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 ------- |