QuantyHydrology

Overview

QuantyHydrology is a specialized system for managing, analysing and processing flow and sediment information for major rivers. It carries out a large volume of hydrological and sediment calculations and data processing in one integrated, networked computing environment, advancing the digitization of river basins. The software supports digitizing basic river records and building them into databases, and can store the decades of hydrological and sediment data accumulated for a major river. It performs specialized flow–sediment calculations and visual analysis of hydrological and sediment information, analyses multi-year flow–sediment movement and channel evolution along thousands of kilometres of main stream, and publishes river flow–sediment information and research results online. The work received a Second Prize of the Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award and a Third Prize of the Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology Progress Award from the national surveying and mapping administration, and has been rolled out across all seven bureaux of the Changjiang Water Resources Commission.

The system provides graphic editing, database management, hydrological and sediment analysis and management, 3D visualization, and online publishing.

Functions

Specialized calculation

Calculates hydrological and sediment characteristic values and channel storage, erosion and deposition volumes and their thickness. It also calculates and displays sediment deposition along the Yangtze channel and its plan distribution, supporting analysis of flow–sediment movement in the channel and its effect on erosion and deposition.

Information visualization

Presents hydrological and sediment data, cross-section data and reach topography, and plots every calculation result. It gives hydrological researchers a powerful, intuitive visual analysis tool that turns complex hydrological data into graphics and tables and reveals the patterns hidden in them. Results serve both as a way to present research findings and as a basis for management decisions, and some can be published on the internet as an intuitive hydrological information service for the public.

Channel evolution analysis

Channel evolution is the inevitable result of flow and sediment moving and interacting. This function provides the hydrological and sediment calculations related to channel evolution, automatic thalweg tracing, analysis of changes to banks and shoals, evolution analysis of branching and meandering reaches, cutting sections anywhere, and visualization of the results — meeting the needs of channel evolution work and giving managers and researchers a strong tool for analysis and decision-making.

Information query

Provides information queries for managers at all levels, hydrology and sediment experts, technicians and other users. Query and analysis results are presented concisely as data tables, text panels and graphics, and can be exported to file or printed.

3D analysis

Building on hydrological and sediment analysis and management, and on 2D editing and analysis, it performs 3D flow–sediment analysis: loading DEM and other 3D data, linked 3D queries, layered colouring, excavation analysis, inundation analysis and section cutting. Users can run 3D queries and analysis directly from the 2D environment and see the information for a reach more intuitively, completely and conveniently.

3D visualization

Extends the conventional 2D data model into 3D space with a GIS model that integrates digital orthophotos (DOM), digital elevation models (DEM), digital line graphs (DLG) and digital raster graphics (DRG). The 4D-based 3D terrain visualization system both visualizes 3D data and gives users powerful interactive tools. It merges the real and the virtual into one, delivering true "what you see is what you get" for geographic information and overcoming the abstraction of conventional GIS while keeping its spatial analysis and query functions — the fastest, most direct visual support for decision-making.

Online publishing

Offers web queries of all kinds of hydrological and sediment information; visual analysis and presentation of hydrological and sediment data on the internet; and 3D display and data management over the internet. Users can query and access hydrological records online and keep up to date with conditions on each reach. The system also manages the collected hydrological and sediment records over the network, making remote queries easy.