News

The ISIS v3.5.1 interim release is now available to download from www.isisuser.com.

Users with a valid support and maintenance contract can download the latest release and upgrade their existing ISIS Professional and/or ISIS 2D licences at no cost. Those people using ISIS Free can also download v3.5.1, however the standard restrictions apply.

This additional release has allowed Halcrow to provide a number of new features including:

• a FREE version of ISIS FAST (restricted to DEM grid size of 2,500 cells)
• the ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE Link, enabling a dynamic link between ISIS and TUFLOW's 1D component (ESTRY), which is primarily suited to pipe modelling
• 64-bit version of ISIS-TUFLOW, enabling larger memory-intensive models to be run
• the ISIS damage calculator, allowing the user to calculate damages from 2D model results based on depth-damage curves
• multi-animation of 2D results within ISIS Mapper
• spatially-varying density introduced in ISIS Professional (1D), particularly applicable to tidal models
• a web-mapping service layer within ISIS Mapper, enabling background maps to be easily loaded into projects
• Refreshed Help, including improved links and navigation

A full list of new features and improvements can be found within the release notes.

For additional information, contact Vijay Jain or Alastair Sheppard on +44 (0)845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.

The ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE Link provides all of the capabilities of the ISIS-TUFLOW link, in addition to direct 1D-1D dynamic link between ISIS and TUFLOW's 1D component (ESTRY).

Users that purchased the ISIS-TUFLOW link prior to the release of v3.5.1 can upgrade to the new ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE link for FREE.

This builds on the established ISIS (1D) and TUFLOW (2D) link and fully combines the complementary strengths of the well-established ISIS 1D software (e.g. 1D open channel flow, a wide range of structures and complex operating rules), and TUFLOW's 1D component, whose additional strengths are in pipe modelling, especially those of small cross-sectional area and conveying low or no flows.

This allows, for example, an ESTRY (1D) pipe network to be dynamically linked to ISIS (1D) river units, which can all be linked to TUFLOW's 2D domain(s).

The ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE Link enables an integrated approach to modelling, combining open-channel, closed pipe and overland flow, suitable for modelling flood risk in urban areas, amongst other scenarios.

In combination with ISIS, the ability to dynamically link storm water drainage networks and overland flow makes the new ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE link extremely powerful in enabling modelling of urban catchments. This could involve interactions between roads and the underground piped system. Large drainage networks with tens of thousands of 1D elements (pipes, open drains, pit inlets and manholes) connected to millions of 2D cells have already been modelled.

Click here to download the ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE Link brochure.

For additional information, contact Vijay Jain or Alastair Sheppard on +44 (0)845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.

New for ISIS v3.5.1 - Gain simple access to free background GIS data from ISIS Mapper.

ISIS Mapper now provides a means to add freely available maps to your viewport. This can be beneficial both during the model building process to ensure model features are correctly defined and located or in the model post processing stage for the generation of flood maps or animations.

Read more ...

The Pilcomayo River is over 1,000km long and has one of the largest sediment loads in the world. It starts at an elevation of 3,500m in its origin in Bolivia, descending to 250m near Mision La Paz in Argentina.

Major lateral migration of the channel over a large alluvial fan causes significant water stress and economic losses for Argentina and Paraguay.

A hydrosedimentological study using ISIS 2D was undertaken for the Trinational Committee for the Development of the Pilcomayo River basin. This technical assessment supported the development of water management strategies, and associated structural measures, that could provide secure access to Pilcomayo water resources for both Argentina and Paraguay.

Click here to download the full case study.

Dr. Richard Dun, Principal Hydraulic Engineer at British Waterways presented a case study entitled 'improving the understanding of risk from canal breaches' at the 2011 ISIS user conference. Richard's presentation was recorded and the full presentation, including audio, can be viewed here.

If you are interested in representing your organisation at the 2012 user conference, please contact Alastair Sheppard on +44 (0)845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.

The ISIS v3.5.1 interim release will be available to download in September 2011.

This additional release will allow Halcrow to provide a number of new features including:

• a FREE version of ISIS FAST (restricted to DEM grid size of 2,500 cells)
• the ISIS-TUFLOW-PIPE Link which enables a dynamic link between ISIS and TUFLOW's 1D component (ESTRY), which is primarily suited to pipe modelling
• 64-bit version of ISIS-TUFLOW, enabling larger memory-intensive models to be run
• the ISIS damage calculator which allows the user to calculate damages from 2D model results based on depth-damage curves
• multi-animation of 2D results within ISIS Mapper
• spatially-varying density introduced in ISIS 1D, applicable to tidal models
• a web-mapping service layer within ISIS Mapper, enabling background maps to be easily loaded into projects
• refreshed help, with improved links and navigation
  
  

For additional information, contact Vijay Jain or Alastair Sheppard on 0845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.

Halcrow has developed a syntax file for TUFLOW for use with the TextPad editor as part of the software provision to the Environment Agency and are pleased to provide this syntax file for general use.

The syntax file provides highlighting for keywords in TUFLOW control and log files, and instructions are also provided on how to configure TextPad to use the syntax file and also to run simulations of TUFLOW directly from the text editor.

This syntax file and instructions for usage are provided as-is and Halcrow encourage and would welcome any feedback on its use.

Click here to download the syntax file.

The international uptake of ISIS, Halcrow's suite of modelling software, has risen dramatically over recent years. ISIS is now used across the globe from Korea to Egypt to Vietnam to Australia to Argentina.

This upward trend has led to a full-time operational desk for the Americas being established in Halcrow's Buenos Aires office. Formalising a long-standing relationship between the Buenos Aires office and ISIS teams across the UK, this latest development is based on shared experiences in the refinement and application of the software to a large number of catchment management projects in the Americas.

The Buenos Aires team will provide integral support by contributing to a wider range of services including day to day support to users, research and software development. Halcrow’s Buenos Aires team is currently developing flood risk studies for the Colorado River basin in Argentina, comprising five provinces within its catchment authority. The Americas ISIS team will be implementing ISIS and providing training in each of the catchment authorities' five provincial offices. This will kick start a long-term institutional strengthening programme that will seek to use ISIS as a tool to host the modelling system, embracing the 1D model of the fluvial corridor as well as 2D development into the urban developments at risk.

ISIS sales manager Vijay Jain commented: "This is a really exciting development for ISIS. The suite is constantly evolving to meet the needs of projects and clients, and this collaboration between our global teams can only serve to further strengthen Halcrow's software product base."

The 2011 ISIS User Conference was held on Tuesday 21st June at Halcrow's offices in Hammersmith, London.

Once again, the conference attracted great interest, with approximately 100 people from local authorities, drainage boards, universities, engineering consultants, British Waterways and the Environment Agency attending.

The conference included popular and informative sessions that were independently chaired by Chris Whitlow from Edenvale Young Associates. It provided the opportunity to learn from the experiences of other modellers who presented case studies, network with fellow modellers in the industry and help direct the future development of ISIS.

Attendees had the opportunity to listen to a number of guest speakers from the Environment Agency, British Waterways, Capita Symonds, Black & Veatch, Thomas Mackay, Hyder Consulting, Edenvale Young Associates and Halcrow.

The User Conference was a great opportunity for ISIS users to provide feedback and suggestions on how they believe the software should be developed. If you would like to suggest your ideas, please visit the 'Ideas Lab' on the ISIS user website or contact us directly at isis@halcrow.com.

In addition, a list of ideas that were recommended by ISIS users during the open forum at the User Conference have been uploaded to the 'Ideas Lab' on isisuser.com. Why not vote on the ideas that you would like to see implemented in future releases of ISIS?

The conference presentations can be viewed on ISIS user community website, which recently saw it's 5,000th member.

For additional information on the ISIS suite, contact Vijay Jain or Alastair Sheppard on 0845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.

Since the launch of the ISIS user community (www.isisuser.com) in June 2008, it has gone from strength to strength. The website provides manuals, support forums, knowledge bases and other useful downloads such as ISIS Free.

The website recently registered its 5,000th subscriber, Shan Senthilkumaran from Capita Symonds, who was awarded a free place on the 'Introduction to ISIS' training course in Swindon on 2nd and 3rd August (worth £500).

Shan was delighted to accept this place and said: "that's great news, it will help boost my knowledge for the ISIS project that I am currently working on. Perhaps I should enter the EuroMillions draw tonight!"

If you would like to attend one of our training courses, please visit www.halcrow.com/training or email technicaltraining@halcrow.com.

For additional information on the ISIS suite, contact Vijay Jain or Alastair Sheppard on 0845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.  

The 2011 ISIS User Conference will be held on Tuesday 21st June at Halcrow's offices in Hammersmith, London. Attendance is free to organisations with a valid ISIS support and maintenance contract and to all academic staff and students. To others there is only a small administrative charge.

To secure your place at the conference, simply complete the booking form and return it to Alastair Sheppard at SheppardA@halcrow.com. Please note that spaces are limited and allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

The last conference in 2010 attracted attendees from local authorities, drainage boards, universities, engineering consultants and the Environment Agency. The conference includes popular and informative sessions that are independently chaired by Chris Whitlow from Edenvale Young Associates.

The conference provides the opportunity to learn from the experiences of other modellers who will be presenting case studies, network with fellow modellers in the industry and help direct the future development of ISIS. Speakers and presentations will include:

• Helen James (Environment Agency) will present the work the Environment Agency have been carrying out since the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Modelling Strategy was published a year ago
• Konrad Adams (Halcrow) will discuss the new features, updates and improvements to ISIS v3.5 which has been developed in response to user needs
• Richard Dun (British Waterways) will present an approach that has been developed to assist in the understanding of breach risk from canals
• Jon Wicks (Halcrow) will present a case study on how ISIS FAST was used to model pluvial flood risk for the whole of Scotland (78,000km2).
• Kevin Hemmings (Capita Symonds) will discuss a case study on an integrated flood forecasting model for the Upper Forth which presents the work undertaken translating existing models, building new models and producing a complete flood forecasting solution using ISIS combining both hydrodynamic and routing reaches
• Jon Bartlett (Black & Veatch) will consider, using a number of case studies, the lessons learnt when moving from one-dimensional to two-dimensional modelling
• Simon Jepps and John Jepps (Thomas Mackay in partnership with Hyder Consulting) will present a joint case study on flood modelling of the River Colne tributaries at Huddersfield and the challenges faced during the study
• Maria Jarquin (Edenvale Young) will present a talk on modelling oblique bridges in which she will cover a comparison between the ISIS outputs using a number of different assumptions and the results from a TUFLOW only model of the channel
• Paul Crossley (Hyder Consulting) will present a case study entitled ‘A tale of two tadpoles’ which discusses the modelling of heavily modified watercourses in an upside down catchment
• Jon Wicks and Konrad Adams (Halcrow) will hold an open discussion to discuss the future developments within ISIS.

Book your place now!

To secure your place at our next meeting, please complete the booking form and return it to Alastair Sheppard at SheppardA@halcrow.com.

For any additional information, please contact Alastair Sheppard at SheppardA@halcrow.com or Vijay Jain JainV@halcrow.com. To speak to us directly call 0845 094 7990.

Additional information

Venue details
Halcrow, Elms House, 43 Brook Green, London, W6 7EF

Start and finish times
10:00 (registration and refreshments from 09:00) - 15:00

Local accommodation
Copthorne Tara, Scarsdale Place, London W8 5SR
Grange Strathmore, 41 Queens Gate, London, SW7 5NB
Hilton, 380 Kensington High St, London, W14 8NL
Novotel, 1 Shortlands, London, W6 8DR

Nearest London Underground station
Barons Court or Hammersmith (approximately 5 minutes walk from the venue)

Not only do ISIS users gain valuable information when using the ISIS user website, but for every contribution made to the site, a donation is made to WaterAid and the Halcrow Foundation. Users gain points by interacting with the ISIS user website, posting on the forum, commenting on items, posting/voting on ideas and downloading ISIS Free.

At the end of 2010, these points were converted into a donation of £358 and presented to the above charities.

WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation. Their mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world's poorest communities.

The Halcrow Foundation aims to alleviate poverty and suffering around the world caused by natural disaster or as a result of people's social and economic condition.

For more information on the Halcrow Foundation and WaterAid, log in to the website.

For those of you who have not registered with the website yet, isisuser.com is the online community for ISIS users. It aims to give users quick and easy access to ISIS related information. Why not sign up today?

Following the success of the 2010 annual ISIS User Conference which attracted approximately 70 attendees from local authorities, drainage boards, universities, engineering consultants and the Environment Agency, Halcrow is able to confirm that the next conference will be held in London (Hammersmith) on Tuesday 21st June 2011.

The user conference includes popular and informative sessions that are independently chaired by Chris Whitlow from Edenvale Young Associates. Attendance is free to organisations with a valid ISIS support and maintenance contract and to all academic staff and students. For others, there is a nominal charge of £50.

The conference provides the opportunity to learn from the experiences of other modellers who will be presenting case studies, network with fellow modellers in the industry and help direct the development of ISIS. Information on presenters and their case studies will follow shortly.

If you would like to secure your place at our next conference, please complete the booking form and return it to Alastair Sheppard at SheppardA@halcrow.com.

Click the image to display a player with the video.

Halcrow has been working with the Science Museum in London to put together an exciting new interactive exhibit as part of the 'atmosphere gallery', an innovative experience that makes sense of our climate – the science of how it works, what it's doing now and what it might do next.

The atmosphere gallery reveals some of the key instruments used by today's scientists, reports on some of the latest climate news and gives you the chance to dig deeper into the story of our changing climate.

Halcrow's Jon Wicks worked with the Environment Agency to provide the data for Flood Alert, an interactive exhibit which gives visitors the chance to take control of Thames flood defences - apportioning budget to protect five different riverside areas. The exhibit aims to highlight the difficulties faced by decision makers when planning for the uncertain impacts of climate change.

The data provided included information generated by Halcrow's ISIS software, one of the leading packages for river modelling. It is used throughout the world on flood forecasting, flood alleviation scheme designs, flood risk mapping, flood risk assessments and catchment management planning projects. It provides engineers and managers with a set of flexible and cost effective tools so that they can make decisions to proactively manage our environment.

Atmosphere is open now in the Wellcome Wing of the Science Museum. Entrance is free.

ISIS FAST, the latest addition to the ISIS suite of products, will be available to purchase in just 100 days!

This innovative rapid inundation model will initially be offered at an introductory price of just £1,950 (usually £3,950) providing the user maintains an ISIS Professional or ISIS 2D licence with Halcrow.

Halcrow will be holding a lunchtime online presentation on ISIS FAST at 13:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 9th March. With 50 days until the release of ISIS Fast, the WebEx session can be attended by anyone wishing to learn more about Halcrow’s rapid flood inundation analysis software. The lunchtime presentation is completely free and will provide a good insight into this innovative software.

WebEx combines real-time desktop sharing with phone conferencing so that everyone can see and hear the same thing. It eliminates the need for travel - all you need is access to the internet and a telephone.

The 30 minute session will be led by Dr. Jon Wicks, who is one of the lead developers of ISIS FAST, and will include:

• the main features and benefits of ISIS FAST, and how the inundation model allows quick assessment of flooding using simplified hydraulics providing results in seconds or minutes as opposed to hours or days
• a live step-by-step demonstration of the model building process, showing how the integrated ISIS suite can be used to build models quickly and easily, and to visualize the results
• examples of how ISIS FAST has been successfully used on a number of projects in order to give the audience a detailed understanding of how and when the software can be used
• an opportunity for the audience to ask questions at the end of the session

To reserve your place on the WebEx demonstration, please contact Alastair Sheppard at isis@halcrow.com. Spaces will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. It is recommended that organisations use a conference or meeting room to hold the WebEx as this will allow several people to attend at each office via one registration.

For some people, the big event in 2011 is the royal wedding. For others, it is the release of ISIS FAST!

Since showcasing ISIS FAST at the Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM10) conference in Telford and at the ISIS User Conference earlier this year, Halcrow can confirm that ISIS FAST will be released in April 2011. It will be available at a special introductory price of just £1,950 (usually £3,950) providing the user maintains an ISIS Professional or ISIS 2D licence with Halcrow.

ISIS FAST is a completely new rapid inundation model designed and developed by Halcrow to allow quick assessment of flooding using simplified hydraulics. ISIS FAST provides results up to 1,000 times faster than conventional 2D hydrodynamic floodplain models! The software is already winning awards, including Kashif Shaad's young person's paper at the recent IAHR competition.

ISIS FAST has been developed to be fully compatible with both ISIS Professional (1D) and ISIS 2D, allowing the user to switch easily between the new FAST and the conventional hydrodynamic solvers. The modeller can rapidly develop and test their models and make informed decisions on the appropriate choice of solution given run time and accuracy constraints.

Benefits of ISIS FAST

• Rapid screening for many different types of flooding
• Pluvial flood mapping and risk assessments at local, regional, and national scales
• Real time flood mapping potential when linked to forecast rainfall
• Dynamic linkage to conventional 1D and 2D solvers
• Significantly reduces the costs of modelling
• Suitable for use within probabilistic analysis frameworks

For additional information on ISIS FAST, visit www.halcrow.com/isis, download the ISIS FAST flyer or contact Vijay Jain, ISIS and TUFLOW Sales Manager on +44 (0)845 094 7990 or at isis@halcrow.com.