Development Of A Cloud Computing Application For Water Resources Modelling And Optimization Based On Open Source Software

Cloud computing is the latest advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that provides computing as a service or delivers computation, software, data access, storage service without end-user knowledge of the physical location and system configuration. Cloud computing, service oriented architecture and web geographic information systems are new technologies for development of the cloud computing application for water resources modelling and optimization. The cloud application is deployed and tested in a distributed computer environment running on three virtual machines (VMs). The cloud application has five web services for: (1) spatial data infrastructure – 1 (SDI), (2) SDI – 2, (3) support for water resources modelling (4) water resources optimization and 5) user authentication. The cloud application is developed using several programming languages (PHP, Ajax, Java, and JavaScript), libraries (OpenLayers and JQuery) and open-source software components (GeoServer, PostgreSQL and PostGIS) and OGC standards (WMS, WFS and WFT-T). The web services for support of water resources modelling and user authentication are deployed on Amazon Web Services and are communicating using WFS with the two SDI web services. The two SDI web services are working on the two separate VMs providing geospatial data and services. The fourth web service is deployed on a separate VM because of the expected large computational requirements. The cloud application is scalable, interoperable, creates a real time multi-user collaboration platform. All code and components used are open source. The cloud application was tested with concurrent multiple users. The performance, security and utilization of the distributed computer environment are monitored and analysed together with the users’ experience and satisfaction. The applicability of the presented solution and its future are elaborated

Model-Based Sectorization Of Water Distribution Networks For Increased Energy Efficiency

Efficient management of water supply systems is nowadays one of the most important challenges for water utilities. Common efficiency gains in such systems can be achieved by reducing the leakages and by reducing the energy consumption. For the case of minimization of energy consumption a new technique for sectorization and efficient pressure management is presented, based on water distribution modeling and optimization. The technique is applicable to situations when energy consumption reduction can be achieved by dividing a large Pressure Management Zone (PMZ) in smaller, but more efficient PMZs, or sectors. It consists of three steps: 1) An initial selection of areas of influence of existing water sources (e.g pumping stations) is obtained through tracer analysis; this analysis identifies a set of potential valves that can be used for creating sectors; 2) The sectors are determined through a model-based optimization (using Genetic Algorithm (GA)), by operation of isolation valves that lead to sectors’ configuration that minimizes energy consumption; 3) After creating the sectors a second stage optimization with pressure management in each sector is performed. The methodology has been applied to the case study of Milano under the framework of the EU-FP7 project ICeWater. The system of Milano is operated by Metropolitana Milanese S.p.A (MM) and supplies water to around 1.3 million inhabitants. The distribution network is supplied with groundwater by a total of 29 pumping stations with 101 pumps and currently functions as one large PMZ. Around 27,000 valves exist in the distribution network and can be used for the sectorization. A reduction in the number of feasible isolation valves used in the optimization process was performed with the tracer analysis. Initial results show that there is room for energy consumption reduction by applying the proposed sectorization approach

A novel nested dynamic programming (NDP) algorithm for multipurpose reservoir optimization

In this paper, we present a novel nested dynamic programming (nDP) algorithm for multipurpose reservoir optimization. The nDP algorithm is built from two algorithms: 1) dynamic programming (DP) and 2) nested optimization algorithm implemented with Simplex and quadratic Knapsack. The novel idea is to include a nested optimization algorithm into the DP transition that lowers the starting problem dimension and alleviates the DP curse of dimensionality. The nDP can solve multi-objective optimization problems, without significantly increasing the algorithm complexity and the computational expenses. Computationally, the nDP is very efficient and it can handle dense and irregular variable discretization, it is coded in Java as a prototype application and has been successfully tested with eight objectives at the Knezevo reservoir, located in the Republic of Macedonia

Hydroinformatics as sociotechnology : promoting individual stakeholder participation by using network distributed decision support systems; Proefschrift Technische Universiteit Delft.

The research hne foüowed in this work is the use of electronic networks for the development and deployment of new kinds of Network Distributed Decision Support Systems (NDDSSs) in the fields of water and environment. Development of these systems stems from the growing awareness that the processes of decision making in the fields of water and the environment are of a sociotechnical nature. The emphasis on the social domain in which the derived decisions are to be implemented is of crucial importance. Traditionally, the development of decision support systems and tools were mainly concemed with various corporate interests, mainly from industry and government. This approach tended either to marginalise the interests of some stakeholders during the decision making process, or at best to lump these interests in 'averaged' or 'standard' stakeholders. It has been recognised, however, that the actual social domain is far more complex than these assumptions allow and that without a direct participation of all the interested parties, including the general public, the decisions are hardly implementable in practice. Direct participation, on the other hand, is generally a very expensive process and very often limited by the technical means available. The NDDSSs are envisaged as decision-making enviroiunents, deployed on the Intemet, which will allow for the direct participation of all the interested parties in the process, including the general public. In particular the 'general public' is not to be treated as just one stakeholder, but as a collection of individuals each with his or her own beliefs and attitudes, which, combined with the relevant scientific data (facts), result in different judgements about the issues at hand. The processes of collaboration and negotiation proceed on the basis of these judgements, initially unstmctured, but gradually leading to more complying agreements. The first part of this study tries to provide a broad theoretical background, which is seen as necessary for tmderstanding the sociotechnical nature of the ciurent decision making processes. The very fact that by tradition we are used to talking about society and technology as two separate entities has its deeper origins in the most significant transformation of human thought in our history during the period knovra as the 'modem era'. Most of these transformations were in fact concentrated during a specific period of the modem era, identified with the project of the 'Enlightenment' and the subsequent waves of its critiques. The analysis is carried further into our present societies, which are frequently described as post-industrial societies, and our contemporary culture, commonly described as a postmodem culture. It is an era where we look with a critical eye on the project of 'modemity' which again brings about a new understanding of the nature of knowledge. The NDDSSs themselves are envisaged in terms of this changing nature of knowledge, which may be described by two key positions. Firstly, the recognition of the fact that knowledge is increasingly produced, distributed and consumed as a commodity, whereby the dominant, and apparently the only legitimising criterion of any knowledge, becomes the criterion of performativity. Secondly, the re-discovery of the power and relevance of so-called narrative knowledge (sometimes the terms 'custom' knowledge, 'traditional' knowledge or 'social' knowledge are used), which during the whole project of the Enlighteimient has been continuously undervalued in comparison with scientific knowledge. It is argued that it is precisely the neglect of narrative knowledge that so often leads to 'failures' of projects involving 'knowledge-management' components. At the end of this first part, the analysis, design and development of NDDSSs are idendfied as activities most appropriately approached from within the field of hydroinformatics, and the systems themselves are seen as hydroinformatics systems. Hydroinformatics is defined essentially as a technology, but its social dimension has been recognised from its very beginning. In fact, the development of hydroinformatics changes its nature in a direction where it is no longer sufficiënt to talk only about its social dimensions, but possibly to redefine it as a sociotechnical discipline. The second part of the study introducés more specifically the basic requirements of an NDDSS, its general concept, and its functional components. Conceptually divided into a (scientific) knowledge centre and users' periphery, an NDDSS aims at mobilising both the narrative and the scientific knowledge in the processes of decision making. The main tasks of these systems then become the transmissions of scientific knowledge from a 'centre' (which is the primary repository of scientific knowledge) to the users' periphery, and of the narrative knowledge from the users' periphery to the centre. It is proposed here that in order to achieve adequate transmission and translation of these different kinds of knowledge between the knowledge centre and the users' periphery, and their mobilisation for decision making purposes, these systems will have to be composed of three basic functional components: I. Fact engine component, located in the knowledge centre, with the primary role of gathering, organising, providing and distributing relevant scientific knowledge as scientific facts; 2. Judgement engine component, located at the user periphery, with the primary role of combining the scientific facts with the beliefs and attitudes (traditionally represented as some sort of 'interests' and 'intentions') of the users/participants in the decision making process, in order to provide judgements of that particular user or user group about proposed plans or interventions; 3. A platform for negotiation and collaboration, where by using appropriate aggregation procedures the diverse judgements are mobilised for negotiation and collaboration purposes, which will allow for the emergence of commonly accepted, equitable courses of action, with appropriate compensatory arrangements. The key quality that needs to be introduced into these systems throughout the processes of knowledge transmission and translation, is the quality of transparency. The third part of the thesis presents a description of a prototype of an NDDSS, which has been developed within the framework of this study. This prototype, named Aquavoice, has been primarily designed as a multi-player role play game which can be played over the Intemet. Aquavoice has a fact engine component, a judgement engine component and some facilities for negotiation and collaboration. It has been developed for a hypothetical case study, which deals with the problems of lowering groundwater tables due to increased abstractions of groundwater for water supply. A number of conflicting interests arise represented by four different institutions, and by any number of individuals who may participate in the decision-forming process. The institutions (represented by four different role players) involved are: Local Authority, Environmental Agency, Water Supply Company, and a Farmers' Council. Each of these four institutions has different responsibilities and interests. The number of players that can take the role of concemed individuals is conceived as unlimited. Aquavoice provides a dynamic environment for judging different scenarios of groundwater abstractions, by each user/participant, according to his or her own interests. These different scenarios can be evaluated by each user of the system, individually. The individual evaluations are then aggregated in order to present the overall preference relations of the whole community. This aggregation, together with the transparent positions of each participant in Aquavoice represents the basic 'social landscape' of the community and may be used to initiate the processes of negotiation and collaboration between the participating parties. At the core of Aquavoice is a sophisticated hydrological model of the area in question developed by using the MIKE SHE modelling system. This model acts as fact engine for Aquavoice. Being a fiilly integrated physically based modelling system for simulation of the whole land phase of the hydrological cycle, MIKE SHE is particularly suited for being at the core of a system like Aquavoice. In order to deploy a MIKE SHE model on the Intemet, several new technical developments were required. Development of a complete new user interface, adapted for the needs of Aquavoice, and operating in a browser environment was a first requirement. Further to this, an Intemet-based communication link from this user interface with the core MIKE SHE model has been developed. For the judgement engine component of Aquavoice some methods from the field of multi criteria analysis (MCA) have been adapted. In particular, algorithms for Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making have been implemented, in order to obtain the judgements and the evaluations of the users/participants. These methods are here used only as tools for establishing the initial response of the community to the proposed scenarios, serving as a starting point for processes of negotiation and various collaborations. The processes of collaboration and negofiations can then proceed through a chat-like interface which is provided in Aquavoice, and any changes of judgements or evaluations which result from these processes are immediately and transparently reflected to all the users of the system. The main technology used for the development of the Aquavoice prototype is Java. This powerful language/platform technology was shown to be particularly useful for development of this kind of Intemet applications. Aquavoice has to be considered only as a small first step in the development of NDDSSs. Both in the conceptual design and in all of the three functional components of a NDDSS there are various aspects that will need further research. In the last part of the thesis the paradigm of 'agent orientation' is introduced as relevant conceptualisation altemative which can be very useful for future developments of NDDSSs. In particular, the potential of socalled 'software agent technology' for conceptualising and implementing future NDDSSs is addressed. One possible conceptualisation of an NDDSS using agent-based architecture i proposed. The concluding part of the thesis summarises all the aspects of the development of NDDS! presented in it. It revises the need for such systems, the approaches that can be followed ii their design and development, and the possible ways forward. One crucial question related t( the possible ways for introduction of these systems into our societies is also addressed. Thre possible approaches for the introduction of NDDSSs into practice are proposed. The first (so called edutainment: education+enteTtainment approach) proposes further developments o systems similar to Aquavoice as environmental computer-games, in order to raise people' awareness of the possibilities of these systems. The second approach argues for th possibility of the introduction of these systems through actions of govemmental and non govemmental agencies, primarily at sub-national and local levels. The third approach briefl; investigates the possibility of introducing these systems through the market directly. It i most likely that for different decision contexts, and in different societies and cultures differen

Architecture of a prototype cloud application for a hydro information system

Cloud is the latest development in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with revolutionary implications for business and society, creating new possibilities and enabling more efficient, flexible and collaborative computing models

Development of a cloud computing application for water resources modeling and optimization based on open source software

The cloud computing application for water resources modeling and optimization based on open source software is a continuation of a previous research presented in [1]. This article presents further research that is focused on distributing the web application on two separate virtual machines (VM) and upgrading it to a cloud computing application. The cloud application was deployed and tested in a distributed computer environment running on two virtual machines (VM-1 and VM-2). The application is upgraded with an additional web service for user management, while still having the previous three services for: (1) support for water resources modelling (2) spatial data infrastructure (SDI) and (3) water resources optimization, as reported in [1] from the previous research. The web services for support of water resources modelling and user management are deployed on VM-1 while the SDI and water resources optimization web services are deployed on VM-2. The web services communicate with web feature service transactional (WFS-T), which is an XML asynchronous messaging protocol. This research demonstrates the capability to scale and distribute the cloud application between several VMs. The article discusses the main cloud application capabilities and its future upgrades

Cloud computing framework for a hydro information system

The cloud computing framework of the hydro information system is based on three concepts that are closely related: cloud, service oriented architecture and web geographic information system. The architecture of the prototype hydro information system contains three tiers. The bottom tier is a distributed relational database (PostgreSQL, PostGIS) that store geospatial and other types of data. The middle tier is GeoServer web application that manages and presents geospatial maps and data from the bottom tier. GeoServer is a platform that abstracts relational database and provide data services for the developed web services using OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards. The top tier contains three developed web services: 1) web service for geospatial data management 2) web service for supporting water resources modeling and 3) web service for optimization of water resources. The web services are build using several programming languages (JavaScript, AJAX, PhP, Java), additional applications (Eclipse, ESRI ArcGIS, Adobe Dreamweaver), libraries (OpenLayers) and geospatial standards (OGC). All components and software packages of the hydro information system are open source. The cloud framework for the hydro information system is flexible for adding additional services and components. The system advantages over previous technologies are in accessibility, availability, flexibility, distribution of computational resources, scalable computation power, interoperability, internet based collaboration platform and dissemination of valuable information over the internet, between stakeholders and general public

Development of a cloud application for supporting water resources modeling

Modeling of water resources are increasingly becoming multidisciplinary collaborative tasks that will rely on development of cloud applications. Cloud applications will (1) collect all water related data in the database system (weather forecasts, climate variations, urbanization, population and economic growth, etc.), (2) create common platform for data access and web service development and (3) develop specialized web services for solving water issues. Data sources and web services are integrated and used for water modeling tasks via cloud computing applications as the one demonstrated here. The presented cloud application for supporting water resources modeling is built on three latest advancements in computer science and technology: Cloud Computing, Service Oriented Architecture and web Geographic Information Systems. The cloud application integrate three web services: (1) web service for managing of geospatial data (2) web service for supporting water resources modeling and (3) web service for optimization of water resources. The cloud application advantages over previous technology are in accessibility, availability, flexibility in adding new components, scalable computational power, internet based collaboration platform and dissemination of valuable information between stakeholders and general public