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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