Case Study: Emmons & Olivier Resources, Inc.

Environmental Engineering Firm Cuts Modeling Time in Half with StormNET

Background Information

Minnesota license plates proudly claim “10,000 Lakes,” and it’s no exaggeration. The state boasts 11,842 lakes over 10 acres in size, along with more than 6,000 rivers and streams. In addition, the state has about 10.6 million acres of wetlands.

In this water-rich state, Emmons & Olivier Resources Inc. (EOR) provides multi-disciplinary engineering and environmental consulting to both public and private clients. Since its formation in 1997, EOR has helped clients protect regional environmental resources, balanced social and environmental needs, improved property values, and enhanced the quality of life of area communities by connecting people with the environment.

As Minnesota builds new residential, commercial, and industrial structures, EOR increasingly assists developers, watershed and conservation districts. “A lot of our district clients use old agriculture ditches for stormwater conveyance, and as they plan for area development, we help them by looking into any potential stormwater issues that could arise in 10 to 20 years,” said Eli Rupnow, P.E., Water Resources Engineer, EOR.

Until recently, EOR engineers used a SWMM-based high-end stormwater modeling software for projects, yet found that this application was either too limiting or “buggy,” and added un-billable time to projects.

“Results were unpredictable. We’d get different results if we ran the same model twice,” Rupnow said. “There were bugs that their tech support couldn’t figure out. We spent hundreds of hours every year just troubleshooting.”

An Intuitive, Integrated Modeling Program

After evaluating StormNET by BOSS International, EOR switched to it as its primary stormwater software. The fully-dynamic hydrology and hydraulic model analyzes both simple and complex stormwater systems using a variety of methods and models, including water quality. A number of capabilities stood out for EOR engineers:

• Software Quality and Tech Support
  Smooth updates, greater functionality, and responsive support.
• ArcGIS® Integration
  Quickly brings ArcGIS data into StormNET for constructing a model.
• AutoCAD® Integration
  Changes to the StormNET model are automatically reflected in AutoCAD.

ArcGIS and AutoCAD integration save a significant amount of project time. In addition, engineers can model aspects not possible with other applications, such as culvert sediment depth.

Engineers picked up the application quickly after a couple of teleconference training calls. “StormNET is really user friendly to navigate and figure out,” said Nancy-Jeanne LeFevre, Water Resources Engineer. “When I want to describe an outlet structure, I can click on the Help button to see how StormNET would model it different ways.”

EOR uses StormNET primarily for watershed modeling, site development, and FEMA mapping projects. For a project in an urban area north of Minneapolis, engineers used StormNET’s water quality features to model the impact of a new shopping complex on a nearby lake. Using StormNET, the team had to consider hydrodynamic and flow reversal conditions to determine flow rates and patterns, and to assess the total maximum daily loads (TMDL) impact on the lake’s water quality.

“It’s an older area, so the client was concerned about untreated flows into the lake,” Rupnow said. “We looked at water volumes and the existing storm sewer infrastructure to come up with recommendations to improve water quality into the lake.”

The municipalities provided ArcGIS files of the storm sewer infrastructure. EOR was able to convert this data into a StormNET model—significantly reducing the amount of time required to develop the model. With StormNET, Rupnow simply mapped over the GIS attributes to the equivalent StormNET element attributes. After importing the ArcGIS files, it was easy to see what data was missing in the original source files. With the previous stormwater software, engineers needed to identify missing attribute data manually—a time consuming and error-prone process.

Likewise, EOR engineers can export maximum water level and flow data and figures directly into Microsoft Excel by clicking a single button, enabling them to compare and evaluate results more easily and quickly. In the past, they had to copy this data and figures manually into Excel. As a result, StormNET allows them to determine more quickly how model changes impact other parts of the system.

Faster Modeling Reduces Project Time

Ultimately, StormNET reduces steps in the modeling process. “It automates a number of our calculations.” Rupnow said. “And the connections with GIS and AutoCAD easily reduce our modeling time in half—saving us about a week on a project like the one in urban Minneapolis.”

Rupnow notes that StormNET also runs computations faster. Model runs take less than half the time of the software they used previously. For example, model runs for large stormwater projects could easily require more than 24 hours, and now it’s less than 12 hours. “It allows you to complete models faster,” Rupnow said. “Before, if a model update was required on a larger project, the whole day was shot. Now we can re-run it and those runs don’t take nearly as long.”