data disseminated. To ensure its growth and long term viability, there must be a long-term arrangement for the system's support and maintenance. The information system is a vital component of the modernisation of an organisation that requires massive amounts of data and information to make the water management decisions that it must make daily. Not only can a well-supported information system provide reports that are more effective, it can do it faster and with less effort, and when those reports are used frequently by many people, the impact can become quite significant.
Figure 1: The Potential for the Hydrologic Information System.
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Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ..........................................................................................................................iii List of Figures................................................................................................................................ v List of Acronyms............................................................................................................................vi 1. Background........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Purpose of Report .............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Activity Summary................................................................................................................ 1 2. HIS System Status............................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Operational Use.................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 GRRB Subdirección Técnica - Monterrey .......................................................................... 6 2.3 CILA - Cd. Juárez ............................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Lerma-Chapala................................................................................................................... 7 3. HIS Functionality................................................................................................................ 8 3.1 Data Views with Graphs ..................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Computational Process ...................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Data Configurations.......................................................................................................... 11 3.4 Sensor Corrections........................................................................................................... 12 3.5 Transform Tables ............................................................................................................. 13 3.6 Map Displays for Stations and Data ................................................................................. 14 3.7 Reservoir Reports............................................................................................................. 15 3.8 Water Accounting ............................................................................................................. 16 3.9 Mixed Parameter Report .................................................................................................. 17 3.10 Data Key-Entry forms ...................................................................................................... 18 3.11 Data Entry from Files ....................................................................................................... 18 3.12 System Administration ..................................................................................................... 19 3.13 Alarm Set up .................................................................................................................... 20 3.14 In Spanish........................................................................................................................ 20 3.15 Users Manual................................................................................................................... 21 3.16 Station Failure Reporting System .................................................................................... 22 4. Requirements .................................................................................................................. 23 4.1 Water Accounting ............................................................................................................. 23 4.2 Area Precipitation Volumes .............................................................................................. 23 4.3 Forecasting....................................................................................................................... 23 4.4 Climatological Spreadsheet Import................................................................................... 23 4.5 Sediment Data.................................................................................................................. 23 4.6 Complex Reports.............................................................................................................. 24 5. Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................................... 25 5.1 The HIS as an Operational System .................................................................................. 25 5.2 Transform Tables ............................................................................................................. 25 5.3 Field Activities................................................................................................................... 26 5.4 Communications............................................................................................................... 26 5.5 A Hydrologic Information System for Lerma-Chapala ...................................................... 27 5.6 The Development Environment ........................................................................................ 27 5.7 Training............................................................................................................................. 28 5.8 Responsibilities................................................................................................................. 28 5.9 Future Activities ................................................................................................................ 29
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Annexes Annex 1. Terms of Reference ..................................................................................................... 31 Annex 2. Mission Report ............................................................................................................. 35 Annex 3. Lerma-Chapala HIS Requirements .............................................................................. 39 Annex 4. General List of Requirements ...................................................................................... 45 Annex 5. Sensor, Gauge and Datum Correction......................................................................... 51 Annex 6. List of Training Attendees ............................................................................................ 53
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List of Figures Figure 1: The Potential for the Hydrologic Information System....................................................ii Figure 2: Training Session in Monterrey. .................................................................................... 4 Figure 3: A report of rain data for all stations used operationally to show extent and amount of precipitation during a weather event. .......................................................... 5 Figure 4: Network Configuration of HIS in GRRB, Monterrey ..................................................... 6 Figure 5: Tabular view of "Datos Diarios Extremos" ................................................................... 8 Figure 6: Graphical view of Daily Data for all stations................................................................. 9 Figure 7: Diagram of the simplified data flow. ........................................................................... 10 Figure 8: Data Configuration form used to configure the data verification and computation process. ..................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 9: The Sensor Correction form....................................................................................... 12 Figure 10: Transform table. ......................................................................................................... 13 Figure 11: The map display for daily precipitation....................................................................... 14 Figure 12: Reservoir reports........................................................................................................ 15 Figure 13: Water Accounting Report for the basin. ..................................................................... 16 Figure 14: Report used to for daily precipitation and maximum and minimum temperatures for a group of stations. ............................................................................................... 17 Figure 15: Data Entry menu items............................................................................................... 18 Figure 16: The window and form used to manage the users of the HIS. .................................... 19 Figure 17: Section of the log file showing a broadcast of an alarm condition to another computer. ................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 18: Dual Language........................................................................................................... 20 Figure 19: Example page from the users manual in PowerPoint format. .................................... 21 Figure 20: The main form of the problem reporting and tracking system.................................... 22
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List of Acronyms Acronym English Spanish ADO ADO BANDAS BANDAS CD-ROM
CD
CICLC
CICLC
CILA
CILA
CNA DCP
CNA PCD
DCPs
PCDs
DRGS
ETRD
ERIC
ERIC
ETA
ETA
GASIR
GASIR
GMT
GMT
GOES
GOES
GRLSP
GRLSP
GRRB
GRRB
HIS
SIH
IMTA
IMTA
LAN
LAN
NESDIS
NESDIS
WMO/PROMMA
Description English Spanish ActiveX® Data Objects ActiveX® Data Objects National Surface Water Data Banco Nacional de Datos de Base Aguas Superficiales Read Only Memory Compact Disco Compacto de Memoria Disk (computer storage) de Sólo para Lectura (para almacenamiento en computadora) Information Center for the Centro de Información Cuenca Lerma-Chapala Basin Lerma-Chapala Commission of International Comisión Internacional de Boundaries and Water (Mexico) Límites y Aguas National Water Commission Comisión Nacional del Agua Data Collection Platform Plataforma de Colección de Datos Data Collection Platforms Plataformas de Colección de (plural) Datos (plural) Direct Readout Ground Station Estación Terrena de (satellite receiver) Recepción Directa (de datos de satélite) Climatalogical Data Bank for Extractor Rápido de Mexico on CD-ROM Información Climatológica (en Disco Compacto) Envirotech Tecnologías Envirotech Tecnologías Ambientales, SA de CV Ambientales, SA de CV Surface Water and River Gerencia de Aguas Engineering Group (of CNA) Superficiales e Ingeniería de Ríos Greenwich Mean Time (time Hora según el meridiano de zone) Greenwich Geostationary Operational Satélite Geoestacionario de Environmental Satellite Alta Resolución Regional Office for the Basins of Gerencia Regional de Lermathe Lerma, Santiago and the Santiago-Pacífico Pacific Regional Office for the Río Gerencia Regional Río Bravo Bravo Basin Hydrological Information System Sistema de Información Hidrológica Mexican Institute of Water Instituto Mexicano de Technology Tecnología del Agua Local Area Network (for Red de Área Local (para computer connections) conexiones de computadoras) National Environmental Servicio Nacional de Satellite, Data and Information Información y Datos Satelitales Service (USA) del Medio Ambiente, de los EUA
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NOAA
NOAA
NWS
SMN
PROMMA
PROMMA
PSC
PSC
RRFC
CRPER
RTI
RTI
SHEF
SHEF
SQL
SQL
USA UTC VB
EUA UTC VB
WAN
WAN
WMO
OMM
WMO/PROMMA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA) National Weather Service (of USA) Project for the Modernization of the Water Resources Management (in CNA) Planeación, Sistemas y Control, SA de CV Regional River Forecast Centers Riverside Technologies International Standard Hydrological Exchange Format Standard Query Language (for databases) United States of America Universal Coordinated Time Visual Basic (a Microsoft programming language) Wide Area Network (for computers) World Meteorological Organization (of the UN)
Administración Nacional de Oceános y Atmósfera, EUA Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, EUA Programa de Modernizacion del Manejo del Agua Planeación, Sistemas y Control, SA de CV Centros Regionales para Pronóstico de Escurrimiento en Ríos Tecnologías Riverside Internacional Formato Estándar de Intercambio Hidrometeorológico Lenguaje Estándar Interactivo (para bases de datos) Estados Unidos de América Tiempo Coordinado Universal Visual Basic (un lenguaje de programación de Microsoft) Red de Area Larga (para las computadoras) Organizacion Meteorológica Mundial (de Naciones Unidas)
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1.
Background
Within the framework of the PROMMA Project (Programa de Modernización del Manejo del Agua) and as a component of its modernisation programme, the Comisión Nacional del Agua of México (CNA) has begun to modernise its data acquisition programme for the collection of data from the rivers, lakes and reservoirs of Mexico. One of the first activities has been to install realtime data collection platforms (DCPs) in the Río Bravo basin, which Mexico shares with the United States of America through water management programmes operated by the Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (CILA) [International Boundaries and Waters Commission]. 3
In parallel with the above, during August 1999 a WMO consultant prepared a report , in which the requirements have been defined for a new data management system to handle the data from these new DCPs and provide the reports required by CNA/GRRB and CILA for their water management responsibilities. The report also outlines the design for the Hydrological Information System (HIS) and its subsequent development phases. Although it is to be implemented for the Río Bravo basin, the HIS is being designed so as to make it suitable for the other basins and water management districts of Mexico and to not be limited to surface water quantity systems. On the basis of the "HIS Development and Implementation Plan" contained in the abovementioned report, during the remainder of 1999 the highest priority and foundation components of the HIS software were developed in collaboration with the company Envirotech Tecnologías Ambientales, SA de CV (ETA). This preliminary version of the HIS was installed in December of 1999 in the GRRB office in Monterrey and documented in the mission report, "Hydrologic Information System - Development Phase 1" available as WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25. Finally, it should be noted that the HIS development and implementation will continue to assist the design of strategies to integrate data collection systems and data handling from different 4 observing networks (e.g. hydroclimatological, hydrometric, water quality and groundwater) . 1.1
Purpose of Report
This report: a) documents the activities of this mission; b) presents the status of the HIS as it exists at the end of the mission; and c) discusses recommendations for the further development and implementation of the system. 1.2
Activity Summary
This report covers the period from the start of the development Phase 2 on July 31, 2000 until the end of the mission December 9, 2000.. A separate report5 was prepared by the consultant, 3
WMO/PROMMA Report No. 17. Hydrological Information System - Requirements and Design; Ian McLaurin (Canada); August, 1999 4 The text of Background was extracted from the Terms of Reference for the consultant's mission 5 Informe OMM/PROMMA No. 49. Sistema de Información Hidrológica - Manual del Usuario y Manual de Autoinstrucción; Envirotech; noviembre de 2000 WMO/PROMMA
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Carlos Cervantes Ortiz, from ETA who was also working on this project. The mission was broken into four trips to Mexico totaling 90 days, July 31 to August 12, September 5 to 27, October 11 to 29 and November 5 to December 9. Of this time approximately seven days were spent on HIS design, 21 days on development of the computer program, 14 days preparing and presenting training, and the remainder on miscellaneous activities including meetings, presentations and report preparation. In addition, seven days of effort were expended over many days while in Canada for a total of 97 days. July 31 to August 12 During the first two days the consultant met with others involved with the project in Mexico City. Venancio Trueba, the PROMMA Coordinator, provided general direction to the requirements and priorities. Dieter Kraemer, team leader WMO/PROMMA Support Unit, discussed the terms of reference and reviewed a previous report. ETA had been working since the previous month on the software development for Phase 2 under a separate contract and their progress and plans were discussed with Carlos Cervantes. On August 3, 2000, this consultant and Carlos Cervantes traveled to Monterrey to review the operation of the interim version of the HIS to correct any minor deficiencies, and receive feedback on their requirements for future development. A meeting was held August 4th and 5th under the chairmanship of Venancio Trueba with the managers and the staff of GRRB to demonstrate the software and discuss requirements. Following the meeting their most immediate and simple needs were met by program and configuration changes. Identified requirements included: the ability to specify the order of stations in groups, accumulated precipitation in graphs and reports, displays of data and stations on maps, a basin-wide report of reservoir conditions, and a water accounting report. By August 8th the HIS system was operational to the point of being installed on a duplicate system for general use for familiarization purposes. The main system was used to generate river level and precipitation reports that tracked a line of thunderstorms that moved across the lower watershed that afternoon. See Section 2.1. Upon returning to Mexico City on August 9, there were several meetings with PROMMA and ETA for planning the continued development of the HIS for Río Bravo in particular and CNA in general. An interim version of this report was begun and a Word template developed for this style of reports for WMO/PROMMA. The consultant returned to Canada on August 12. September 5 to 27 The first two weeks were spent working at the offices of ETA and PROMMA working with Carlos Cervantes and alone on several software components, mainly the data configuration and map forms. Some time was also spent revising the word processing templates and preparing recommendations for the telecom and computer configuration at PROMMA for the use of the WMO consultants. On September 19, two WMO consultants developing equipment specifications for telemetric hydroclimatological stations were briefed about the conditions and requirements of CNA. On September 20 this consultant traveled to Monterrey with Carlos Cervantes. Three specific problems that they had identified were discussed and resolved. A verbal presentation on the requirements and procedures for the accounting of the international water of the Río Bravo was received and documented for review and approval. Feedback on this document was not received. Development work continued initiating the process for managing the transform tables, WMO/PROMMA
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e.g. from river level to river flow, that would be needed to do the water accounting system. Assistance was provided in analyzing unusual water level data from a station and interpreting the type of equipment problem (broken mounting straps) that could be causing it. After returning to Mexico City September 25 and reporting to PROMMA, the consultant returned to Canada September 27. October 11 to October 29 The first two weeks from October 11 was spent at the offices of ETA and PROMMA in Mexico City divided between briefing and assisting the PROMMA Technical Evaluation team and developing the Transform Table form for the HIS. The new reservoir and water accounting components developed by Carlos Cervantes were summarised and e-mailed to GRRB Monterrey for comments. The schedule for the installation and training sessions in November were drafted for sending to the appropriate offices. The consultant was invited to take part in the CNA Network Re-design National Workshop (Taller Nacional sobre Rediseño de Redes de Monitoreo Hidroclimatológico) in the Relox Building in Mexico City. Two presentations were updated and translated. On October 23 a presentation was given to an audience of approximately 75 CNA engineers and managers on the diagnostics and recommendations by this and two other consultants for the CNA hydroclimatological monitoring network in 14 priority basins6. The presentation of October 24 outlined the requirements, status and plans for the HIS. The last two working days of the mission were spent testing the HIS and developing the plans and task lists for the next month. November 5 to December 9 The first part of this trip was for the installation of the Version 2 of the HIS. This was done with Carlos Cervantes and Etna Cervantes of ETA. The first week from November 5 to 11 was in Monterrey. The software was installed on three computers and the Subdirección Técnica of GRRB was provided with manuals and an installation CD-ROM containing electronic copies of the manual and a PowerPoint selfinstruction presentation for the HIS. The training that was provided was frequently interrupted by other demands on the participants. This installation was an update to the previous version that had been used here. The second week from November 12 to 18 was in Cd. Juárez at the offices of CILA. Because this was the first installation of the HIS and the receive site software was configured slightly differently, there were some installation problems to overcome. The software was installed on five computers and the manuals and the installation CD-ROM provided to the hydroclimatological data section of CILA. The database from Monterrey was installed to give CILA immediate access to a functional system with many months of data. Three full days of training were provided over four days November 15-18. There was significant interest in the capabilities of the system. There were discussions about the necessity of data verification and quality control, in particular for the stage-discharge rating curve, and on their additional requirements.
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Informe OMM/PROMMA No. 9. Consultoría para el Rediseño de redes hidrometeorológicas en catorce cuencas selecionadas en México; Jean Francois Nouvelot, Charles Pearson, Ian MacLaurin; noviembre de 1998 WMO/PROMMA
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The third week from November 20 was in Guadalajara at the offices of the Subgerencia Técnica of CNA's Gerencia Regional de Lerma-Santiago-Pacífico (GRLSP). This installation was to prepare for a functional implementation in 2001. Briefings were received from GRLSP and from the staff of the Information Center of the Basin Council for the Lerma-Chapala (Centro de Información Cuenca Lerma-Chapala (CICLC)). The software was installed for training and familiarisation purposes on three CNA computers and one from the CICLC. Two days of training were provided and there were discussions of their requirements. A list of all the training participants can be found in Annex 6. On October 24 Carlos Cervantes remained in Guadalajara for an additional day to attempt to configure existing Lake Chapala data files to be loaded into the HIS system for immediate use. This consultant returned to Monterrey to update their system with the fixes that had been done during the previous two weeks. On November 27 at PROMMA a meeting was attended that discussed the telecommunications possibilities for the Lerma-Chapala basin. During the rest of that week this report was prepared and the HIS program reviewed, tested and corrections made. The week of December 4-8 was divided between planning for anticipated activities and HIS program updates and checks in Monterrey. A presentation on the HIS was given to GASIR and meteorology staff at the CNA offices on Observatorio. This resulted in an installation of the HIS software by Carlos Cervantes in their offices the next day for evaluation. The consultant returned to Canada on December 9.
Figure 2: Training Session in Monterrey.
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2.
HIS System Status
During the period from December 1999 to the middle of 2000, the HIS system in Monterrey had not been fully operational. Some functionality was lost when a computer's network name was changed. There were some problems with Year 2000 bugs on dependant systems. Processing slowed to a crawl as the database grew in size. There were some bugs in the software and spurious data generated false alarms. The system was not under any support or maintenance agreement during this time. Some of these problems were cleared up during two site visits by Carlos Cervantes during June and July of 2000. There were additional enhancements and configuration adjustments made during visits in August and September and in November, Version 2 of the HIS was installed in GRRB in Monterrey, in the CILA offices in Cd. Juárez and for familiarisation purposes, in the Lerma-Chapala basin. The sections below describe the status of the system in those three locations. 2.1
Operational Use
During the afternoon of August 8, an advisory was telephoned to GRRB Monterrey that there had been a heavy rainfall in downtown Matamoros, near the mouth of the Río Bravo. Using a number of graphical data reports from the HIS and a series of weather radar images retrieved via the Internet on the HIS computer, the GRRB managers were shown that the rainfall should
Figure 3:: A report of rain data for all stations used operationally to show extent and amount of precipitation during a weather event. not be a concern. The reports showed that it was from a band of thunderstorms moving inland with spotty precipitation ranging from zero to 13 mm with little response from any of the rivers.
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2.2
GRRB Subdirección Técnica - Monterrey
The HIS is operational in Monterrey processing the real-time data from the Handar UBS2000 receive site every three hours for the Río Bravo DCPs that had been installed the previous year. Its main use is to produce reports of water level, precipitation, and temperature. As shown in Figure 4, it is installed on one of the receive site's computers and on two users' computers on the GRRB LAN. This configuration provides one system for valid reports and one for training. As they may wish, GRRB Monterrey may install the HIS software on other computers in the LAN for either operational use or training and demonstration use.
Dish
Network Configuration of HIS in CNA, Monterrey CNA workgroup UBS2000 Handar software and raw data
Equipo1 Main HIS software and database
e-mails
Eterrena-grrb NT Server
Message Broadcast
Jcantu-grrb Copy of HIS system and database for casual users
Subtecnica -grrb workgroup
Tvaldez-grrb HIS client software for casual users
Figure 4: Network Configuration of HIS in GRRB, Monterrey. The database is almost 500 megabytes in size and contains the data from July of 1999. This includes the 10 minute data from water level and precipitation sensors, hourly data from the meteorological sensors and the few water quality sensors. The system is configured with transform tables capable of using the water level data to produce the river flow data for 16 of the river stations and the storage volumes for the two main reservoirs, Falcón and Amistad. However, that data cannot be used with confidence until the sensor corrections, gauge corrections and transform tables are confirmed with field data. The system is able to generate alarms and automatically broadcast alarm messages to other computers on the network and to automatically send alarm condition e-mails. Two users are comfortable with its general use, one user is capable of system administrative functions and at least two others have received some hands-on training in its use. WMO/PROMMA
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Since December 1999, the CNA WAN Internet network had been extended to the HIS system in Monterrey. Not only does this allow for e-mail communication of data, reports and program updates, it gives the local staff access to the system. It could also connect the HIS with PROMMA7 and other CNA offices in Mexico City. The HIS program was installed on other computers for the purposes of familiarization of the staff. The HIS computer administrator has written a program that automatically provides reports every three hours in HTML format of the current conditions of water level, precipitation and temperature for all of the real-time stations. Although this report could be used on CNA web sites, it is not. The room containing the HIS still does not have a dedicated telephone. The one telephone line is shared with several other telephones in the building. The computers at the Observatorio in Monterrey, where the other data collection and dissemination activities occur around the clock, are not on the network. 2.3
CILA - Cd. Juárez
The HIS is operational in Cd. Juárez processing the real-time data from the UBS2000 receive site. The system was installed with the database, and the data for the past year, from the Monterrey system to be able to provide the same functionality and reports that exists in the Monterrey installation. The operational system is installed on one of the computers of the receive site. The three computers of the receive site are not connected to the rest of the CILA LAN for administrative reasons so the alarm broadcast and e-mail functionality has not been activated. Formal permission is required from CNA for CILA to be able to add the computers to their LAN. Copies of the database were installed on four other computers with the HIS software for training use only. Four users have been trained in its use. There is a problem at Cd. Juárez with the reception of the data by the UBS2000 system that causes it to not receive a small percentage of the data but this is outside the responsibility of the HIS project. 2.4
Lerma-Chapala
The HIS program was installed on three computers of the CNA GRLSP in Guadalajara and one computer from the Information Center of the Consejo de Cuenca Lerma-Chapala in Querétaro. They were each loaded with sample copies of the Monterrey database of Río Bravo stations. Three to five users received various levels of training. As there is no Handar UBS2000 receive site at either of the two offices, the HIS system is not capable of processing real-time data for Lerma-Chapala. The system and the people are capable of processing data that is key-entered or is loaded from electronic files. This would first require the removal of the Río Bravo stations from the database and the configuration for the Lerma-Chapala. It is also possible link the computers on the LAN to a single HIS database. Recommendations for the HIS for Lerma-Chapala are contained in Annex 3.
7
If user access privileges are set up
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3.
HIS Functionality
The following sections demonstrate and illustrate the functionality of the Version 2 of the HIS program as it was installed and with the data from the Río Bravo that the operational database contains. Only a sample of the windows and forms are included here but they will provide an indication of the scope and capabilities of the system. 3.1
Data Views with Graphs
A suite of generic data reports was added to the main program under the View menu item. The windows allow the user to view the data for all or any stations, for all or any parameters and for any time period.
Figure 5: Tabular view of "Datos Diarios Extremos".
There are several forms in HIS with the same general functions as this one. It will display one or two photographs of the station. The display can switch back and forth from a tabular display such as shown here to a graphical display as shown on the next page. The report can be printed or the data can be exported in a simple text file for printing or for importing into Excel or similar packages. The graph itself can also be exported or printed. The graphical display of data for all stations for one parameter are especially useful for quickly locating stations that would be of interest due to outliers.
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Figure 6: Graphical view of Daily Data for all stations. 3.2
Computational Process
The HIS processing has been designed to handle hydrologic data which can come from many different sources and be of many different parameters and produce a great variety of reports. Within this diversity, there are two points at which there is a common format - the input buffer table and the data tables. There are then three main processing components to the HIS program: a) Getting raw data from various sources into the input data buffer table; b) Processing the data in the input data buffer table as specified by the data configurations set up by the user to add to the tables of data; and c) Producing reports from the tables of processed data. Design and development of the HIS can occur independently in each of these three areas. For example, the creation of a series of reports on reservoir conditions need not impact upon the data processing from the input buffer.
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Section 3 : HIS Data Processing Methodology of the previous report8 described in three pages how the data is processed in the HIS. The following diagram supplements this description.
Figure 7: Diagram of the simplified data flow.
8
WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25. Hydrologic Information System - Development Phase 1; Ian McLaurin; December, 1999
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3.3
Data Configurations
The "Data Configuration" contains the settings that the HIS program uses to process the incoming data into, for example, monthly average river flow. Most of the critical settings were adjusted and the operators trained in the techniques for updating the remainder.
Figure 8: Data Configuration form used to configure the data verification and computation process.
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3.4
Sensor Corrections
The water level sensors used for the Río Bravo measure the pressure of the water on the sensor and convert that into depth of water over the sensor. Although the data logger can apply an adjustment factor to convert this to a value equivalent to the reading on the staff gauge, the HIS has this functionality for all parameters. In essence, the sensor correction is a calibration adjustment that is applied linearly with straight-line interpolation through time. Gauge corrections and datum adjustment can similarly be used as described in Annex 5. The field operations in the Río Bravo have not yet reached the point where these factors are considered and applied on a regular basis.
Figure 9: The Sensor Correction form.
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3.5
Transform Tables
Not all of the data that comes from the real-time stations or from the conventional stations is of the desired parameter. One example is the necessity to transform the accumulated precipitation values received every 10 minutes (e.g. 678, 678, 683) into totals for a period (e.g. 0, 0, 5). This is done by the user specifying the "de-accumulation" transform in the data configuration form. The other is the conversion of water level data into river flow, reservoir storage and reservoir surface area. Transform tables do these conversions. The Transform Table implementation in Version 2 is based on the situation in Río Bravo where there are existing tables that can entered into the system for many stations. The tables can be entered from the keyboard or they can be loaded from a simple file if the tables already exist in an electronic form. A future version will accept level and flow measurements to check and modify the transform tables and to create the tables directly from the measurements.
Figure 10: Transform table.
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3.6
Map Displays for Stations and Data
Especially when dealing with precipitation data, a spatial presentation on a map simplifies mental analysis and presentations to those unfamiliar with the significance of the station names. The map presentation system used in the HIS enables the users to have control over the development of the presentation. The "map" may be any digital image in .bmp, .jpg, or .gif format up to several megabytes in size. By using the HIS form "Stations on Map" the user can select which stations get displayed on the map and where their location is on that map. The stations are displayed with colour coded boxes for the alarm conditions and with labels and tool tips with the data.
Figure 11: The map display for daily precipitation.
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3.7
Reservoir Reports
Although the data from a reservoir can be displayed in any of the data reports demonstrated above just as river level or precipitation can be, there is a special report for reservoirs. The HIS has special forms for the key-entry input of the data needed for the report.
Figure 12: Reservoir reports.
The reports have the reservoir(s) total capacity, available capacity, a sedimentation factor and the actual stored volume as total and available amount of water. As with the other data reports of this type, the data can be presented as: • a tabular form on the computer screen; • a time-based graph on the screen as shown above; • a text file export of the data; • a printed table with titles and the logo; • a print of the graph; or • an export of the graph as a windows metafile, .jpg, or .bmp file.
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3.8
Water Accounting
The main purpose of the water monitoring network on the Río Bravo is for the water accounting of the sharing of the water between Mexico and the United States. Although the formal accounting is done on an annual basis, the accounts are computed on a weekly basis for water management and planning purposes. The water accounting is basically the conversion of river flow data and reservoir storage volumes into volumes delivered during a defined period. Reports of this nature would be useful for other basins as well as for the Río Bravo, so a general type of report was designed and provided with configuration forms for the users to configure and modify the computation process for this or other basins.
Figure 13: Water Accounting Report for the basin.
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3.9
Mixed Parameter Report
Many of the reports used by GRRB and CILA contain a mixture of parameters. They may have daily averages and maximums for several parameters and stations. The prime example is the climatological reports of daily precipitation and the mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. The figure below shows this report. Other more complex reports are required such as the example in Figure 2 of Annex 3.
Figure 14: Report used to for daily precipitation and maximum and minimum temperatures for a group of stations.
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3.10 Data Key-Entry forms As well as the process which automatically transfers and processes the real-time data from the receive site system, there are several forms for key-entry of the data that comes in to the office in paper form. They range from the very specific to the very Figure 15: Data Entry menu items. general. The "Diario de Clima" form is patterned after the paper version of the record book used by the observers to record the daily climate readings. The "General" form is just that. The "Datos Diarios" and "Datos Mensuales" forms enter data directly into the daily and monthly data tables bypassing the verification and processing steps of the data configuration form. This would only be intended for data that has previously been verified. 3.11 Data Entry from Files There is a separate process that can be used in a remote location to create data files for loading into the HIS in a main office. The Remote Data Entry system generates a text file that is read into the HIS Input Buffer through the "Carga de Datos Remotos" menu item seen in the figure above. This can also be used where there is existing data in electronic files. Those files can be manipulated in another package such as Excel to create a file in the format expected by the "Carga de Datos Remotos" process.
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3.12 System Administration The December version of HIS had a few forms in Access for managing the basic system information. Since then, they have been brought into the HIS main program and their range has been expanded. The figure below shows one of the forms and the menu items under the Data Management menu item. The passwords are encrypted and these administrative items can only be accessed by users with sufficient privileges.
Figure 16: The window and form used to manage the users of the HIS.
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3.13 Alarm Set up The system was configured for the raising of alarms at various levels for the different stations and parameters. The levels had been set based on little data so full-scale implementation would not have been wise. However, it was set in Monterrey to use NET SEND to send messages to two other computers on the LAN when high water level, high precipitation or low battery voltage was detected. It could also send an e-mail at the trigger of a high water level.
Figure 17: Section of the log file showing a broadcast of an alarm condition to another computer.
3.14 In Spanish As can be seen in the figures on these pages, the program is in Spanish. The system can be toggled between English and Spanish. Other languages can be added through string tables in the development mode. The manual, help system and self instruction guide is in Spanish.
Figure 18: Dual Language.
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3.15 Users Manual Two manuals are available for the HIS in electronic and printable form provided on the installation CD-ROM. The "Manual del Usuario" contains 166 pages in Word format. There is also a 116 page PowerPoint document for quick reference to the main features of most of the program's windows and forms. It is entitled "Instructivo breve del Sistema de Información Hidrológica - Manual de Autoinstrucción". Each form or window also presents an on-line "help" in response to the F1 key.
Figure 19: Example page from the users manual in PowerPoint format.
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3.16 Station Failure Reporting System A simple system had been prepared during the first mission to Río Bravo to report equipment related problems with the Río Bravo sensors and data loggers in the field. It has since been updated and set back up in operation. It can be used by the engineer responsible for the field network to note the failure of components, report that failure to maintenance crew by e-mail and print reports by station and sensor of the failures and the length of time they were out of service.
Figure 20: The main form of the problem reporting and tracking system.
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4.
Requirements
During the meetings with managers and engineers of GRRB and GRLSP and with the HIS users in CILA and Lerma-Chapala, a number of requirements were defined and are documented below. These requirements may be separate from the requirements that had been defined during previous missions (see Annex 4) and different from the programming additions noted by the developers as being necessary. 4.1
Water Accounting
The water accounting function in HIS appeared, at first glance, to the GRRB and CILA users of Río Bravo to meet their requirements for general reports for provisional water accounting. The formal and detailed computational procedure is done by CILA through four linked spreadsheets. CILA does not wish this computational process to be included in the HIS but they would like a function which exports any data that the HIS might contain. The export should be in a format easily uploaded into the spreadsheets. Copies of the spreadsheets were obtained. 4.2
Area Precipitation Volumes
As a part of the water accounting computations, the area distribution of annual precipitation is required. This would also be useful for other hydrological analyses. Unless a third party tool is acquired, the generation of rainfall isohyetals would likely beyond be the scope of the development in the HIS. However, the computation of the rainfall volumes using Thiesen polygons would be within the scope of the HIS project. 4.3
Forecasting
Two types of flow forecasting were requested: i) hydraulic routing type models for "what-if" scenarios on water management alternatives; and ii) hydrologic models to forecast runoff from precipitation events. It is expected that these needs will be met by the NWS River Forecast System. Some enhancement will however have to be made to the HIS to allow for the interchange of data and forecasts between it and the NWS RRFC. 4.4
Climatological Spreadsheet Import
Although the Clima Diario data entry form in the HIS is functional, GRRB would prefer to continue to use their spreadsheet system because of the quality assurance steps that they have built into them. In any case, they have a data store of these monthly spreadsheets that could be read into the HIS. Therefore, a system to import .txt file versions of these spreadsheets has been requested. 4.5
Sediment Data
The Terms of Reference describe a requirement for the HIS to interact with other related systems. In a brief meeting with the WMO/PROMMA sediment specialist, a possible role of the HIS was outlined as the tool and database for the routine sediment field operations and computations and there would likely be a non-HIS information system for the non-routine measurements and data. It was acknowledged that the sediment information system (SIS) would likely be managed by a specialized sediment unit that may not have a regional presence. The SIS would be the system of record where the two systems would overlap.
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Thus for the sediment program, the HIS would: collect the data from suspended sediment and bed load measurements, track the collection and results of suspended sediment samples, and calculate daily sediment loadings from sample results, rating curves and turbidity sensors. The HIS would likely not be required to manage particle size distribution data. 4.6
Complex Reports
Now that the simpler reports are provided by the system, the report requirements are more complex requiring a mixture of parameters, time frames and computations in one report. There a type of multi-page daily report that is now produced by the CNA state and regional offices that they would like the HIS to provide. An example page from the Guadalajara report can be found in Figure 2 of Annex 3. The HIS computes daily averages from midnight to midnight based on the local time. There are requirements to compute daily means from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. to agree with the conventional process and from midnight to midnight on GMT or UTC.
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5.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The following conclusions and recommendations refer to the implementation of the HIS computer program and, in particular, to the broader operational environment within which the system functions. The emphasis in this section is on the management and supporting operational aspects of the HIS. These are areas where responsibility rests primarily with CNA managers and where the system developers have little control or influence. The details and specifications for functional enhancements to the HIS computer program are contained in the notes of the software developers and are not repeated here. 5.1
The HIS as an Operational System
The HIS program has been installed and configured for operational use in GRRB Monterrey and in CILA in Cd. Juárez. Its use on August 8 in Monterrey demonstrated its usefulness. It has been installed in the offices of GRLSP, Guadalajara and CICLC, Querétaro but with the Río Bravo configuration, so it cannot be used operationally by those offices without a significant effort for reconfiguration. Training has been provided to 18 persons. The Version 2 of the HIS is much improved from Version 1 in its ability to deliver basic water management reports for water levels and precipitation. The software and field components that collect and manage the data from field operations and develop stage-discharge curves are still weak operationally and this prevents the flow data from being used with confidence. Although the system does report the other meteorological data and the water quality data collected by the Handar DCP network, it does so in simple tables and graphs and not in the specialized presentations they require. This will require an improvement of the systems in the HIS, such as outlined in Annex 4, and the training of the staff in their use. Some problems with the HIS program presented themselves late in the development cycle this year or with its use during and after the training sessions. Other problems are related to the organizational or communications difficulties. These problems need to be resolved. The recommendations for their resolutions are covered in sub-sections below. Recommendation The GRRB and CILA staff verify that they have provided the system with valid water level sensor corrections and transform tables. 5.2
Transform Tables
The production of river discharge and reservoir storage data is hampered by the lack of rating tables or curves to be used with the water level data. Tables for many of the existing stations have been key entered into the HIS but many are still missing, principally for the new stations. A spot-check showed that, using these tables, the HIS cannot be relied upon at all sites to produce data that is in agreement with the discharge measurements that are taken by the on-site observer. Recommendations Tables representing the relationship between water level and river flow or reservoir area and storage need to be obtained by CNA and CILA and provided to the system. They can be obtained by a combination of: WMO/PROMMA
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• • • • •
Instituting a program of river discharge measurements; Constructing flow measurement weirs, flumes or other structures; Conducting hydraulic analyses based on river cross section surveys; Installing electronic flow measuring devices; and/or Analysis of previous records of discharge and water level measurements.
The components of the HIS related to the management, verification and updating of stagedischarge transform tables need to be enhanced. This includes the capture of field measurements and their comparison with the computed water levels, flows and other outputs. 5.3
Field Activities
The installation of electronic data loggers and telemetry systems as a replacement for the manual readings of water level and the direct measurement of river discharge has brought with it the requirement for major changes to the mode of operation of the data collection sections of CNA and a whole suite of new operational procedures for the technologists and engineers. Some of these have been discussed in this consultant's previous reports related to the installation of the Río Bravo DCPs1 and a network review of other basins2. Although some adjustments are being made, this will require a significant management effort to fully incorporate the new technologies into the operations of CNA. Recommendation CNA managers will have to devote resources to developing, maintaining and operating the procedures, techniques and tools for the field operation of monitoring networks based on electronic data loggers. 5.4
Communications
With the connection of the HIS computers in Monterrey to the CNA WAN and to the Internet with web browsers and e-mail, the present and future functionality of the HIS has increased significantly. Not only can data reports be disseminated but also data can come into the system and HIS maintenance improvements can be easily implemented. However, the system is still suffering from the lack of a dedicated telephone line and the physical, communication and the operational separation of the HIS from the Monterrey Observatorio will impair its operational functionality. The Río Bravo network is operated as a single monitoring network with two information systems. This will require some duplication of effort with the entering of manually read data from the reservoirs and climate stations. It also presents the possibility of data inconsistency between the two systems if critical elements such as DCP movements, sensor adjustments and changes in stage discharge tables are not passed from one to the other. These can be accomplished by improvements in personal communication by phone and e-mail or by adding complex database updating procedures. In any case, managerial decisions need to be made regarding data responsibilities.
1
Informe OMM/PROMMA No. 14. Red Telemétrica del Río Bravo; Ian McLaurin, Julio Llinás Guzmán; octubre de 1999 Informe OMM/PROMMA No. 9. Consultoría para el Rediseño de redes hidrometeorológicas en catorce cuencas selecionadas en México; Jean Francois Nouvelot, Charles Pearson, Ian MacLaurin; noviembre de 1998 2
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In the offices of CILA in Cd. Juárez, the computers and HIS database on the receive site's LAN are not connected to the CILA LAN nor the Internet. This inhibits the use of the system for using reports and for exchanging data and information with the system in Monterrey. The data flow configuration proposed for the HIS in Lerma-Chapala (Annex 3) requires a network connection between the HIS database in the GRLSP office in Guadalajara and HIS client computers in the offices of the Information Center for the Lerma-Chapala Basin (CICLC). This would enable the CICLC to enter data that they may responsible for directly (with access limited by password) to the HIS. It would also make the system transparent to them with read only ability. Recommendations The HIS in Monterrey be equipped with a dedicated telephone line(s) for verbal communication, faxes, and modem links. Steps should be taken to reduce the physical, communication and/or operational separation of the HIS from the Monterrey Observatorio. The managers and primary users of the HIS in Cd. Juárez and Monterrey conduct a workshop to resolve the data responsibility issues and define the procedures for maintaining the data integrity between their two HIS systems. The receive site LAN in Cd. Juárez be linked to the CILA LAN. The future HIS installation for Lerma-Chapala include a network link between the HIS database in CNA Guadalajara and the Information Center in Querétaro. 5.5
A Hydrologic Information System for Lerma-Chapala
Based on the presentations and discussions held in Guadalajara, the HIS will meet the majority of the basic needs with little modification, other than the as-yet-unknown requirements for the reception of the telemetric data. While an earlier proposal for a HIS for Lerma-Chapala had suggested the installation of two separate receive sites and information systems, the proposal contained in Annex 3 is for a single system. Many of the proposed enhancements for LermaChapala will be applicable to Río Bravo and other basins. Recommendation The development and implementation of the HIS for 2001 for Lerma-Chapala proceed as outlined in Annex 3. 5.6
The Development Environment
The Visual Basic (VB) and Access development environment has been adequate for the task. Program development can be quite rapid and there are many third party resources available in terms of programming manuals, source code libraries and function libraries such as the GigaSoft ProEssentials library used for the graphs. Some functionality that was initially attractive turned out to have problems and had to be reworked. The Data Environment system in VB and the ADO controls became overloaded as the system grew and had to be replaced with SQL code. The ADO database functions have a rare but upsetting inconsistency. Infrequently the ADO functions are not able to update date records. They have to be replaced with SQL statements. Date functions had inconsistent results when used on computers with different time settings. WMO/PROMMA
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The Access database currently has a physical limit of two gigabytes. This limit is exasperated by the fact that although database rows may be deleted, such as when the HIS Input buffer table is cleared after its rows are processed, the database space is not cleared until the database is compacted. When the current installations of the HIS approach this limit in a few years, there should be solutions available such as: archiving the largest tables, the 10 minute water level and precipitation data: deleting some data not of interest such as old battery voltage data; splitting the database into several databases; higher database size in subsequent versions of Access; or migrating to SQL Server. 5.7
Training
The training provided during the three or four days available at each location was adequate in demonstrating the functionality of the program and how individual forms and windows are used. However, to be used effectively as a work instrument, procedures have to be developed and training provided in how to configure the system and use it as a whole package. Examples include: the differences and significance of sensor, gauge and datum adjustments; selection of valid ranges in the verification step of the data configuration; how to set up a basin accounting configuration; what to do if sensors are found to have been shifted; how to manipulate data files of existing data to do a bulk load; what should be a daily practice for HIS operations; etc. Recommendation Procedures and training be developed and provided in the use of the HIS software within the day-to-day activities of the hydroclimatological offices. 5.8
Responsibilities
The activities and responsibilities for the field operations, office activities and databanks that are components of, or related to, a hydrologic information system are spread between the Subgerencias Técnicas in the CNA Regional and the CNA State offices, the offices of GASIR in Mexico City and, by contract, with IMTA and with the WMO consultants working through PROMMA. There are changes coming about with the modernization program, in particular with the use of telemetric data loggers with electronic sensors and the installation of the CNA WAN, and with the administrative changes of the decentralization of financial authority and the rise of the basin councils. Some of the recommendations above illustrate the impact of these changes. Occasionally during this mission, there were indications that the responsibilities for responding to some changes were unclear or there were inadequate resources for properly addressing stated responsibilities. Recommendation CNA conduct an organizational review to analyze the roles, responsibilities and resources of the organizational components related to the network planning, data collection, and data dissemination of CNA's hydroclimatological stations and to recommend the adjustments that may be necessary. 5.9
Future Activities
Early in the year, there should be meetings with the designers and/or managers of the other information systems in CNA to achieve some degree of integration where necessary. This would include the water quality, climatological, meteorological, reservoir, river forecasting, sediment and ground water systems. WMO/PROMMA
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The first priority for the year 2001 would be the support of the existing installations in Monterrey and Cd. Juárez for the Río Bravo basin. The support for the existing systems must be in place from the beginning of the year to be able to resolve the problems, big or small, that may seriously affect the ability of the HIS to provide operational data and information. There are also a number of inconsistencies and small bugs which require resolution. At least one person is required for the year. This is not a full-time activity but they must be available daily during business hours. They may work concurrently on other development components listed below. The second priority would be the enhancements and re-installation of the system to meet the needs of the projects for the modernization of the Lerma-Chapala network. The most significant enhancement for Lerma-Chapala would be whatever may be required to interface with whichever telemetric system(s) may be installed. As well, forms and reports will be needed to manage the field data, e.g. water level and river flow measurements, used to verify the data from the HIS. Depending on the complexity of the telemetric component, six to eight person months would be required. The emphasis for the later part of the year should be on the national databank components of the HIS, i.e. links with BANDAS and ERIC. Other functionalities as requested in Section 4 can be added as time and resources are available. The list of requirements described in the previous reports is attached for reference as Annex 4. Twelve to 18 person months is estimated for this component. Support, maintenance and enhancement of the HIS will need to continue through subsequent years. Outside of major enhancement or integration projects and depending upon the ultimate scope of the HIS, two or three persons full time may be adequate. Although some of these resources could be contracted for, there should be at least one person within CNA devoted full time to the HIS. Recommendations CNA hold a planning meeting early in 2001with the managers and/or developers of the various CNA information systems. CNA put an arrangement in place for the support of the HIS during 2001. Enhancement of the HIS continue through the year 2001 as outlined above and described in Annex 7. Steps be taken to ensure the long term support of the HIS.
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Annexes Annex 1 - Terms of Reference Annex 2 - Mission Report Annex 3 - Lerma-Chapala HIS Requirements Annex 4 - General List of Requirements Annex 5 - Sensor, Gauge and Datum Corrections Annex 6 - List of Training Attendees
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Annex 1 TERMS OF REFERENCE - DEVELOPMENT OF A HYDRO-CLIMATOLOGICAL AND HYDROMETRIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PHASE 2
Actividad GASIR-5/2000. Desarrollo de software e implementación del sistema de información con aplicación específica a la GR Río Bravo, para captura, respaldo, reporte y transferencia de datos hidroclimatológicos e hidrométricos, incluyendo el análisis de la interconexsión de redes de observación para el intercambio y uso de la información, así como de un programa de recuperación de archivos históricos, incluyendo capacitacion. Actividad CPROMMA-4/2000. Desarrollo de software para la integración de bases de datos, su transferencia y uso en Internet/Intranet, relativo a las redes de monitoreo hidroclimatológico, hidrométrico y climatológico, aplicación para Gerencias Regionales y GASIR. – Background 1. Within the framework of the PROMMA Project and as a component of its modernisation programme, the Comisión Nacional del Agua of México (CNA) has begun to modernise its data acquisition programme for the collection of data from the rivers, lakes and reservoirs of Mexico. One of the first activities has been to install real-time data collection platforms (DCPs) in the Rio Bravo basin, which Mexico shares with the United States of America through water management programmes operated by the Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (CILA) [International Boundaries and Waters Commission]. 2. In parallel with the above, during August 1999 a WMO consultant1 prepared a report, in which the requirements have been defined for a new data management system to handle the data from these new DCPs and provide the reports required by CNA and CILA for their water management responsibilities. The report also outlines the design for the Hydrological Information System (HIS) and its subsequent development phases. 3. Although it is to be implemented for the Rio Bravo basin, the HIS is being designed so as to make it suitable for the other basins and water management districts of Mexico and to not be limited to surface water quantity systems (see also paragraph 5 below). 4. On the basis of the HIS Development and Implementation Plan contained in the abovementioned report, during the remainder of 1999 the highest priority and foundation components of the HIS software were developed in collaboration with the company Envirotech Tecnologías Ambientales, SA de CV. This preliminary version of the HIS was installed in December of 1999 in CNA's office in Monterrey and documented in the mission report, "Hydrologic Information System - Development Phase 1" currently available as a preliminary draft report (WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25). 5. Finally, it should be noted that the HIS development and implementation will continue to assist the design of strategies to integrate data collection systems and data handling from 1
WMO/PROMMA Report No. 17. Hydrological Information System - Requirements and Design; Ian McLaurin (Canada); August, 1999
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different observing networks (e.g. hydroclimatological, hydrometric, water quality and groundwater). Terms of reference 6. Under the guidance of Dr. Venancio Trueba, Coordinator of the PROMMA Project and in coordination with the Manager of the Surface Water and River Engineering Department (GASIR) of CNA and the WMO/PROMMA consultants’ team leader, as well as with the Mangers of the Río Bravo and Lerma-Santiago-Pacífico Regional Offices of CAN, and with the collaboration of a local consultant(s), the consultant will develop the main activities given below. 7. On the basis of the HIS Development and Implementation Plan, assist in the completion of Phase 2. Its objective would be geared to have programmes written and operating to do the majority of the basic data acquisition and reports currently required for the Rio Bravo water managers of CNA and CILA. The specific requirements are as outlined below. Specific requirements 8. Assist the local consultant tasked with making urgently needed HIS software adjustments to be put in place for the use of CNA, Monterrey. These adjustments will be identified by the local consultant in an on-site inspection of the HIS's operation to be conducted as soon as possible. 9. Develop, and implement software development and documentation standards to be used by the software development team expected to have a total of 4 members. 10. In collaboration with the local consultant(s), define and document the HIS system requirements for: a station numbering scheme, interconnection with the Internet and other telecommunication systems, interconnection with the National Weather Service's River Forecast System, CILA's Contapre program, a reservoir reporting system, and other requirements that GASIR may identify. 11. In collaboration with the local consultant(s), design, develop, test and document the necessary components of the HIS software as can be accomplished with the time and resources available. The consultant(s) role will be primarily for design and testing for the proper hydrologic functionality. Components may include: map and image displays, hydrograph plots, increased robustness of UBS data transfer, flexible data file decoder, stage-discharge rating table generation, data quality checks, data entry processes, interconnection with NWS's RFS, and OMM/GASIR/Coordinación PROMMA
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a significant number of output data reports in electronic and paper formats including: Contapre (Rio Bravo water balance), reservoir reports, station status reports, river flows, and precipitation, etc by station, river or basin. 12. The software produced should be of high quality - robust, easy to use, in Spanish, and with on-line help, a user's manual and programmer's documentation. The software is to be installed and configured by the consultant(s) for operation in the offices of CNA in Monterrey and CILA in Cd. Juarez. Training is to be provided to the key operators. This work is to be done in collaboration with the local consultants and GASIR. 13. The consultant(s) would also propose strategies to integrate data collection systems and data handling from different observing networks (hydroclimatological, hydrometric, water quality and groundwater – see paragraph 5 above). This activity would be done with the collaboration of other WMO consultants concerned. 14. Based on: i) the results and experience of the mission, ii) a review from an independent consultant(s), and iii) a review of CNA operations in another region, the consultant(s) will provide recommendations for the continued development and implementation of the HIS for 2001. Other activities 15. Additionally the consultant(s) should spend one day for presentation and discussion with GASIR and CPROMMA the results of his/her (their) missions. 16. Before leaving the country, the consultant(s) should submit to CNA (GASIR and PROMMA Co-ordinator) a preliminary report on the consultancy carried out. 17.
Finally, the consultant(s) will prepare and submit a final mission report to WMO.
Implementation time-frame 18. The proposed activities during the mission would take place primarily in Monterrey and México City, with trip(s) to Cd. Juárez and possibly to other CNA office location(s). 19. The time-frame planned for this Phase 2 would be of 97 days for the consultant. These 97 days will be spread over several blocks of time during 2000, starting as of July of this year. Some of the work will be done while the consultant is in his/her home country and the individual trips to Mexico will be limited to approximately 3 weeks duration each or less. 20. The subsequent steps of Phase 3 and the remaining phases that may lead to a national implementation of HIS are planned to be undertaken in the year 2001. 21.
The terms of reference for the local consultant(s) have been prepared separately.
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Annex 2 MISSION REPORT
Dates (2000) Trip 1 July 31 August 1 August 2 August 3 August 4 Saturday August 5 August 6 August 7 August 8 August 9 August 10 August 11 Sat August 12
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Activities Arrive Mexico City, Mexico. Report to Dieter Kraemer (DK) at PROMMA office. At ETA review HIS progress with Carlos Cervantes (CC). At PROMMA coordinating plans with DK and review of Report #25. Travel to CNA's GRRB in Monterrey with CC. Check operation of the HIS. Update HIS program. Progress meeting with Juan Emilio Garcia (JEG) et al chaired by Venancio Trueba (VT) Conclusion of meeting - receive priorities from GRRB. Discuss plans and priorities with CC. Do some testing of HIS Code data form for HIS Complete data form. HIS provides operational data reports in response to rain event. Provide comments re use of radar after tour of TV 28's weather radar. Travel to PROMMA offices in Mexico City. Draft Interim report and To Do list. Planning meeting with Omar Guillén, Arturo Jiménez, CC, DK and VT Complete draft report to this stage. Complete Report #25 and WMO report templates. Review plans with CC Fly to Canada.
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Trip 2 September 5 September 6 September 7 September 8 Saturday Sept 9 September 10 September 11 September 12 September 13 September 14 September 15 Sat Sept 16 September 17 September 18 September 19 September 20 September 21 September 22 Sat Sept 23 September 24 September 25 September 26 September 27
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Arrive Mexico City, Mexico At ETA offices working on Data Configuration form for HIS At PROMMA offices working on Data Configuration form. Report to DK At ETA offices reviewing plans and progress with CC At PROMMA assisting with letter drafting At ETA with Data Configuration form Review progress with CC. Begin work on Map form for HIS At ETA on Map Form. Evening at PROMMA revising WMO Report Template At ETA on Map Form. Evening at PROMMA revising WMO Report Template At PROMMA At hotel working on Map Form At hotel working on Map Form At ETA review map forms with CC. Evening at PROMMA writing recommendations for server configuration for WMO consultants. Provide background briefing to Tim Millman and Richard Stengal from EC on equipment specifications. Travel to CNA's GRRB Monterrey with CC. Discuss a list of 3 problems reported by GRRB. Receive presentation from Doroteo Trevino (DT) et al regarding water accounting for Río Bravo and document our understanding of it. Present documentation of Río Bravo water accounting requirements to Juan Emilio Garcia (JEG) for comment. Provide instruction on NESDIS Telnet procedures. At Hotel work on Transform Tables Work on Transform Tables. Provide analysis of unusual data from Río Bravo at Columbia. Travel to Mexico City. Review and plan with PROMMA and Carlos Return to Canada
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Trip 3 October 11 October 12 October 13 Saturday Oct 14 October 15 October 16 October 17 October 18 October 19 October 20
Arrive Mexico City, Mexico - Hotel Diplomatico as usual At ETA review progress and work on Transform Tables form At ETA work on Transform Tables form At PROMMA assisting PROMMA technical review team (Broke a tooth) Working on Transform Tables At ETA with CC developing schedule for implementation in November at PROMMA assisting with program for 23-24 th workshop Complete Transform Tables and provide to CC Prepare description of new HIS Water Accounting function and e-mail to GRRB for comment. Saturday Oct 21 Review and translate presentations at ETA for workshop October 22 October 23 Take part in Taller Nacional sobre Rediseño de Redes de Monitoreo Hidroclimatológico and present network diagnostics session October 24 Take part in workshop and present HIS session October 25 Test latest HIS version and leave task list with CC October 26 Morning at PROMMA reviewing November schedule with DK October 27 -29 (Tourist status) October 29 Return to Ottawa, Canada
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Trip 4 November 5 November 6 November 7 November 8 November 9 November 10 Sat Nov 11 November 12 November 13 November 14 November 15 November 16 November 17 Sat Nov 18 November 19 Holiday November 20 November 21 November 22 November 23 November 24 Sat Nov 25 November 26 November 27 November 28 November 29 November 30 Holiday December 1 Sat Dec 2 December 3 December 4 December 5 December 6 December 7 December 8 December 9
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Arrive Monterrey Report to DT with Carlos Cervantes. Install Version 2. Training Day 1 to approx 5 persons as available during the day. Training Day 2 to approx 5 persons as available during the day. Overview presentation to JEG et all. Training Day 3 to 2 persons. Work on database clean up and bug fixes. At GRRB testing and producing additional material for Cd. Juárez session. Travel to Cd. Juárez - Hotel Maria Bonita with CC & Etna Cervantes. Report to Aldo Garcia Servin at CILA. Install Version 2 and bug hunt configuration differences. Continue with configuration and updates to Data Configuration component. Presentation of Training Day 1 to 5 persons. Training Day 2 to 4.5 persons hands on. Complete training Day 2 and start training day 3 Complete Day 3 and discuss requirements for future. Fly to Monterrey. Howard Johnston Hotel Sketch hydrometric data configuration component. Fly to Guadalajara. Hotel Genova. With CC. Discuss Lerma-Chapala project with Julio Llinás (WMO consultant). Receive briefing from Carlos Hernández CNA Técnico. CC installs Version 2. Receive briefing from Lerma-Chapala Information Center. CC installs HIS on CICLC computer. Day 1 of training provided to 4-5 persons. Discuss requirements with GRLSP & CICLC. Day 2 of training provided to 34 persons. Travel to Monterrey. Report to Miguel Ontiveros. Work on bug fixes for HIS. Complete bug fixes and prepare supplementary training material. At GRRB install latest version of HIS. Travel to Mexico city. Report to DK at PROMMA. Meetings with Alan Byrne (WMO telcom consultant), Fernando Lopez (CNA Telecom) etc re Lerma-Chapala. Send supplementary training material on Transform tables to Monterrey and CILA. Draft final report. Draft final report Submit final report draft to DK & VT for comment "Cambio de poder" Edit final report. Edit final report Lerma-Chapala 2001 planning meeting HIS presentation at Observatorio to Carlos Espinoza, Gerencia Técnica GSMN & GASIR Travel to Monterrey. Discuss NWS River Forecast System with Marco Salas. HIS training. Update HIS. Discuss progress with JEG Return to Canada.
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Annex 3 LERMA-CHAPALA HIS REQUIREMENTS
These requirements were defined during a visit to the offices of GRLSP Subgerencia Técnica in Guadalajara November 21 - 23, 2000, during a HIS training session there. Three persons from the Lerma-Chapala Information Center (CICLC) took part as well. Basic Configuration One of the earlier proposals for the system suggested two receive sites and two separate hydrologic information systems - one with CNA in Guadalajara and one with CICLC in Queretaro. During the briefing and training session, it became clear that this may not be appropriate for this situation. The HIS will require the input of conventionally collected data, the input and application of corrections and transform tables, and data verification actions. It would not be efficient nor effective to have to duplicate these actions in two separate systems.
Figure 1: Data Flow - Hydrologic Informatio System - Lerma-Chapala. Although the main impetus for the HIS implementation in Lerma-Chapala is the installation of telemetric stations, a lot of the data will still be from conventional stations and while some may be operated by CNA others may be operated by the state governments, the irrigation districts, by WMO/PROMMA
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the small irrigators or other agencies. Although some may have direct access to the CNA LAN or the Internet, not all will. The HIS remote data entry sub-system could be used in those locations to capture the data and send it by the appropriate means - diskette or e-mail - to an office with an HIS system. The concept of data responsibility was raised during the discussions. The suggested implementation would be for data collected by CNA staff to flow into the HIS through CNA HIS users and the non-CNA data from the states and irrigators and others to flow into the HIS through the HIS users at the CICLC. The mode for the real-time data that would be entering the HIS was unknown. It was expected however to be more complex that the situation in Rio Bravo as it will have to include the existing CNA GOES DCPs in the basin, the new telemetric systems which may or may not use GOES, and possibly telemetric systems operated by the states or irrigation districts. HIS Software Enhancements After being presented with the existing HIS as used for Rio Bravo, the potential users from GRLSP and CICLC had a few requests for enhancements to meet their requirements. This may have been tempered by an earlier proposal that had estimated only four person months of effort to be expended on the HIS for Lerma-Chapala. Also, the specific Lerma-Chapala water accounting and appropriation and modelling requirements would be met by either their existing GIS type of presentations or their existing web server or by a computational program being updated at this time. Hydrometric Data Inputs Realising that the river flow data from the HIS would only be as good as the stage-discharge curves that go into it, a system is needed for the management of the river discharge measurements and the checking and development of the stage-discharge rating curves or transform table. This function would also replace some of the manual data verification procedures and be applicable to other installations of the HIS. General Reporting The HIS requires a process for the user to be able to build complex reports that can be one-of-akind or used on a regular basis. The reports should include an option for HTML format exports for producing files to be displayed on web pages. An example would be some of the standard reports used for presenting the climate information. Miscellaneous Enhancements During the training session a number of small enhancements had been requested. These were largely in the area of "look-and-feel" or noted bugs. One request in particular was for confirmation pop-ups on any delete action. Another request was for a graphic display of parameter one year wide with simultaneous graphs of for many years. Such a graph is commonly used here to display the water level variation of the Lake Chapala.
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National Databank Linkages Currently in CNA the processes to input the data for the ERIC and BANDAS climatological and hydrometric national databanks are stand-alone key-entry operations using CLICOM and SIAS respectively. It was requested that the HIS produce the input files required by ERIC and BANDAS. This would have to be co-ordinated with the responsible sections of CNA in Mexico City. As well, the HIS would need to somehow be able to provide data reports that seamlessly present both the current data from the HIS and the historical data from the BANDAS and ERIC databanks. As a related operation, the HIS should produce the annual Bulletin publications. Data Verification Procedures There was a strong expression of the need for data verification procedures at several levels, from simple range checks on data entries, to locking of verified data, to the transparency of data verification actions to the external data users. Lerma-Chapala Daily Report On a daily basis CNA Guadalajara produces a 7 page report on lake, river, reservoir, and weather conditions that is distributed mainly by fax. The first page is presented as Figure 2. This operation is largely a manual operation from the receiving of data by fax, radio and phone to the feeding of the report into the fax machine. The report is similar to the other daily reports sent out from the other CNA offices. The automation of much of this process would have significant benefit. For example, if a daily report done manually by 15 offices can be automated to reduce the report preparation and dissemination time by just 10 minutes, the time savings adds up to 3 person months every year.
Figure 2: Page 1 of the STRLSP 7 page daily report.
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Telemetric Data Reception System At the time of the meeting discussing the HIS requirements, the telemetric system that would be installed in 2001 was not known. The telemetry alternatives still under consideration included GOES satellite (with or without a receive site), wire-based telephone, cellular telephone, or radio systems. The telecommunications mode chosen and the functionality of the receive site delivered with the system would have a significant impact upon the HIS. GOES The HIS will have to be capable of receiving the data from the FTS GOES DCPs already in operation within the basin, including the key station on the Lake Chapala itself. Therefore, the HIS will need a sub-system for retrieving the messages from these DCPs and decoding them. It is recommended that three functions be added to the HIS. 1) A standalone function to automatically (and on demand) download GOES DCP data from NESDIS via Telnet. 2) A process that will control and manage the selection of data downloading and decoding functions for the various technologies that may be used at the various stations. 3) A function for decoding the DCP messages from the existing FTS GOES DCPs in LermaChapala. With this capability, there would be no requirement (other that a good Telnet/Internet connection) for any other hardware or software at the receiving office to obtain the data from the GOES DCPs. Telephone If telephone telemetry systems are selected for the new Lerma-Chapala stations, the necessary technology can be added to the HIS for future general application in CNA. This would include components for: 1) Dialing a telephone number and establishing the telecommunications link. 2) Scheduling the telephone calls with redialling on unsuccessful calls. 3) A function specific to each make and model for downloading the data. 4) A function specific to each data format for decoding the retrieved data message. With this capability, there would be no requirement for any other hardware (other than a telephone and modem) or software at the receiving office to obtain the data from the telephone based telemetric systems. Radio If radio systems are selected (other than radio systems that function simply as telephone modems), some sort of radio receiver and control software would be needed at the receiving office. As this would be particular to the make and model of the system chosen, this functionality would remain outside of the HIS. Some functionality would have to be added to the HIS to be able to either receive the data outputs from the radio's software or to be able to read the radio system database or data files. The core of the functions could be based on the functions that already exist in the HIS for reading the UBS2000 database or for accepting the Remote Data Entry files.
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Impact on HIS In the selection of the telemetric systems, the impact of the choice on the HIS must be considered. It must be capable of interaction with the HIS software. A system difficult for the HIS to interact with could add months of development effort to the HIS project. In any case, the technologies used by telemetric system should be open, at least with respect to the data logger's control functions and the data messages. For example, the data messages should be in ASCII or a very easily decoded binary format. Telecommunications In addition to the LAN and Internet connections that exist in both of the offices, the suggested configuration will require a high speed connection between the HIS client computers in Querétaro and the database in Guadalajara. A CNA telecommunications chief in Mexico City suggested the use of a radio modem link between the CICLC and the CNA offices in Querétaro that would link the CICLC to the CNA WAN. If that option is not possible there would be other possibilities including the rental of a phone line and the use of the Remote Access Service (RAS) available with Windows NT operating system. To be able to manage the GOES DCPs in the area and as a possible means for the primary data download from the GOES DCPs, the Telent Internet connection from CNA to NESDIS needs to be operational. If the connection is made, a GOES receive site with large satellite dish would not be required if GOES is selected as the telemetric option for the new stations planned for Lerma-Chapala. It was noted during the visit that the existing CNA WAN and Internet connections were not reliable and were slow. Improvements will be necessary before the WAN can be relied upon for the HIS. It was presumed that the existing web server at CICLC and any existing Internet links between the other CNA and state offices would be sufficient for the purposes of the HIS or would be the responsibility of those organisations if they required improved service. New Computer Hardware All of the existing computers seen in the Subgerencia Técnica, Guadalajara are too small or slow for use with the HIS. Although some may be suitable for basic data entry and simple reports at least two new computers would be required. The computer from the CICLC on which the HIS was installed was more than adequate for the task but other computers in the CICLC may not be adequate. The respective agencies identified that there would be at least four HIS users in GRLSP Guadalajara and four in the CICLC in Querétaro. A Database Server The database server does not need to operate a Server operating system (such as Windows NT Server) but does require a fast processor (500 MHz), lots of memory (128 meg), a lot of disk space (15 gig) and a good network interface card. A writable CD-ROM is suggested for backups and a large monitor (17 " to 21") is good for the 1024 X 768 display resolution recommended for the HIS. The Microsoft Office Professional Suite of software would include the Access database interface that would be required for database administration. The computer can be used by the hydroclimatologic engineer with the main responsibilities for the HIS as his/her HIS client computer but it should not be used as their regular desktop machine.
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The HIS client computers As the database is not kept on the HIS client computer, the amount of disk space is not critical but the computer should have a fast processor and a lot of memory (+96 meg) and a large monitor with a good video card. These computers should also be used as the user's regular desktop computer. Operational Changes To maintain and operate sensor based hydrometric systems, it will be necessary for well-trained staff to regularly visit the stations to maintain and service the equipment. It is also necessary to validate the water level data and develop the stage-discharge curve and table that would be used by the HIS to generate the river flow data from the water level that is sensed. While some of this may be done by using the data supplied by the local observer, significant changes will be needed in the Subgerencia Técnica. This would include the additional human resources, either new or reassigned staff, months of training, and new equipment including vehicles more appropriate to this type of field work than the usual pickup truck.
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Annex 4 GENERAL LIST OF REQUIREMENTS2 Additional Requirements for HIS
The rest of the development of the HIS would cover the components of less urgent priority and those that naturally have to come after the development of the earlier work and involve other systems that are still in development. The priorities and scheduling of the various components would be decided by CNA and CILA but some of the components that could be considered for other phases of development are as follows. Much of this section has been excerpted from WMO/PROMMA Report No. 17, Hydrologic Information System - Requirements and Design, Ian McLaurin, August 1998; and which was updated in WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25, Hydrological Information System - Development Phase 1 - (Parts 1 to 3), Ian McLaurin, December 1999 and has been updated again here. The requirements for water accounting, area precipitation volumes, forecasting, sediment data, climatological imports, and complex reports as described in Section 4 of this report # 48 are duplicated here for completeness. Requirements identified in 2000 Water Accounting The water accounting function in HIS appeared, at first glance, to the GRRB and CILA users of Río Bravo to meet their requirements for general reports for provisional water accounting. The formal and detailed computational procedure is done by CILA through four linked spreadsheets. CILA does not wish this computational process to be included in the HIS but they would like a function which exports any data that the HIS might contain. The export should be in a format easily uploaded into the spreadsheets. Copies of the spreadsheets were obtained. Area precipitation volumes As a part of the water accounting computations, the area distribution of annual precipitation is required. This would also be useful for other hydrological analyses. Unless a third party tool is acquired, the generation of rainfall isohyetals would likely beyond be the scope of the development in the HIS. However, the computation of the rainfall volumes using Thiesen polygons would be within the scope of the HIS project. Forecasting Two types of flow forecasting were requested, i) hydraulic routing type models for "what-if" scenarios on water management alternatives and ii) hydrologic models to forecast runoff from precipitation events. It is expected that these needs will be met by the NWS River Forecast System. Some enhancement will however have to be made to the HIS to allow for the interchange of data and forecasts between it and the NWS RFS. Sediment Data The Terms of Reference describe a requirement for the HIS to interact with other related systems. In a brief meeting with the WMO/PROMMA sediment specialist, a possible role of the 2
As updated from WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25. Hydrological Information System - Development Phase 1 - (Parts 1 to 3); Ian McLaurin; October, 1999
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HIS was outlined as the tool and database for the routine sediment field operations and computations and there would likely be a non-HIS information system for the non-routine measurements and data. It was acknowledged that the sediment information system (SIS) would likely be managed by a specialized sediment unit that may not have a regional presence. The SIS would be the system of record where the two systems would overlap. Thus for the sediment program, the HIS would: collect the data from suspended sediment and bed load measurements, track the collection and results of suspended sediment samples, and calculate daily sediment loadings from sample results, rating curves and turbidity sensors. The HIS would likely not be required to manage particle size distribution data. Complex reports Now that the simpler reports are provided by the system, the report requirements are more complex requiring a mixture of parameters, time frames and computations in one report. There a type of multi-page daily report that is now produced by the CNA state and regional offices that they would like the HIS to provide. An example page from the Guadalajara report can be found in Figure 2 of Annex 3. The HIS computes daily averages from midnight to midnight based on the local time. There are requirements to compute daily means on from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. to agree with the conventional process and from midnight to midnight on GMT or UTC. Requirements for Río Bravo The items listed here are needed for the water management operations by CILA and CNA in the Río Bravo basin. They have been identified as requirements but were not completed in the Phase 1 or Phase 2 development. Additional reports In the time available for Phase 1 and 2, not all of the necessary reports can be developed and coded. In addition, with the different technologies and data available with the HIS, the present concepts that CILA and CNA may have for reports is likely to change. Therefore, the requirements for reports will change after the system has been in use. Reservoir reporting system GASIR has identified a need for a modernized reservoir reporting system to provide regular reports of reservoir flows and levels in comparison to historical values. One component of a reservoir reporting system was being developed in 2000 by another company. Although such a system is truly effective only on a national level, a system for Río Bravo to capture, present and disseminate real-time and near real-time reservoir information would serve as an important pilot implementation for that component of a reservoir reporting system. Software robustness, friendliness and flexibility The rapid development has not provided for a long period of operational testing. The software will require continual improvement to eliminate bugs and make it more reliable under the different operational modes it will be used in. Also, it may be necessary to adjust the programs to make them more flexible. For example, installing and using the HIS could be further simplified with modules for hardware and configuration and user profiles. WMO/PROMMA
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Map based graphical station selection and status reporting For more intuitive use, especially by users unfamiliar with all the stations, the selection of stations should be done from a map based front end. A system to store and catalog digital pictures and other graphics has also been done for eventual inclusion. Re-correction and re-computation of data The initial design includes the correction and computation of data as it is ingested into the HIS. Quality assurance activities, when they are implemented, will identify sections of the data that will need to be corrected and re-computed. The software processes will need to be developed to do this and track the activity. Process digitized charts The water level data on the paper charts as used by CILA (and possibly elsewhere in CNA), will need processes for ingesting and processing the computer files from the Western Hydrologic chart digitizing system. Hydrograph displays Now that the development tool for graphing has been implemented, other graphs such as river cross-sections or reservoir rule curves will be possible. Stage-Discharge curve development One of the biggest impacts of switching operational modes from the conventional streamflow station to an automated one is the requirement to develop and maintain the stage discharge curve. Software tools can be developed to assist in the selection of the measurements to use, the fitting of the curve, analysis of historical curves, determination of curve movement, etc. Regional River Forecast Centers As the Regional River Forecast Centers (RRFC) are developed and implemented, the HIS will need to be adjusted to: a) provide the data that the RRFC requires; b) share the input data (i.e. conform to the web based data input system proposed for the RRFC); and c) take some of the outputs of the RRFC to be used for non-flood water management reports and operations. The NWS River Forecast System being implemented by NWS and RTI will need to interact with the HIS for the exchange of data. The exchange format will be the SHEF format expected by the RFS. This will require the writing of a SHEF encoder/decoder for the HIS. For this, the format specification for SHEF was obtained from a NOAA web site. Only a subset would need to be implemented for the HIS-RFS data exchange. The data exchange method will be by the FTP protocol for remote RRFC. This will require a dedicated Internet connection. Output for historical archives Functionality should be added to the HIS to produce the input files needed to update the BANDAS and ERIC databases. Components will need to be added to produce the outputs and the quality assurance and quality control systems to provide the data and information needed to feed the centralized national data archives BANDAS and ERIC. The development timetable of these components will need to coincide with the schedules for the next releases of those database CD-ROMs. WMO/PROMMA
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The CD-ROMs containing the climatological and hydrometric historical databases were examined and connections tested and determined that they could be read directly by another program. This means that their databases could be incorporated with the HIS databases to present a continuous data record to the user merging historic and current data for presentation in reports and graphs. This also means that the HIS can be used to edit and update the historical data in electronic form. Link to the Rainfall Alert System The Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres installed a real-time system for Protección Civil to monitor the rainfall in Monterrey and other locations. A receiving radio could be installed at the GRRB receive site in Monterrey. It would be possible to add a small routine to the HIS to monitor this system at 10 minute intervals and incorporate the data into the HIS. The data transfer could be by a timed reading of a text file on the Alert computer on the local area network. An example file is shown below.
SISTEMA DE ALERTAMIENTO HIDROMETEOROLOGICO DE MONTERREY CENAPRED - CNA - II ARCHIVO DE DATOS DE INTERROGACION Fecha: 07/10/1999 Hora: 09:10 Intervalo de muestreo: 007 =============================================================================== ESTACION PA24 PA10 PA60 PAA1 PAA2 PAA3 VB STAT ERAT UITE ESTADO +--------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-------SM-01 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 13.1 OK-1 000 007 OK MI-02 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 13.3 OK-1 000 007 OK CU-03 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 12.9 OK-1 000 007 OK FE-04 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 12.8 OK-1 000 007 OK ===============================================================================
Figure: Sample “Current Data” file from the rainfall alert system.
Requirements for National Implementation It is planned that if it is successful in Río Bravo, the HIS would be used nationally by CNA. While most of the functionality developed for Río Bravo is applicable to other basins, there will have to be some development work done. Software installation programs Version 2 is user installable from a CD-ROM, but there is lot of configuration work required to produce an operational system, for example, loading station lists, data configurations, database linkages, etc, that would benefit from wizards or similar programs to assist the process Flexible data acquisition This would be a real-time data acquisition component that would be more flexible than the Handar software that was supplied with the DRGS. It would acquire data from data loggers over telephone modems and retrieve GOES DCP data from NESDIS via dialup or Telnet. This would be needed to enable the HIS to get data from other basins and stations that may not be Handar 555 DCPs on the three channels that the Río Bravo system is using.
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Flexible data decoding Along with acquiring data from different data loggers (e.g. FTS or Sutron) and through different modes (telephone & Telnet), modules will be needed to decode the different data formats put out by the different data loggers, including, scan order, SHEF, pseudo binary, and others. GASIR Hydrometeorological Data System As the system proposed by RTI for GASIR’s Hydrometeorological Data System is designed and implemented, the HIS will need to be modified to enable the systems to work together without duplication. Additional reports and functions With different climates and water management requirements in different basins and offices, it is expected that there will be additional reports and functions needed for a system that would be installed in each of the regional CNA offices. Desirable Functions The functions and features outlined here are optional items that, while not being a core function to manage the data from the data acquisition systems, do have a place within a hydrological information system being used as one of the main work instruments of CNA. Their individual priorities will depend upon their relative importance to CNA based on their impact on effectiveness and efficiency and the development resources available. Equipment inventory The natural location for an equipment inventory system is within an HIS because keeping track of the equipment is so important to the calibration and data acquisition procedures. Observer administration The HIS is also a natural place for the database system for tracking the information required to administer the many observers contracted to read the gauges, take measurements and maintain the stations. Calibration management To be able to maintain a high degree of quality assurance, it will be necessary to maintain records of the calibrations of the various sensors. This will be especially true of the water quality sensors. The system will also provide guidance for the scheduling of calibration and maintenance checks. Outputs to a Web server As the CNA and GASIR Web sites are developed, it will be appropriate to automatically feed them with the data of public interest such as the reservoir storage levels that are seen daily on television and in the newspaper. Consideration should be given to implementing a complete real-time data presentation system, such as at the water.usgs.gov web site, at this early stage of modernization rather than trying to fit one in at the later stages of the modernization.
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Hydrological analysis tools The greatest values from the data collected by the sensors at the stations will come from analyses that reduce the data set and provide information. The results can be used directly by the public and professionals in other fields. Examples include drought and flood frequency analysis, precipitation intensity graphs, bed scour and fill analyses, degree-day data, evaporation estimates and antecedent moisture conditions. Also of public and professional interest will be generalized assessments of current hydrologic conditions. This will require computational and statistical tools with presentation software and the ability to seamlessly integrate the data from the historical archives to the current data store. Although the various scientific algorithms and software components may already have been coded elsewhere, they would have to be integrated into the HIS.
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Annex 5 GAUGE, SENSOR AND DATUM CORRECTIONS3 The Use of Datum, Sensor Corrections and Gauge Corrections.
The water level data we get from the stations may not be the water level we want to use to provide to users or use for the stage discharge curve and table. A datum is a fixed horizontal plain from which elevations can be measured. Some datums have a wide coverage, such as a sea level datum (msnm), or they may only be “local”, such as a “station” datum. Each datum has a reference benchmark of some kind, such as a brass plate or plug or even a painted mark on a concrete structure. That reference benchmark will have an elevation given as a number, such as 123.456 m, and labeled as being on the datum. For example, “BM-El Morillo - 01 Paint mark on top of concrete wall 100 m North of El Morillo station is 10.000 m on station datum.” This could be the “Main” datum for this station. This datum information should go into the Hydrologic Information System. In the Hydrologic Information System, all data is stored in the database to the datum that has been given as the datum for that station and parameter. If the datum is changed, the data will show a discontinuity. For example the water level data in the database may be fluctuating around 2 meters until a certain date and then be fluctuating around 100 meters after that. Therefore, datums should not be changed. In our example, if the sea level datum is available and is leveled to the benchmark BM-El Morillo – 01 and found to be at 123.456 on the msnm datum, there is now secondary datum at the station. The conversion between them is, by simple arithmetic, 123.456 – 10 = 113.456 and this is the B used in the ConvDatum form to convert from one datum to the other datum. (the multiplier, “M”, would usually always be 1.) The staff gauge (or escala) may have its own datum if it is very solid, such as an “escala” painted on the concrete structure. In most cases the gauge will be referenced to a datum by a gauge correction that is the elevation (in that datum) of the zero (0.00 m) reading line of the gauge. This difference is entered in the Hydrologic Information System as the Gauge Correction. Gauge corrections may change slightly if the gauge is not very stable or they may
BM-El Morillo -01 Staff gauge
Main datum 10.000 m 123.456 m on msnm datum
Sensor reading
__ 2.00
Water level Gauge correction (GC) = 10.0 - 1.90 = 8.10 m
_
1.90
_
1.80
_
1.70
_
1.60
_
1.50
_
1.40
_
1.30
_
1.20
_
1.10
0.500
Bench mark Sensor
Datum conversion from “Main” to msnm = 123.456 - 10.000 = 113.456 m
Sensor correction (SC) = 1.80 - 0.50 = 1.30 m
__ 1.00 -
0.90
_
0.80
1.80 m gauge reading + 8.10 m GC = 9.90 m water level 0.500 sensor reading + 1.30 m SC + 8.10 m GC = 9.90 m water level 9.90 m water level + 113.456 datum conversion = 123.346 m mnsm datum
3 WMO/PROMMA Report No. 25. Hydrological Information System - Development Phase 1 - (Parts 1 to 3); Ian McLaurin; August, 1999
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change drastically if the gauge is shifted or removed and replaced. The dated changes are entered in the Gauge Correction table. The Hydrologic Information System interpolates linearly through time between the points of the table and extends the last one (most recent one) ahead into the future. Because the Gauge Correction can handle the adjustment to the datum, the Hydrologic Information System uses either the Datum Conversion or the Gauge Correction but not both. The Data Configuration table is used to specify for any station (El Morillo), any parameter (Nivel 2), and source (UBS2000), if the gauge correction or the datum correction is to be applied. [These comments also apply to other types of gauges such as wire weight gauges or measuring points.] Sensors are less permanent than gauges. Not only can rivers move the sensors, they may drift electronically or have other transient problems. At each visit by the engineer or observer, the sensor reading is compared to the “true” water level at the gauge. For example at El Morillo on December 3, the Handar DCP may display the water level reading for the sensor as 0.500 m (the depth of water over the sensor) when the water level at the gauge is read as 1.80. The sensor correction is therefore 1.80 – 0.500 = 1.30 m. This is entered into the Sensor Correction table. The sensor correction table can be used to make adjustments to the sensor readings when you know from the transmitted data that it has moved. For example, Sensor Corrections would be used if the sensor was sending what looks like good data up until December 15 at 12:35 when the data jumped from 0.555 to 0.768 and continued to look OK. In this case a sensor correction of -213 (0.555 – 0.768 = -213) would be entered into the sensor correction table for the period from December 15 at 12:36 (one minute more) until the sensor was moved back into position.
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Annex 6 LIST OF TRAINING ATTENDEES HIS Version 2 Training Provided
At the offices of CNA GRRB Monterrey November 7 - 9, 2000 A copy of the manuals and the installation CD-ROM was provided to Ing. Abelardo Amaya Enderle, Gerencia Regional Río Bravo. The following persons were provided with copies of the manual and various amounts of training according to their involvement with the system and their availability. HIS training - Monterrey - November 7 - 9, 2000 GRRB-T Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. Miguel Ontiveros León GRRB-T Especialista en Hidráulica Lic. Gerardo Javier Ramírez Muñoz GRRB-T Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. Ramón Rodriquez Lugo GRRB-T Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. Tirso U. Valdez Molina GRRB-T Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. Amalio Cardona Rodríguez GASIR Especialista en Hidráulica Ing Octavio Jiménez Rosas GRRB-T = - Gerencia Regional Río Bravo - SubGerencia Técnica GASIR = Gerencia de Aguas Superficiales y Ingenieria de Ríos - Mexico City
At the offices of CILA Cd. Juarez November 15 - 18, 2000 A copy of the manuals and the installation CD-ROM was provided to Ing. Aldo García Servín, Subdirector Departamento de Operación. The following persons were provided with copies of the manuals and various amounts of training. HIS training - Cd.Juárez - November 15 - 18, 2000 CILA CILA CILA
Jefe del Departamento de Telemetría Técnico Superior Técnico Superior
Ing. Alberto Rodríguez Esparza Ing. César Luján Moreno Ing. María Estéfana Natividad Renovato Hernández CILA Técnico Superior Ing. Antonio De Lucio CILA Jefe del Departamento de Cómputo Ing. Roberto Luévano Crano CILA Auxiliar Departamento de Cómputo C. Laura Terrazas Barbosa CILA = Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas, Sección México
At the offices of CNA GRLSP Guadalajara November 22 - 23, 2000 A copy of the manuals and the installation CD-ROM was provided to Ing. Carlos Alberto Hernández Solís, Subgerente Técnico, Gerencia Regional Lerma Santiago Pacífico. The following person were provided with copies of the manuals and various amounts of training. HIS training - Guadalajara - November 22 - 23, 2000 STRLSP Departamento de Hidro-Climatologia Ing. Salvador Tinoco Guitiérrez STRLSP Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. José Rubén Pantoja Becerra STRLSP Especialista en Hidráulica Ing. Fernando Pardo Castañeda CICLC Director Ing. Alejandro Calixto Herrera CICLC Jefatura de Sistemas L.S.C. Pedro Godínez Ocegueda CICLC Coordinador de Base de Datos L.I. Roberto Ramírez Angles STRLSP = Subgerencia Técnica Regional Lerma Santiago Pacífico, Guadalajara CICLC = Centro de Información Cuenca Lerma-Chapala, Querétaro WMO/PROMMA
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