ISIS Modelling Software
Encyclopedia
ISIS is a software package which is used for river modelling. Developed by Halcrow Group Limited
, it is used throughout the world as an analysis tool for flood risk mapping, flood forecasting and other aspects of flood risk management analysis. It is used by the Environment Agency
, Office of Public Works
, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
, Mekong River Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt as well as many of the UK’s major river engineering consultants including Jacobs
, Hyder Consulting
, Atkins, Ove Arup & Partners, Haskoning, Black and Veatch, Capita Symonds
and JBA Consulting
.
which could represent a variety of control structures, including weir
s, sluice
s and culvert
s and floodplain
s.
Previous versions of ISIS
s, flood mapping and design projects.
The ISIS suite has been developed by the further integration of WBM’s TUFLOW software and the introduction of ISIS Mapper, a GIS-based model building and visualisation tool for viewing 3D surface data. Available add-ons include Sediment Transport and Water Quality.
ISIS 2D was released in June 2009 and is a fully hydrodynamic computational engine. It is designed to work either standalone or within the ISIS suite. It has been developed to complement the capabilities of WBM's 2D modelling software; TUFLOW.
ISIS FAST was released in April 2011 and is a new and innovative rapid inundation model designed to allow quick assessment of flooding using simplified hydraulics. It provides results up to 1,000 times quicker when compared to traditional two-dimensional (2D) models – providing results in seconds or minutes as opposed to hours or days. ISIS FAST allows modellers to rapidly estimate flood extents and depths from multiple sources of flooding, including tide/surge and fluvial overtopping or breaching of defences, surface water and sewer flooding.
Current release of ISIS
Halcrow Group Limited
Halcrow Group Limited is an engineering consultancy company, based in the United Kingdom.Halcrow is one of the UK's leading consultancies, with a pedigree stretching back to 1868. The UK-based consultancy specialises in the provision of planning, design and management services for infrastructure...
, it is used throughout the world as an analysis tool for flood risk mapping, flood forecasting and other aspects of flood risk management analysis. It is used by the Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
, Office of Public Works
Office of Public Works
The Office of Public Works is a State Agency of the Department of Finance in the Republic of Ireland...
, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland’s environmental regulator. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment...
, Mekong River Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt as well as many of the UK’s major river engineering consultants including Jacobs
Jacobs Engineering Group
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., a publicly traded company with over 50,000 employees and 2010 revenues of nearly $10 billion, provides technical, professional, and construction services globally. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, it was founded in 1947 by Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs. Jacobs offers...
, Hyder Consulting
Hyder Consulting
Hyder Consulting is a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employs approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Middle East, Asia and Australia and has been listed on the...
, Atkins, Ove Arup & Partners, Haskoning, Black and Veatch, Capita Symonds
Capita Symonds
Capita Symonds is part of the Capita Group.Capita Symonds is a large UK multidisciplinary consultancy operating in the building design, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors....
and JBA Consulting
JBA Consulting
JBA Consulting is an environmental engineering consultancy company, based in the United Kingdom.JBA is one of the UK's leading environmental and engineering consultancies, with a history going back to 1995. The consultancy is based in the UK and provides flood risk and environmental management...
.
History
ISIS was first developed in the 1970s as Halcrow’s ONDA and HR Wallingford’s FLUCOMP, LORIS and RIBAMAN software. There are a number of different types of software built into the ISIS code, but ONDA played a key role in its creation, which is why many of its functionalities remain today. ONDA modelled open channel flows and was capable of simulating both branched and looped systems. It was a modular programModular programming
Modular programming is a software design technique that increases the extent to which software is composed of separate, interchangeable components called modules by breaking down program functions into modules, each of which accomplishes one function and contains everything necessary to accomplish...
which could represent a variety of control structures, including weir
Weir
A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...
s, sluice
Sluice
A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate . For example, a millrace is a sluice that channels water toward a water mill...
s and culvert
Culvert
A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...
s and floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
s.
Previous versions of ISIS
- v2.0 (release date unknown) - major new features included a new network visualiser and additional functionality in the display and animation of results.
- v2.1 (released April 2002) - major new features included a new GIS-based visualiser to enable the user to display ISIS model schematics overlaid on a background map in addition to improved usability, and a new run forms interface to improve model management capabilities.
- v2.2 (released April 2003) - major new features included a number of new units available to the user including a lateral inflow, rainfall/evaporation boundary, normal/critical depth boundary and a breach unit.
- v2.3 (released July 2004) - major new features included a new river unit based on the Conveyance Estimation System, a new hydrology tool to find the optimal storm duration and improvements to output options and model robustness.
- v2.4 (released February 2006) - major new features included a new flow stage plot facility, the removal of the constraint of a maximum ten nodes attached to a reservoir or junction and consolidated bug fixes.
- v2.5 (released March 2007) - major new features included the implementation Revitalised Flood Hydrograph rainfall-runoff boundary (ReFHBDY) and the addition of hot start functionality.
Present
Halcrow and Wallingford Software, the sister company of HR Wallingford, worked in partnership for over 10 years in the development, sale and support of ISIS. In January 2008 this partnership came to an end and Halcrow continued to develop ISIS alone and introduced a new licensing structure and price. The new licensing structure includes a free version of the software. It has the same functionality as ISIS Professional, but is limited to 200 nodes and 10mb of ISIS Mapper input files. It can be used for smaller river modelling projects such as flood risk assessmentFlood risk assessment
A flood risk assessment is an assessment of the risk of flooding, particularly in relation to residential, commercial and industrial land use.-England and Wales:...
s, flood mapping and design projects.
The ISIS suite has been developed by the further integration of WBM’s TUFLOW software and the introduction of ISIS Mapper, a GIS-based model building and visualisation tool for viewing 3D surface data. Available add-ons include Sediment Transport and Water Quality.
ISIS 2D was released in June 2009 and is a fully hydrodynamic computational engine. It is designed to work either standalone or within the ISIS suite. It has been developed to complement the capabilities of WBM's 2D modelling software; TUFLOW.
ISIS FAST was released in April 2011 and is a new and innovative rapid inundation model designed to allow quick assessment of flooding using simplified hydraulics. It provides results up to 1,000 times quicker when compared to traditional two-dimensional (2D) models – providing results in seconds or minutes as opposed to hours or days. ISIS FAST allows modellers to rapidly estimate flood extents and depths from multiple sources of flooding, including tide/surge and fluvial overtopping or breaching of defences, surface water and sewer flooding.
Current release of ISIS
- v3.0 (released February 2008) - the first ISIS release by Halcrow since the end of the business partnership with Wallingford Software. The release saw many major enhancements, most notably the inclusion of ISIS Mapper as a model building, flood mapping and visualisation tool, the release of a fully functioning Free version of the software (limited to 200 nodes) and the introduction of three new hydraulic units (Flat-V weir, Total Energy Junction, Blockage unit).
- v3.1 (released December 2008) - delivers faster run times and other improvements and new features - including grid manipulation, conveyance plotting, OpenMIOpenMI StandardThe OpenMI Standard defines an interface that allows time-dependent models to exchange data at run-time. When the standard is implemented, existing models can be run simultaneously and share information at each timestep making model integration feasible at the operational level...
compliance and better visualisation of diagnostic and structure information. - v3.2 (released June 2009) - ISIS Free now has all of the same features of ISIS Professional (1D) and ISIS 2D but is limited to 250 1D nodes, 2,500 2D cells and a 10mb restriction on ISIS Mapper input files.
- v3.3 (released November 2009) - New usability and productivity tools, including model health checker and results harvester. Provides enhanced usability for ISIS Mapper, including improved zoom/pan facilities and speed improvements for ISIS 2D.
- v3.4 (released August 2010) - Improved mapping resolution within ISIS Mapper, FRQSIM hydrological boundary unit, improved stability in culvert units, double precision version for improved mass balance and TUFLOW compatibility, bookmarking facility for ease of navigation of user interface, enhanced output facilities in ISIS 2D,
- v3.5 (released April 2011) - significant enhancements to the revitalised ISIS Mapper interface, multi-processor batch scheduler to enable scheduling of multiple simulations simultaneously, model file comparison tool for quick and easy identification of model differences, ISIS-ESTRY link to enable dynamic linking of ISIS with ESTRY as well as TUFLOW models, ISIS 2D productivity enhancements and probabilistic modelling tools.
- v3.5.1 (released October 2011) - an interim release including a new dynamic link between ISIS and TUFLOW's 1D component (ESTRY), which is primarily suited to pipe modelling, and a 64-bit version of the ISIS-TUFLOW link resulting in much quicker run times.
Support Community
In order to help users of the software a support website exists which contains manuals, support forums, knowledge bases and a number of helpful downloads. ISIS user communitySee also
- Halcrow Group LimitedHalcrow Group LimitedHalcrow Group Limited is an engineering consultancy company, based in the United Kingdom.Halcrow is one of the UK's leading consultancies, with a pedigree stretching back to 1868. The UK-based consultancy specialises in the provision of planning, design and management services for infrastructure...
- Hydraulic EngineeringHydraulic engineeringThis article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...
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- MIKE 11MIKE 11MIKE 11 is a computer program that simulates flow and water level, water quality and sediment transport in rivers, flood plains, irrigation canals, reservoirs and other inland water bodies. MIKE 11 is a 1 dimensional river model. It was developed by DHI Water • Environment • Health.MIKE11 has long...
- WMS (hydrology software)