Water Management Software & Tools

At the RTI Center for Water Resources, we approach each project as a unique situation and emphasize working closely with you to understand your specific circumstances and objectives to select the right solution. Our expertise includes commonly used software developed by other organizations, technology developed by RTI for wide application and customized systems to meet specific needs.

In addition to the tools featured here, RTI has developed or maintains several other tools for water resources management.

Software and Tools developed by RTI

Rapid Risk Suite

RTI developed the Rapid Risk Suite to provide affordable, portfolio-wide dam risk information. The comprehensive toolkit streamlines key elements of probabilistic dam risk analysis, including weather generation, hydrologic loading, breach analysis, and downstream consequences. The Rapid Risk Suite allows users to move beyond traditional PMF-based approaches to probabilistic approaches, providing a more complete understanding of probabilities and impacts of extreme events. Opening the potential for rapid risk screening and scaling across portfolios of hundreds or thousands of dams, the suite can help your organization begin to prioritize investments, determine if more in-depth analysis is needed on specific dams, and make more informed decisions concerning dam safety.

Water Forecast Portal, powered by RTI Amanzi™

The RTI Water Forecast Portal translates forecasted streamflow data into relevant and actionable information for decision making. With the portal, you receive forecasts tailored for your location, an easy-to-understand web-based interface for geospatial and hydrologic information, and advanced analysis and post-processing. Services are scalable to any size organization and offered via a subscription service. With access to RTI experts performing ongoing research, you can rest assured that you will continually receive the most up-to-date improvements to our forecasting products. Learn more about the RTI Water Forecast Portal, powered by RTI Amanzi.

RTI-ROSE

The Reservoir Optimization with Streamflow Ensembles tool (ROSE), developed by RTI, is a generalized sampling stochastic dynamic programming system for real-time optimization of reservoir operation with streamflow ensembles. The system can be run via an interface or it can be integrated into existing operations models using everything from Excel to a Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) or a custom operating system.

MCDA

RTI developed a stochastic Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool for comparing discrete alternatives. The application allows the use of two different MCDA techniques, Weighted Average Method (WAM) and Promethee-II, each using a hierarchical set of criteria. As a result of this application, a range of seemingly disparate criteria can be evaluated—leading to an objective and defensible selection of alternatives.

Tools developed by other public or private organizations

MGS Suite of Software

The MGS Suite of Software, acquired by RTI International, expands our capacity and technical tools for analyzing extreme precipitation events, conducting complex stochastic simulations for probabilistic flood hazards analysis (PFHA) studies, and supporting new hydrologic methods. These tools allow for more streamlined and efficient analyses for a broad range of private, state, federal, and international clients.

Extreme weather events pose a growing threat to aging infrastructure globally. As concern about the effects of extreme weather expands, so does the need for a reliable way to predict the flooding risks associated with these events. This new software suite provides customers in hydropower utilities, state dam safety organizations, energy regulators, the nuclear industry, and the engineering community with crucial insights into hydrologic hazards affecting infrastructure design and maintenance.

Riverware

The Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems at the University of Colorado created and maintains the Riverware reservoir operations model, which is used by many organizations and governments. We have modeled systems ranging from single reservoirs to more than 40 reservoirs for water supply, flood control, hydropower and other operations—along with using multiple objective optimization to improve results.

Dam Safety Risk Analysis Engine (DAMRAE)

DAMRAE, a tool specifically designed for performing event tree–based risk analysis calculations for dam safety risk assessment, is used by many agencies—including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Tennessee Valley Authority. Private consultants—such as RAC Engineers and Economists, LLC—also utilize DAMRAE. We support DAMRAE development and provide technical assistance for its application about dam safety risk assessment and risk reduction studies in the U.S. and internationally.

NWS Hydrologic Forecasting Suite of Models

During the last few decades, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) has developed a suite of hydrologic and river operations models specifically for real-time flood and water supply forecasting. We have configured and calibrated those models for hundreds of watersheds and reservoirs in the U.S. and internationally, from small sub-basins to entire highly regulated river systems (such as the Missouri River). We deploy them as part of our RTI Amanzi system as well Delft-FEWS and MIKE Operations.

Delft-FEWS

We have implemented the Delft Flood Early Warning System (Delft-FEWS), which the U.S. NWS uses for operational flow forecasting, for many domestic and international clients. We also employ this state-of-the art system to provide some of our forecast services. We have more than 10 years of experience in developing Delft-FEWS, and we will deploy it with the data and hydrologic and hydraulic models suitable to your needs. We will also customize it to provide graphs, tables and reports with truly actionable information.

HEC Suite of Hydrologic, Hydraulic, and River Operations Models

The USACE Hydrologic Engineering Center's (HEC’s) Hydrologic Modeling System, River Analysis System and Reservoir Simulation System—along with its Flood Impact Analysis Model—are trusted models used globally by the water engineering community. We implement these models for planning, forecasting, inundation mapping and risk analysis.

Corps Water Management System (CWMS)

As leading implementer of CWMS for the USACE, we deploy this system primarily for forecast-informed reservoir operations. Putting CWMS (or its simpler version, the Real Time System) into service using the HEC suite of models allows our clients to take advantage of the maturity of these U.S. government–supported models.

MIKE Suite

The Danish Hydraulic Institute’s (DHI’s) MIKE Hydro Basin and MIKE Hydro River models (formerly MIKE Basin and MIKE 11/21) are specifically suited to simulate complex basin and river operations problems. Our clients utilize them as fully supported commercial alternatives to the NWS and HEC models.

MIKE Operations

We work closely with DHI in implementing MIKE Operations as a water sector planning and real-time forecasting system, primarily in conjunction with the MIKE Suite of hydrologic, hydraulic, and basin models.

AQUARIUS

AQUARIUS Time Series, developed by Aquatic Informatics, provides a data management platform for water resources applications. We integrate this platform into existing systems and infrastructures to efficiently provide real-time data collection, quality control and automated reporting for operational systems. We developed an RTI Amanzi-compatible framework that allows us to quickly set up AQUARIUS and connect to data collection networks as well as hydrological, hydraulic and other models and reports.

Learn more about the RTI Center for Water Resources