I                           United States
                           Environmental Protection
                           Agency
  xvEPA
Enhancements to the EPANET-RTX Open  Source Libraries  - 2014
EPANET  is a public-domain, drinking water distribution system modeling  software  package  developed by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Water Supply and Water Resources Division.  Developed by the EPA's National Homeland
Security Research Center, the EPANET Real-Time extension (EPANET-RTX) is the  first open-source set of libraries to extend
EPANET's hydraulic and water quality simulation functionality to include data acquisition and predictive forecasting capabilities. The
extension  provides an interoperable framework for moving data between a SCADA database, various time series analysis  methods
and a hydraulic solver.
                  Enhancements
   Updates to EPANET-RTX in 2014 have resulted in
   tangible improvements to functionality and performance:

   • New support for connection to SQLite databases
   • New support for SQLite-based project file, eliminating
     the reliance on text based configuration

   • New Time-Offset and Warping time-series classes
     transform time-series that affect time-stamp values

   • Use of Boost library for faster Demand Metered Area
      (DMA) enumeration

   • Addition of "direct" execution of Open DataBase
     Connectivity (ODBC) point record queries
  Features
  New time-series classes improve  the handling of missing
  SCADA data through statistical and  mathematical models.
  When excessive data gaps are detected, new Fail-Over time-
  series class replaces the primary  series with a  redundant
  time-series. With a greater understanding of the  statistical
  nature  of  data gaps in  critical SCADA time-series data,
  EPANET-RTX has improved pre-processing of SCADA data
  and enhanced District Metered Area (DMA) demands data
  filtering.

  The Time-Offset and Warping time-series classes transform
  time-series that affect time-stamp values. The ARIMA   time-
  series class implements  methods  to estimate models and
  parameters using EPANET-RTX data streams. These models
  can then be used to forecast values and resample across data
  gaps.
                                                     Coordination and Collaboration
                                                     EPANET-RTX development has proven to  be  an effective
                                                     venue for partnerships and collaboration as well. Both water
                                                     utilities  and the software development community have
                                                     participated   in   pilots  and   events  to  demonstrate
                                                     improvements and identify opportunities for research.
                                                     Work conducted with the Northern Kentucky Water District
                                                     (NKWD) demonstrated  improved  performance of model
                                                     outputs  when outputs are compared to SCADA data. A report
                                                     documenting updates to NKWD hydraulic and water quality
                                                     model as well as findings and outcomes beneficial to the
                                                     water community is available (EPA #).
                                                     In 2014, EPA convened a collaborator workshop for project
                                                     developers to discuss the advancement and use of EPANET-
                                                     RTX  libraries  for Homeland Security applications.  This
                                                     process will continue in orderto maintain a dialogue in support
                                                     of  the   EPANET-RTX  open-source  repository and   its
                                                     application to Homeland Security.
                                                     EPA is coordinating with the City of Milford, Ohio to develop a
                                                     real-time (EPANET-RTX) network model to demonstrate real-
                                                     time  analytics  for water quality
                                                     management  and  public health
                                                     protection in a small water system.

                                                     For More  Information
                                                     EPANET-RTX    is  open-source
                                                     software and,  if interested, there
                                                     are various ways to get involved (e.g., connecting to the code
                                                     repository, looking over coding conventions and using the
                                                     issues tracker to make a feature request and communicate
                                                     with the developers). The intended audience  for this software
                                                     consists of programmers  interested in  water distribution
                                                     system  simulation and  water distribution system engineers
                                                     interested  in   programming.  To   learn  more,  visit
                                                     http://openwateranalytics.qithub.com/epanet-rtx/.
                 Office of Research and Development (ORD-009870) I EPA/600/S-14/310 September 2014

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