San Antonio River Authority Implements FloodWorks To Help Save Lives

Innovyze Smart Water Solution to Give Emergency Responders Lead Time in Planning for and Reacting to Life-Threatening Storms

Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, recently announced that the San Antonio River Authority (SARA) and the San Antonio Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Texas, have successfully installedFloodWorks to help emergency responders plan for and react to life-threatening storms. By linking rainfall radar data from the National Weather Service and other models, FloodWorks provides emergency responders up to 24 hours of lead time to proactively prepare for floods.

Addressing the San Antonio River Authority board, Fire Chief Charles Hood said, “The FloodWorks software is going to save lives of residents and firefighters. Getting into moving water during a flood, often with tires, railroad ties and other debris below the surface, is one of the most dangerous tasks firefighters face. The new system will enable the city to place road barricades where needed most to prevent potential tragedies, while helping responders predict where they need to have personnel and equipment on standby.”

SARA, created in 1937, is one of many such active river authorities in the State of Texas. Its jurisdiction covers 3,658 square miles — all of Bexar, Wilson, Karnes and Goliad Counties. It operates 13 dams in Karnes County and all 26 dams in Bexar County. As a powerful and effective flood risk management tool, FloodWorks will help SARA forecast river levels in real time, issue early warnings and minimize the economic impact of flood events. It will also enable emergency planners and responders to monitor flood-prone locations along more than 183 miles of creeks and rivers in Bexar County.

“Before, it was all reactive,” said Russell Persyn, SARA’s watershed engineering manager. “Now we can simulate storms and structure resources where we know there will be issues.”

FloodWorks is a modular software package providing real-time simulation and forecasting of future hydrological and hydraulic conditions within river basins, stormwater and drainage systems and coastal areas. Designed for operational use in the control room, it links varied live data sources with a wide range of models to provide detailed and accurate forecasts of water levels, flood depths, flows, velocities, water quality parameters and sea states. When configured for use with the integrated 1D/2D simulation engine in Innovyze InfoWorks RS,FloodWorks also provides flood forecasting for river systems, channels and flood plains. The comprehensive modeling solution combines integrated rainfall-runoff, hydraulic, water quality, conveyance, dam breach and logical control modules with real-time hydrological and meteorological time-series data to forecast water levels, flood depths and sea states hours or days in advance.

The product’s operational management user interface, FloodWorks Event Manager, combines ease of use with powerful capabilities for visualizing and reporting forecast results. When an event trigger threshold is reached, the FloodWorks Server issues an alert. This alert and its severity level are clearly shown on the map display in the FloodWorks Event Manager. Alerts can be simultaneously issued by e-mail or SMS to ensure that the latest information is distributed to key personnel as quickly as possible. In addition, FloodWorks Web Publisher and Web Server components allow server output to be published in Web-compatible formats for instant access on either public or intranet websites.

“The economic and personal costs of flooding are devastating for many people in countries around the world,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, NAE, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, F. ASCE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “We are proud that SARA and EOC have chosen FloodWorks to play such an important part in their critical work to minimize the impacts of flooding on society, households and businesses.”

About Innovyze
Innovyze is a leading global provider of wet infrastructure business analytics software solutions designed to meet the technological needs of water and wastewater utilities, government agencies, and engineering organizations worldwide. Its clients include the majority of the largest UK, Australasia and North American cities, foremost utilities on all five continents, and ENR top-rated design firms. With unparalleled expertise and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the Innovyze connected portfolio of best-in-class product lines empowers thousands of engineers to competitively plan, manage, design, protect, operate and sustain highly efficient and reliable infrastructure systems, and provides an enduring platform for customer success. For more information, visit www.innovyze.com.