DHI PL in cooperation with DHI CZ has been contracted for software delivery, training and consultancy services in a project dealing with flood hazards as a result of dam breaks. The project is being executed by the Regional Water Management Board in Krakow (RZGW, Regionalny Zarząd Gospodarki Wodnej w Krakowie) in cooperation with the dam safety branch of the Institute of Meteorology and Water Resources (IMGW, Instytut Meteorologii i Gospodarki Wodnej). The project is primarily funded by the Norwegian grant support to Central and Southern Europe with the aim of reducing social and economic disparities within the European Economic Area (EEA).

The purpose of the project is to improve the institutional capacity dealing with flood protection by implementing tools and developing methodology for the analysis of flooding caused by dam failures with the overall objective of reduction of flood hazards. In Poland there are about 50 large dams of which many were constructed more than 30 years ago, and there is thus a need to review the impact of dam break scenarios in many cases. 

The DHI software product MIKE Flood, that includes 1D and 2D flood simulation engines plus a variety of analysis tools, will be used to meet this purpose. DHI instructors from Prague and Denmark are currently training a group of specialists from RZGW and IMGW in 1D and 2D modelling techniques including modelling of dam-break events (see photo).

Photo: Representatives from Krakow Water board and Polish Met Office in training session with course instructors Julie Landrein and Torben Strange Jensen.

For further information please contact: Jan Kwiatkowski j.kwiatkowski@dhigroup.com

The Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg has decided to evaluate a MIKE 3 classroom labkit licence. With MIKE 3, we hope to boost our marine classes, says Anna Wåhlin, Associate Professor of Oceanography. We believe it is a useful tool that the students may need in their future careers. We also think it will be a good teaching aid, especially in interdisciplinary classes, she continues.

From the perspective of DHI Sweden, this is a great opportunity and an important step in our efforts to establish MIKE in the higher education context. We clearly see potential in this, and expect fruitful cooperation and mutual benefit to follow, says Sten Blomgren, DHI Sweden.

For further information please contact: Sten Blomgren  sbl@dhigroup.com

Please note that Service Pack 4 for Release 2009 has been available to all MIKE by DHI users since early February. Simply download and run SP4 from here alternatively, via the DHI Software Updater.

2009 Service Pack 4 includes a number of corrections, enhancements and noticeable performance improvements. For example:

• MIKE URBAN - the recomputing of the geometry when launching a MOUSE simulation has been made much faster. This alternative and faster approach has made the “Recompute geometry” flag superfluous and consequently it has been removed.
• MIKE 21 HD - time steps in landslide bathymetry file no longer needs to cover the entire simulation period. This allows resolving the slide event (change in bathymetry) with small time steps and treat ‘before’ and ‘after’ fixed, reducing file size and simulation time.  
• MIKE 21/3 Oil Spill - sources can now be defined in two ways using the new flux interpretation option:
  Off: Source defined by individual particle value. I.e. increasing the number of particles will increase the magnitude of the total source
  On: Source defined by total source value. I.e. increasing the number of particles will decrease the value for the individual particle.

For more information on the content of service pack 4 please refer to the release notes for the individual products. You can find these following the path: Start > Programs > MIKE by DHI 2009 > [Product].

If you have any questions, please refer to your local DHI office or global Customer Care at software@dhigroup.com.

We have received a number of requests regarding the use of MIKE software with the latest OS from Microsoft. Officially DHI does not support Windows 7 as this OS came after the release of the current version of MIKE by DHI. Preliminary tests have shown that the 2009 release installs and runs on Windows 7 with cosmetic issues only. We are presently making more thorough tests examining the compatibility between the MIKE by DHI 2009 version and Windows 7. The coming 2011 version will be fully compatible with Windows 7. The 2009 version of DHI software is fully compatible with Win XP Professional (32 and 64 bit), Win Vista Business (32 and 64 bit).

Many users are saving themselves hours each week by using batch files to automate the execution of simulations and post processing tools. Three simple batch examples are now included on the Tips&Tricks site with text that can be directly copied from the html.
The first example uses MZLaunch to execute simulations. The second example executes MIKE ZERO Toolbox files and the third example exports image files including .jpg, .png and .bmp from existing Plot Composer setups.

http://tips.dhigroup.com/default.asp?module=MIKE+ZERO&ID=257#text

“Thanks for being so responsive.  Your high quality software support is one of the top reasons we use DHI software.”

Ryan Mitchell, CH2M Hill, Portland, OR

“That worked beautifully. It’s actually quite remarkable that for a storm of this magnitude (3” in 1 hour), the MIKE URBAN model predicts basement flooding right where it occurred and CSO pump station volumes within a few percent of what was recorded. I did not expect this good of results.”

Steve Sticklen, AB&H, Chicago, IL

DHI has recently undertaken a number of modelling studies of semi-arid wetland systems in the Murray-Darling basin using the MIKE suite of hydrodynamic models. These studies are helping decision makers to better manage these systems using limited available supplies of water to improve ecological outcomes. Two such studies have been for the Gunbower Forest and Macquarie Marshes wetland systems. Read more here

A recent update to the FEMA Flood Maps in Fort Bend County, TX resulted in significant increases in the 100 year flood levels near the City of Richmond.  The updated FIRM resulted in undesirable increases in the required flood insurance rates for a planned development adjacent to the Brazos River.
 
Costello Inc. (CI) was hired by Planned Community Developments to work with the Fort Bend Drainage District to see if an alternative assessment of the 100 year floodplain was feasible.  After reviewing the original HEC-RAS model used to obtain the revised floodplain map, it was clear that the assumptions and limitations of a one-dimensional (HEC-RAS) model were causing the 100 year floodplain elevations to be over-predicted.
 
CI successfully applied a two-dimensional modeling approach using DHI's FEMA approved MIKE FLOOD modeling software to produce a more realistic representation of the overbank flow and surface drainage during the 100 year flooding scenario.  The use of 2D modeling for this project had significant economic and social impacts including:

• More realistic flood maps
• Lower flood insurance premiums
• Lower cost of flood mitigation measures

Read full article here

A Great Success -1st MIKE by DHI User Group Meeting and DHI Solutions Seminar in India!

During the days 24-26 February DHI carried out an umbrella of activities in New Delhi: DHI Solutions Seminar (24 February), MIKE User Group Meeting (25 February) and MIKE by DHI software training (26 February). The activities took place at the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry in New Delhi and were arranged by DHI India.

More than 80 representatives from India´s water sector and research institutions took part in the activities of the first two days. Key governmental representative, Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary MoES (Ministry of Earth Science), Govt. of India, participated as a key guest in the User Group Meeting along with Mr R D Singh, Director, National Institute of Hydrology. The two guests stressed in their key notes addresses the importance of reliable modelling tools and the importance of planning and management of India´s vast water resources through DSS.

A number of projects were presented by key players from India´s water sector illustrating India´s activities in the areas of urban water, coast & offshore, and water resources.

The training activities were attended by more than 30 modellers and the focus was on MIKE 21, MIKE BASIN and MIKE 11.

The participants appreciated profoundly the arrangements and the first user group meeting in India.

For further information please contact Mr Ajay Pradhan, Managing Director, DHI India – email:
ajp@dhigroup.com

MIKE by DHI participates in "HydroEurope 2010", 22 February – 6 March 2010, Nice, France

During the days 22 February – 6 March 2010 more than 120 Master students/future engineers of 37 nationalities and around 30 international modellers participated in “HydroEurope 2010”, which took place in Nice, France.

MIKE by DHI participated with a flood modelling expert, engineer Julie Landrein, who worked with student teams on a flood study along the Var River using MIKE FLOOD during the event. The project, which involves various methodologies and tools including MIKE 11 and MIKE SHE, is supervised by international specialists, amongst others, Jean Cunge, Forest Holly (Iowa University), Jean-Jacques Peters (Belgium). The students showed overwhelming interest in the MIKE modelling tools.

The objectives of HydroEurope (Intensive Master Programme within framework of the EU Socrates/Erasmus programme) are to promote, in a global European vision, the key concepts, the methodologies, the tools and the good practices which are today essential for a sustainable water management. HydroEurope is initiated by the Universite de Nice - Sophia Antipolis and associated with six partners: Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Newcastle University, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Vrije Universiteit Brussels. The concept of HydroEurope is now being expanded to the rest of the world with HydroAsia and HydroLatinAmerica. For further information please consult http://www.hydroeurope.org or contact Julie Landrein, DSP - jsl@dhigroup.com

Hotel Clarion, Copenhagen, 6-8 September 2010

Free training sessions for Conference participants: 9-10 September 2010 at the DHI training facilities, DHI DK - Hørsholm

We are now started receiving abstracts and registrations for the Conference from our current and potential users.

We wish to remind everybody about the approaching deadlines

Abstracts (max 250 words) should include:

• Title & subtitle
• Names and company/organisation of all authors
• Indication of Presenter, including Presenter´s email
• Key words & photos/images

The main conference topics:

• Climate change adaptation
• Integrated Water Resources Management and water mitigation
• Flood management & control
• Urban water management
• Water quality & environmental modelling
• Decision Support Systems and processes
• Coastal/marine water & environment
  

Further information:

MIKE by DHI User Group Meeting, 15-16 March, Auckland, New Zealand

We welcome everyone, from modeller to manager, to this event. It is a good chance to get the community together and share knowledge and ideas, catch up with old acquaintances as well as meeting new people. This year the theme will be "getting more out of your tools". It is important to us that all our users know the power of the tools that you have available. DHI will as always share our knowledge to help you get to the next level of modelling with the software you already own.

For further information and registration please contact the user group secretariat or the UGM website.

Australia & New Zealand FEFLOW® Users Workshop "FEFLOW Down Under 2010", 4-6 May 2010, Sydney, Australia

The Australian & New Zealand FEFLOW User Workshop, "FEFLOW Down Under 2010", launches FEFLOW 6.0 for Australian and New Zealand users. FEFLOW 6.0 takes the industry standard for groundwater modelling software to a new level of sophistication and usability. The workshop consists of 2 days including keynotes and presentations from leading industries as well as the FEFLOW 6.0 development team. 1-day training course for users wanting to fast track their skill development in FEFLOW 6.0.

For further information and registration please contact the workshop secretariat , visit the workshop website or download workshop flyer here

In recent years DHI and our international offices and agents have experienced a significant increase in the interest for the MIKE by DHI training courses. Today thousands of current and potential MIKE users attend DHI training courses worldwide every year.

Attendees represent governmental agencies, regional and local water bodies, research institutions and universities, professional bodies and engineering companies, urban water utilities, coastal and harbour authorities.

The standard MIKE courses are modular and allow you to build up your expertise so as to match the requirements of your job. Likewise, they assist you, as a manager, in building and upgrading your team's productivity and modelling skills and expertise in a quick and cost-effective way. The courses take you through the theory behind the products. However, the main focus is on practical skills, hands-on exercises and on teaching you how to get the most out of the MIKE by DHI software.

Further information:         

• Contact the "International Course Secretariat" – email: courses@dhigroup.com or your "local DHI office" - www.dhigroup.com/Contact/DHIOffices.aspx. The International Secretariat and local offices can always put you in contact with our trainers, who will be pleased to discuss and advise you on which training scheme to adopt in order to meet your specific needs and preferences.
• The MIKE by DHI prospectus for 2010 includes a total of 30 standard and public enrolment courses covering water resources, and urban and marine areas. You can download the “DHI Training Courses Catalogue 2010” here: www. courses.dhigroup.com/catalogue2010/

Likewise, our standard courses assist managers in building and upgrading team productivity and modelling skills in a quick and cost-effective way.

At www.dhigroup.com/Software/Training.aspx you can find our MIKE courses arranged by country, date and/or products