|
Main Features |
The HELP program was developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment
Station (WES), Vicksburg, MS for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory. The primary purpose of the model is to
assist in the comparison of landfill design alternatives as judged by their
water balances.
- Easy-To-Use
- New Project Wizard
- Project Management
- Customizable Units
- Input data
- Model Profile View
- Database Links
- SWS Weather Generator
- Seamless Integration
- Presentation of Results
- Automatic Report Generator
- Teamwork
- Data Sharing
- Tutorials
 |
|
|
Visual HELP Interface |
|
The interface is divided into three separate views, the Project Data Tree, the
Profile View, and the Output View. When you open or create a project, you will
be able to seamlessly switch between these views to build or modify the landfill
design and model input parameters, run the simulations, and display results
- Project Tree View
- Displays the Visual HELP project you are working
on, the names of each model profile, and each layer in the active model profile
- Acts as a project manager allowing
you to easily create and manage multiple model profiles within the
same Visual HELP project. All model profiles for a project are saved
in the same database for easy access and handling of the model data
and simulation results
- Allows you to easily add, delete,
edit layer properties and group multiple layers using standard right
mouse button operations
- Profile View
- The Profile View provides a
graphical representation of the landfill profile and allows you to
graphically modify the layer geometry using standard
'point-and-click' and 'drag-and-drop' operations
- Add, delete, split or insert
layers, or edit layer properties from the Profile View
- Output View
- Allows you to display all of
the generated weather data and modeling results using a
comprehensive selection of graphical presentation formats
- The display of data can be
modified to choose daily, weekly, monthly or yearly results for
the following simulated parameters
- Precipitation, runoff and
evapotranspiration
- Lateral drainage collected
from selected model layers
- Percolation or leakance
through selected model layers
- Average head accumulated on
selected model layers
|
|
|
Creating a Project |
|
Each new Visual HELP project requires you to enter a unique project name, select
the units (metric or english), and identify the author and the client for the
project. A Project Description field also lets you enter a detailed description
for tracking changes or for future references.
Selecting the Model Location
When you create a new model profile using either Visual HELP or SESOIL, you will
be prompted to select a project location, including the longitude and latitude
of the project location (approximate). The project location information is
stored for general project description information and it is also used to locate
the five nearest weather stations.
Alternatively, you can use the GIS component to graphically locate the project
location (city). You can select from a list of continental GIS maps to use when
selecting the project location.
Selecting the Model Units
Select the Unit Template to apply for both the input parameters and the Output
of modeling results. The Unit Template describes the unit settings for each
parameter used in the model. The default unit template is Customary (American
units) but it can easily be changed to another pre-set unit template such as
Metric, or to a model-specific unit template for SESOIL and VLEACH.
|
|
|
SWS Weather Generator |
|
The SWS Weather Generator is used to create the atmospheric boundary condition
data required by the Visual HELP model.
This database is fully customizable allowing, the user to modify existing data
or create new records to accommodate site specific weather conditions.
Customized weather data can be entered manually, or imported from standard NOAA
format.
Note: The SWS Weather Generator utilizes the weather generation algorithm
developed by the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA). The SWS Weather Generator also includes the weather station database
compiled by USDA containing statistically accurate summaries of the
required climatological data for major weather stations located within
the U.S.
|
|
|
Displaying & Documenting Modeling Results |
|
The Visual HELP Output View automatically reads the results files and provides a
comprehensive selection of graphical formats for displaying the results in a
variety of graphical formats. Time Plot Settings
Visual HELP gives you the ability to report the data for all simulated
variables daily, monthly, or annual values. The hydrological results generated
by the HELP model include time series information such as:
- Precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff
- Lateral drainage collected from selected model layers
- Percolation/Leakance through selected model layers
- Average head values in selected model layers
The Result Category list contains six different data types corresponding to
the six branches of the HELP Model Output Tree. Each branch of the tree has
specific data attributes:
- Daily Output plots the data for each simulated parameter for each day of
a selected year(s) (units of length)
- Monthly Output plots data for each simulated parameter for each month of
a selected year(s) (units of length)
- Annual Total plots the annual summary for each simulated parameter for
each year of the simulation (units of rate, volume or percentage)
- Accumulated plots the accumulated results for each simulated parameter
for each year of the simulation
- Final water storage in Layers at the end of the simulation (units of
length)
- Tables - provides a summary of the selected data
Visual HELP provides a comprehensive selection of data plotting formats to
represent these results using most common plotting techniques including:
- Multi-axes Line Graphs
- Bar charts (horizontal or vertical, individual or stacked)
- Area Graphs and Pie Charts
Visual HELP allows you to modify and customize virtually any characteristic
of your plots including Windows true type fonts, background colors, axes
scaling, symbol types and colors, legend location, etc.
Visual HELP also provides a built-in text editor for viewing and interpreting
the results files generated by the HELP model.
Automatic Report Generator
Visual HELP comes with a built-in report generator that produces a rich
text document file containing a summary of the model profile and input
parameters. The report is generated in a feature-rich document processing
application that allows you to easily customize the document to include
selected plots and/or tables from the modeling results.
|
|
|
|
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)