Following are special attention notes, indicating that:

If you have any questions, contact riverware-support@colorado.edu

It is now much simpler for you to configure how numeric values are displayed in RiverWare. Now Unit Schemes control the display of Units, Scale, Precision and Format. This is a major change in how these attributes are configured.

When you first load your model, a transitional scheme is created to replicate your previous unit configuration.

See “Unit Schemes” for a description of the unit schemes. Or click HERE for video presentations on Unit Schemes.

Groundwater slots were re-named to be more consistent and have shorter names as shown in the following table. Existing model files are automatically updated with the new names, including links. Any RPL expressions or DMIs that reference these slots will need to be updated.

For Layered/Discretized salinity modeling, the Salt Concentration should be linked instead of Salt Mass. You should re-link any existing models.

For all salinity models, linking of salt on stream gages has been simplified. Now there is only a Salt Concentration slot when previously there were inflow and outflow salt concentrations. You will need to re-link any stream gage salt concentration slots. See “Diversion Object and Stream Gage” for more information.

On an account, output values on unlinked inflow slots (Inflow, Return Flow, Transfer In) were not cleared during run initialization. A change was made to correctly clear all of these output value. This fixed behavior could lead to different model results.

The optimization solver IBM ILOG CPLEX is now bundled with RiverWare. To access the solver, your RiverWare license must specifically allow you access to the solver library.

As part of the priority water rights solver, an enhancement was made to optionally allow a model to have duplicate or shared water right priority dates. When multiple accounts share a priority date, they proportionally share the available water while not shorting higher priority rights. The details of this solution algorithm and more information can be found “Computing Appropriation Without Subordination for Equal Priority Accounts” in Accounting.

To use this:

The relevant account dialogs were also enhanced to show you when you have accounts that share a priority date.

The Database DMI dialog was improved for usability as follows:

The screenshot below shows these changes. For more information, see “DMI Configuration” in Data Management Interface (DMI).

The Diagnostic Output dialog was improved to support filtering of results. There are now two approaches to find the desired message:

For more information, see “Message Search and Filter Controls” in Debugging and Analysis.

The Diagnostic Manager has been improved to always send output to either the Diagnostics Output or to a file. Previously, you had been able to send it to a dos window.

RiverWare Help is composed of PDF files and is now viewed with the program associated with the “.pdf” file extension on your Windows system. This replaces all uses of the ACROREAD_PATH environment variable.

A number of video demonstrations have been developed for new and existing functionality. Click HERE for more information.

A new utility called the Smart Linker simplifies the process of linking slots by recommending a set of links between two selected objects based on the type of object, their method selections, and the relationship between the two objects.

For example, if you select a reach and a groundwater object, and you have the Head Based Seepage method selected on the reach and the Head Based Groundwater Grid method selected on the groundwater object, the Smart Linker proposes the links:

For more information, see “Smart Linker” in Model Building Quick Start.and HERE for a video demo.

Following is a screenshot of the utility:

Linking recommendations were implemented for: Reach, AggReach, AggDistributionCanal, Stream Gage, Reservoir, Diversion Object and Confluence, Thermal, and Groundwater. The recommended links are in no way comprehensive; additional recommendations will be added in the future. Contact riverware‑support@colorado.edu if you have specific link recommendations that you would like implemented. All previously existing functionality for linking slots still remains.

Progress bars were added to the bottom of the workspace to better show the status of saving and loading the model file.

During a distributed multiple run, the DMIs now use guaranteed unique names for the working directory name. This prevents conflicts when multiple runs are executing per trace DMIs. The working directory is removed to prevent a proliferation of directories.

The following category and method names were modified on the groundwater object:

On the Pipe Junction, two new methods were added to the Pipe Junction Solution Direction category:

These methods (along with the existing Solve Flow 3 Only method) limit the available dispatch methods and allow you to better control the Pipe Junction in Rulebased Simulation.

A new method was added to the Seepage Routing category on the Reach: Step Response Seepage. This method routes the computed seepage forward and sets the Routed Seepage slot.

The Step Response and Multi Split Step Response return flow routing method were added to the Return Flow Routing category. These methods are similar to the respective impulse response methods, but set values forward into the future from the current timestep.

In addition, the following methods were (re)implemented for improved performance, particularly when there are a large number of coefficients:

There is now a user editable Description tab on all object dialogs. Use these to provide a text description to document the object. These descriptions can be included in a Model Report as described “Model Report”.

The Open Object dialog was reimplemented and improved for usability:

As described in the special attention notes, The optimization solver IBM ILOG CPLEX is now bundled with RiverWare. To access the solver, your RiverWare license must specifically allow you access to the solver library.

Optimization problems are now written in CPLEX's SAV binary format.

Many improvements were made to optimization diagnostics. Previously, diagnostics were either on or off for optimization, with no filtering. Now there are meaningful categories and better messages, particularly for variable replacement and approximation. Print statements within Optimization goals are now supported. See “Optimization Diagnostics” in Debugging and Analysis for more information.

When you initiate a run from either the Run Control dialog or the SCT, RiverWare now identifies situations in which you may have mistakenly omitted a run in the typical optimization run sequence (Simulation e Optimization e Rulebased Simulation). If an anomaly is noticed, a dialog will ask you if you want to continue. There are currently two specific scenarios that will be caught:

In RiverWare optimization, pool elevation is approximated by storage. A constraint that only references pool elevation on a level reservoir is replaced by an equivalent storage constraint without approximation error. In all other cases pool elevation is replaced with a linear or piecewise-linear function of storage. A linear function is used when a constraint is of the form “Pool Elevation ± x = y,” “Pool Elevation ± x >= y,” or “Maximize Pool Elevation ± x” while a piecewise-linear function is used for the other cases, “Pool Elevation ± x <= y,” or “Minimize Pool Elevation ± x.” Linear replacement in general is either by selecting a point tangent to the nonlinear curve, or by choosing two points that form a secant with the curve. Each linear approximation uses one of these approaches.

Previously, RiverWare used the Tangent method for Pool Elevation. The code was changed to now use the Secant method. This change allows users to effectively have the same approximation for any form of a Pool Elevation constraint or objective function by specifying the same two points for Secant and Piecewise in the Pool Elevation LP Param table. All optimization users are likely to see different results as a result of this change from the Tangent approximation to the Secant approximation. To nearly replicate the previous results the Secant approximation points should be set very close to the Tangent point, but the points must be different. However, users may prefer the results obtained with different values of the secant points. Changing the points can improve or degrade approximation error depending on the nature of the solution.

A new method was added to the Optimization Evaporation Computation category for reservoirs: Opt Input Evaporation. The method is analogous to the Input Evaporation method in simulation. It allows you to input Evaporation Rate and Precipitation Rate for each timestep and the method calculates Evaporation as the product of Evaporation Rate, Average Surface Area and Timestep length (similarly for Precipitation). Evaporation and Precipitation are then added to the mass balance constraint.

The Use Elevation Approximation Points method was added to the Evaporation Linearization Automation category. The method copies the storage values in the Pool Elevation LP Param slot to automatically populate the Surface Area LP Param slot.

The Model Report output device provides a way to create an HTML document describing many aspects of a model. It was enhanced to provide additional content and formatting options as follows:

For more information on Model Reports click “Model Report” in Output Utilities and Data Visualization.

In the plotting utility, the axis configuration dialog was modified so that you can optionally enter a label for an axis and optionally specify a unit label. This separates the two concepts and allows axis titles to be, for example, Elevation, Elevation: ft, or just ft, depending on your preference. Separating these concepts allows for better behavior of the axis labels when units are changed.

Further, the precision displayed on the axis for a plot can now be:

The Plot Dialog's Auto-Scale feature scales and translates the plot to include the entire range of data including plot markers. Previously, markers were ignored in the scale computation.

Controls were added to the Pie Chart configuration to give you control over the precision of numbers displayed. Two options are available:

Following are changes made to the interface when editing RPL Expressions:

For expression slots, the variable ThisObject was implemented. This variable can be used to access the containing Data Object. This variable was previously available for Object Level Accounting Methods.

The RPL Function Argument Editor was re-implemented and enhanced to always show the pulldown menu controls. See the following image.

The run time performance of models that contain many calls to the Hypothetical Simulation RPL functions was significantly improved. In a 10 year daily timestep test model with many calls to HypTargetSim, the run time was reduced by 53%. Note, the run time reduction is a function of the number of timesteps in the run, the number of calls to these functions, the number of objects in the subbasins, and the number of values being set on those objects within the hypothetical simulation.

Previously, the maximum rule executions per timestep was hard coded to 50. Now, you can control this value by setting the Maximum Rule Executions Per Timestep parameter in the Rulebased Simulation Run Parameters dialog accessed from the Run Control's View menu. The value limits the number of times any rule can execute during a timestep. If this limit is exceeded, the run is aborted with an error message. The default remains 50.

New RPL predefined functions, DispatchTime and DispatchCount were added. They return the time and count, respectively, of dispatch method executions that have occurred since the beginning of the current run. See also this similar functionality described “RPL Analysis Tool” for the RPL Set Analysis tool.

See “DispatchCount” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) and “DispatchTime” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) for more information on these functions.

Two new RPL Predefined Functions were added: GetSlotValsNanToZero and GetSlotValsByColNanToZero. These behave like GetSlotVals and GetSlotValsByCol, respectively, except that any NaN is replaced with zero and returned. Also these functions do not support Periodic Slots.

See “GetSlotVals and GetSlotValsNaNToZero” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) for more information.

A new RPL predefined function ListDownstreamObjects was added. It takes two objects and returns an inclusive list of all linked main channel objects in upstream to downstream order. See “ListDownstreamObjects” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) for more information.

A new RPL predefined function SlotWeightedAverageOverTime was added. It computes a series slot's weighted average over a given time period, using another series slot’s values in that same time range as the weights.

See “SlotWeightedAverageOverTime” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) for more information.

A new RPL predefined function SolveTurbineRelGivenEnergyInflow was added. This function computes, on a Level Power Reservoir, the Turbine Release necessary to produce the specified Energy. If the Energy cannot be met, the maximum Turbine Release is returned.

See “SolveTurbineRelGivenEnergyInflow” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL) for more information.

The RPL set editor has a new way to organize the contents of a RPL set. The Report Groups tab allows you to add and organize references to the following items:

Report Groups can be output to a Model Report at described “Model Report”.

For more information on Report Groups, see “Blocks and Groups” in RiverWare Policy Language (RPL).

The RPL Analysis tool now shows two additional variables:

Use the Window p Column menu to add these items. See also this similar functionality described “DispatchTime and DispatchCount”

The Scenario Manager was reimplemented and enhanced as follows:

See “Introduction” in Output Utilities and Data Visualization for more information.

A Scenario Sandbox provides a convenient way for the scenario users (e.g. the stakeholders) to easily create and run scenarios and view results. The configuration of the sandbox is defined by the baseline creator. The Scenario Sandbox supports the following functionality:

Following is a screenshot of an example sandbox: 

See “Scenario Sandbox” in Output Utilities and Data Visualization for more information.

A warning confirmation is now provided when you close an SCT. This should help to prevent inadvertent loss of an SCT that has not been saved.

As part of Unit Schemes (“Unit Schemes”), the slot configuration dialogs were re-implemented.

The scheme is now displayed and you choose to use the settings as follows:

In the second two cases, an exception is added to the active unit scheme.

In addition, the sense/wording of Convert slot value to new units and scale was changed to Repair incorrect units. As this action does change underlying values, a confirmation was added.

Finally, an Is Integer check box was added for slots that are integers. This is available on Data Object slots. The primary use of this flag is to signal that values should always be displayed with 0 precision.

As part of Unit Schemes (“Unit Schemes”), the configure existing slots dialog (i.e. the Global Slot Configuration) was changed. Now only the following can be changed in this dialog

Slot display attributes, which were previously supported on this dialog (Unit, Scale, Precision, Format), are now configured on the Unit Scheme Manager.

Multi-column slots can now be configured from the View menu using one of the following options:

Previously, this functionality was within the configuration dialog, not on the View menu.

A new type of slot Series Slot with Periodic Input was added. This slot allows you to input data in series or periodic form and switch between the two.

You can create these slots on data objects. In addition, the following five slots on the Reservoir objects were converted to this type: Irrigated Area Loss Rate, K Factor, Meadow Area Loss Rate, Pan Ice Switch, and Pan Evaporation. Existing data in these slots is preserved.

For more information, see “Series Slots With Periodic Input” in User Interface.

A new type of slot Time Aggregation Series Slots was added. Time Aggregation Series Slots temporally aggregate a selected series slot. For example, you might aggregate a daily flow to an annual average. They are created on data objects and can be recomputed manually or automatically at the end of a run. The configuration of a Time Aggregation Series Slot includes the following properties:

For more information, see “Time Aggregation Series Slots” in User Interface.

An accounting multi slot (E.g. obj^account.Outflow, obj^account.Inflow, etc.) will now show a note if one is added to a linked supply. This allows you to annotate a supply and the note will show up on the linked upstream and downstream account slots. See “Accounting Multi Slot Notes” in User Interface for more information.

The previous optimization system required that many slots have multiple columns, i.e. they were implemented as Aggregate Series Slots. This is no longer required, so many slots have been converted to plain Series Slots. When you first load your model, there will be diagnostic warnings alerting you to the changed slots. No further action is necessary.

The Mass Balance Summary Slot now has user controls for scale (pull down) and precision (View->Precision). These slots are controlled by Unit Schemes but you can create exceptions directly from the slot dialog.

Also, in prior versions, the Mass Balance Slot supported only Flow and Volume unit slots. It now supports Mass unit slots. All slots summed by a Mass Balance Slot must be either Flow or Volume units OR Mass units.

The interpolate function (Edit  Interpolate) now supports an operation to interpolate between (and not overwrite) intervening Inputs, if any are found. (See image below).One possible application of this is filling in gaps within series data. This functionality exists for both the slot and SCT dialogs.

Exporting and re-importing Snapshot data objects was previously not fully supported: the associations of the Snapshot object's slots with the original slots had not been retained. This has been modified so that now snapshot objects can be imported and they will still refer to their source slots. Also, now Snapshot objects obtain their unit specifications from their source slot.

A Unit Scheme describes how RiverWare will display numeric slot values in terms of four display attributes (collectively called “units”):

These four attributes are shown in the following example.

You can view and edit the Unit Scheme definitions and easily switch the active Unit Scheme using the Unit Scheme Manager (Units Unit Scheme Manager menu).

Following are some features of unit schemes:

For more information on Unit Schemes click “Unit Schemes” in User Interface.

The volume user unit ksfd was added to the units file; 1 ksfd = 1000 cfs-day.

Water Quality was enhanced to provide additional functionality when modeling Salinity. Following are the improvements. Additional Information can be found “Water Quality Overview” in Water Quality.

The following salinity slots were added for completeness when checking mass balance of salt across many objects. Now each variable has a concentration and mass salinity slot:

On aggregate objects (Agg Reach, Distribution Canal, and Aggregate Diversion Site), salt slots are now automatically linked like the flow slots. For the Aggregate Diversion Site, the linking is based on the specified Linking Structure and the selected method on the aggregate. Warning and error messages are posted on model load if there is a problem linking the water quality slots.

A “Salinity” only option was added to the Layered / Discretized solution approach. Many objects were improved or enhanced with methods to model salinity with this approach.

In addition, for all Layered/Discretized salt methods, now the Salt Concentration should be linked instead of Salt Mass. Any models will need to be updated.

Following is a summary of the changes made to each object:

Previously, on the Geospatial canvas of the workspace, you had to specify all of the information about the image and its projection. Now, if the image contains metadata about the projection, RiverWare will configure the geospatial view to show the image in the given projection. Also you can choose to view coordinates in latitude/longitude.

There are many supported image formats (RiverWare uses the GDAL/OGR libraries) but the three most common are:

In addition, to support these new map formats, the Geospatial Canvas Configuration Dialog was re-designed. It now shows three tabs for Image and Coordinate System, Image and Canvas Location, and Additional Display Settings. In the first tab, you can specify/show the projection information. If one of the above map formats is used, then you can also show and modify the geographic coordinates (Latitude and Longitude). The Object Coordinate Manager and the geospatial view status bar now shows these display geographic coordinates.

Finally, there is better support for transitioning existing models to use of the Geospatial view.

For more information, see “Image & Coordinate System Tab” in User Interface.

The following bugs have been closed for this release. For more information on any bug, see the CADSWES website. The bugs are listed in order by bug number: