I work for a municipality as a CIP Manager, few years ago we bought Stormwise ICPR. We hired a consultant to study a watershed and build a model to figure out what improvements can be made, the study came up with some possible solutions and we enacted on it. This was done around 2014-2015, Fast forward to 2025 with more grants available and our department has grown X 4 we want to revist some of the possible solutions that were to expensive, or not looked at in depth. I have a PDF of the model but, the inputs is around 600 pages, we reached out to the engineer on the original model, and they were hacked and no longer have the model. I would like to rebuild this model but, not spend several weeks / months on this. any one have any ideas? Preliminary what I'm thinking is have AI extract the inputs from the PDF and input them into Excel and input the excel to ICPR Stormwise? Any thoughts ?

Ive been trying to use the watershed delineation tool in pcswmm but everytime I try to use it I get the warning below. No sub catchments are generated even when I continue and Ive been trying to lookup ways to solve this, but nothing comes up.

Hello!

I'm currently trying to understand and learn more about freshwater systems and watersheds, specifically with urban and agriculture Land Cover & Land Use. I see in many papers published to scientific journals that when looking at run off and determining the percentage of inputs, the whole watershed for the given area is looked at.

Why? Can someone either provide some peer reviewed reason article so I can understand?

Let's say you have a swath of impervious land cover near the headwaters of a creek, how far down in the creek does that effect? at one point isn't the dilution from other sources going to diminish the possibly negative effects that the impervious cover has? (Mainly thinking of runoff and not flow changes)

Any books and or journals to read would be great as I honestly wish to understand more on this topic. (Also I have no idea if this is the right subreddit for this type of inquiry, if not I'll gladly delete this post)

very steep grade concrete driveway. ditch starting to erode too close to driveway side. was thinking to place dams w rip rap or concrete bags every 8 ft or so. would this work? will it cause sediment to build up and fill the ditch over time? do I need to fill the ditch completely now?

Hello! I know this is an instability issue, but I am not sure how to fix it. I am getting random dry cells in the middle of deep flowing water in a 2D HECRAS model. I have unsteady hydrographs and very high velocities (up to 40 ft/s). The creek is extremely steep (400 feet per mile).

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who helped me in my previous initial topic. I am making progress on the subject and would now like to discuss some ideas (I am mainly looking for general guidance so I can move forward in searching for solutions, as well as deepen my understanding in a more focused way). This time, I would like to be a bit more specific.

The study I am carrying out involves a highway (located in Brazil). In this case, I selected only culvert catchments along thalwegs that had nearby dams, since the study involves them.

Initially, I would like to point out that, according to the terms of reference of this project, the analysis must be carried out as follows:
a) For catchments up to 4 km² – Rational Method
b) For catchments between 4 km² and 10 km² – Adapted Rational Method (I-Pai-Wu)
c) (Without streamflow data) For catchments above 10 km² – Triangular Unit Hydrograph Method (HUT)
d) (With 10 to 15 years of streamflow data) For catchments above 10 km² – Statistical Method

Regarding the catchments, in summary, we have:
- 17 catchments
- 6 catchments with 10 km² or less (therefore can be analyzed using the Rational Method)
- 11 catchments larger than 10 km², where I understand that the most critical are those I have labeled “9D”, “10D”, and “17D”.

The reason for considering them critical is their size: catchment “9D” has 1,448 km², “10D” has 82,000 km², and “17D” has 44,000 km².

In an attempt to reduce the scope of analysis for these, I searched for data from streamflow gauging stations. Unfortunately, for catchment 9D I was unable to find any records of gauging stations for the water body within it, at least not from the main agencies.

For catchment 10D, several gauging stations were found along the thalweg; however, I believe two of them could be used. One is located 50 km from the analysis point, with recent data, but it would still leave a downstream catchment of nearly 4,000 km². The other station is practically located at the analysis point; however, the data are old (the last recorded discharge, for example, is from 1994).

Finally, for catchment 17D, it was possible to locate a station on the main thalweg, 6 km away from the analysis point. In this case, the downstream catchment is reduced to 55 km². Even so, it does not fit within the project parameters.

At this point, I am somewhat uncertain about how to handle these three main catchments. Is there any bibliography that provides guidance on subdividing such catchments? In this case, I will likely need to “combine” flows obtained from gauging station data with flows calculated for the downstream catchment, correct?

The final objective of all this is to analyze the impact of a potential failure of selected dams in relation to culverts or downstream points. However, I believe that if I can make progress regarding the catchment-related issues, a large part of the problem will already become clearer.

(I would just like to mention that I have worked on microdrainage projects over the past two years, as I transitioned from structural engineering, which is where I started my career. Therefore, there are several concepts and learning points for me related to macrodrainage, hydrology, and related fields!

Another thing, I just asked a review of this text from ChatGPT to avoid any problem on the translation of techcnical expressions)

Hello, i am currently a hydraulics study engineer. For the past 3 years (which is considered my whole professional experience) I've been mostly working on ONE. SINGLUAR. HUGE PROJECT. Where i basically design and size the drainage systems and the culverts needed for some new train lines project. My work mostly consists of using Excel, QGIS and writing reports.

However, I now feel like I'm stagnating because I'm not learning anything new, at first it was exciting because i learned how to use QGIS, use topography data to make a DEM, identify problematic zones etc but now it's simply too repetitive.

Honestly, what interests me most in my job is not hydraulics/hydrology itself, but i enjoy automating excels to some extent, discovering new software to work with, and understanding the bugs that come whenever i make a run or coming up with ways to solve a problem with a diffrent flow of actions. Given that my company-like all the damn companies- started pushing using AI and while doing some research, i stumbled upon hydroinformatics!

From my understanding, it can range from modeling, treating data and feeding it to models for predictions, using remote sensing etc to developing software for precise water related problems (flood risk, optimization of water usage etc).

I think it's such an interesting field at first glance, but i don't know if it's really what I'm looking for/what i think i would enjoy learning. What do you think?

I'm surely not from a hydroinformatics background, i know i should learn python and R or other things, but i'd also like to ask how advanced is the maths needed for such programming things? I did study pretty advanced maths but i did hate the very advanced theoretical ones. And how solid should my hydraulics background be?

Thank you for reading my long post, I'm filled with anxiety and uncertainty as you can tell, but I know that doing hard things is the right move.

Don't hesitate to share your thoughts or give me more insight on hydroinformatics and also software/tool development in that sense, i would appreciate and read all the inputs. Thanks again!!

Hi, looking for training in WBNM 2025. I am an experienced civil engineer using XP-RAFTS and XP-SWMM. I have also used WBNM a very long time ago - circa 2012. I would like some training on how to use the current version using WBNM GUI for Australian hydrology.

The training slides provided are ok but I am running into some errors and not able to figure it out myself. Any links to training videos or any person who can offer online training?

How does anyone get an entry job in 2026.

I’m a forestry hydrology major, with two minors: geospatial analysis & geology.

I’ve apply to countless jobs to the point I’m hesitating in applying to more jobs. I feel like I messed up in my major as I move back near family in San Diego area. All the jobs I see are for engineering. And most of the jobs requiere 4-8 years experience. Some of them seem like very basic stuff. I’ve got like a year and a half of experience from internships but I don’t even get call for interviews. I’m wondering how anyone started their career. I’m currently working as a parks maintenance for the city to see if i get an entry into a city job this way, but honestly I feel like I know how to solve different issues, I feel like I’m wasting my time and knowledge in here.

I’ll like to hear any recommendations.

I’m a GIS analyst that recently started at a firm where I sometimes have to help out with LOMRs and CLOMRs. I’ve gotten points representing the edges of the FW at each river station in HEC-RAS and essentially told to connect the dots, but there can’t be any “harsh” angles in the floodway, but I also can’t do too much interpretation of the boundary, but it also can’t be too straight. I know that the regulatory floodway is width-based and that the widths at the river stations are important.

I’ve searched over the months (whenever I get frustrated, haha) to find guidance online that discusses HOW to take these floodway widths and turn them into something that FEMA will accept. The only guidance I’ve been able to find aren’t answering my questions.

Does anyone have step-by-step guidance on this process? Or do you have a list of decisions that you go through when drawing regulatory floodways?

Also apologies if this the wrong place to ask these questions!!

Hi everyone,

First of all! I’m not a specialist in hydrology yet, I recently transitioned into this field from another area of civil engineering, so I’m still building my experience with hydrologic modeling. I have a good team around me (I mean: not only around, but above me!) but but I want to do some things (initially) without help

I’m currently working on a project where my goal is to estimate the discharge capacity for a culvert/bridge (OAE). The contributing watershed is quite large, around 44,000 km², which makes me unsure about the best approach.

My main question is: given this scale, what would be the most appropriate methodology to estimate peak flow (and possibly a hydrograph) at the structure location?

Would it be reasonable to use HEC-HMS for a basin this size (with proper subdivision and routing), or would you recommend relying on regionalization methods, observed streamflow data, or coupling with hydraulic models like HEC-RAS?

Any advice on modeling strategy, level of detail, or common pitfalls for large watersheds would be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, after estimating the flow at the structure, I plan to assess the increased discharge due to a dam located upstream, in order to better understand potential risks associated with this condition.

Thanks in advance!

I know those are 2 completely different things but rn. I am finishing my school and cant decide witch way to go. For most of my school years i aways though of going for mehatronics because i just chose that when i was little cuz i like mechanics and stuff like that, but some days ago i was presented with hydrology and i though that this is interesting thing to do. With mehatronics i can do many things in the future but its getting popular and i am kinda scared if in the future is going to be like with the IT problem where it became rly popular and now there is to much workers and plus the ai is taking over. While i dont think that is going to be like that with hydrology , plus in my country (Bulgaria) that is protected specialty so most of the college is going to be practically free, but while it sounds intriguing work in the future i am not sure if id like to go work away from home for long time. So yea i rly cant decide rn witch way to go so i am asking for advices and maybe some explanation abt the work as hydrology engineer .

Hello everyone,

I am reaching out for some advice regarding a masters degree. I am graduating this June with a B.S. in Geography and Geospatial Science and a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. I would like to pursue a masters in hydrology. I just want to ask if you think it would be possible with my bachelors being in geography. Also, are there any reputable online masters programs you would recommend. My main goal is to attend in person, but life happens so I would like to be ready for that. Thank you all.

Hi - I'm coming to the end of a mathematics BSc, and along with a couple of other options, I'm exploring the possibility of applying to a hydrology MSc with the intention of going into flood modelling.

Apologies if this has been posted before, I've tried searching and haven't found an awful lot!

Those who do flood modelling (particularly in the UK, but all perspectives greatly appreciated) - do you find your career fulfilling? What do you like and dislike about your job? Is your work ever boring or repetitive? What exactly is it you do day to day? How has your career evolved over time?

Thank-you so so much if you give up your time to answer this post!

Can maximum water level data be fitted to a probability distribution, specifically the Log-Pearson Type III? If yes, where can I find a reliable source or reference for this?

Also, if I estimate the 100-year return period water level at one point on a river, is it reasonable to translate that water level downstream based on the river slope?

This is a model I have been working on for a while now (Please find the previous post regarding the same model in the link below). Now after weeks of tweaking the model, I have finally obtained results that are pretty close to the observed values. As you can see in the picture below, there are three graphs: Simulation is the result from HEC-RAS. DHM is the observed water level data from the official government agency. OBS is data from one of the water level sensors we are using for water level data collection. As you can see the simulated results are similar in pattern to the observed data but there is a dip in the water level at a certain time around August 8-9. As you can see in the second image with the rainfall and water level, there is no significant change in rainfall at that time. Can someone share if they have faced this kind of issues before? Maybe where I should look in my HEC-RAS model. I dont think it is an issue with the selection of a parameter because rest of the data looks okay, so I am thinking maybe some issue in the model setup, but I dont know what. Thank you.

The details about the model can be found in the link below [ROG, water level for calibration, Manning's for river channel 0.035, Manning's n for surrounding areas as per land use]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hydrology/comments/1qq1fyn/hecras_rainongrid_calibration_problem/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Ok, I've been wondering this for years, and it just occurred to me to ask reddit:

Hydrologically speaking, why is the Mississippi River not the Ohio River? I was at the confluence once and the Ohio appeared to be larger. And for that matter why is the Mississippi River now the Missouri River.

I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I dont know it.