Introduction

WMS is a comprehensive environment for hydrologic analysis. It was developed by the Enironmental Modeling Research Laboratory of Brigham Young University in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station.

Once boundaries have been created, geometric attributes such as area, slope and runoff distances can be computed automatically. A topological tree representation of the watershed is created, and all data necessary to define hydrologic model can be entered by selecting basins and outlet points. All of the former models (HEC-1, TR-55, TR-20, Rational, and NFF) are still supported with version 8.0, with the additions of a complete HMS (the replacement to HEC-1) interface and an interface to the Orange County (California) hydrologic models and updates to the Los Angeles County methodologies. Many display options are provided to aid in modeling and understanding the drainage characteristics of terrain surfaces.

WMS was designed as a comprehensive hydrologic modeling system. An interface to a spatially distributed model, GSSHA (formerly CASC2D), is part of the current version of WMS. However, this model is still under review and is not available for public release.

The WMS interface for hydraulic modeling using HEC-RAS was added with version 7.0 and enhancements to this interface are a part of 8.0. The RAS model can be run as steady state or unsteady and results used to delineate floodplain extents and animations of flood waves for complete flood plain analysis. A simplified (tactical) dam break model derived from the weather service's DAMBRK model (SMPDBRK) has been added to WMS in version 8.0.

Many improvements to the storm drain model, now being used as a part of the Federal Highways training program are a part of this new version.