ISIS Modelling Software
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| Developer(s) | Halcrow Group Limited |
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| Stable release | 3.5.1 / October 2011 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Surface-water hydrology software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.halcrow.com/isis/ |
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.
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[edit] 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 program which could represent a variety of control structures, including weirs, sluices and culverts and floodplains.
Previous versions of ISIS [1]
- 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.
[edit] 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[2] and Halcrow continued to develop ISIS alone and introduced a new licensing structure and price.[3] 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 assessments, 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, OpenMI 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.
[edit] 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 community
