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<br />."1' <br />.~ {,~:: <br /> <br />OOJ47J. <br /> <br />:..-~ <br /> <br />.<~'7.....:, <br /> <br />"!~ <br /> <br />,,'.-,: <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />DEVELDPMENT'OF A FLASH FLOOD DETECTION. AND WARNING SYSTEM <br />FOR BOULDER COUNTY, COLORADO <br /> <br />REAL TIME DATA ACQUISITION AND MANAGEMENT <br /> <br />r <br />II <br /> <br />George X. Hefnrichs <br /> <br />Boulder County Sheriff's Dep.rtment <br />Technic.l Systens Group' <br />Boulder, Color.do <br /> <br />1. INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />The Boulder'County Sheriff's Dep.rtment; <br />the' Boulder County Publfc Works Dep.rtment; the> <br />City of Boulder, .nd the' Urban ,Drain.ge'.nd.Flood <br />'. Control'Dtstrict.beg.n..acooperative effort in. <br />1977 to develop. system to.providereal~time . <br />'monitoring of fl.sh flood.eventpotenti.l. The <br />systen was initlally. Implemented. using renote .'. <br />.radio telemetry .tipping.bucket. rain g.liges .nd <br />..cont.ct closure. stream,. lI!veL g.uges. ,. All; of.. . <br />the remote sensing equipment inst.lled reported, <br />to .' central ,processing .site viO',. systenot;: <br />r.dio repe.ters., The "Centr.Lsite, was.1i ,Sierr.' <br />. Misco We.therD.ta Te\"lllin.l.' .,~':.' :.,' , <br />. . The We.ther Olta'. Termin.l reported .the <br />time .nd"accumulator value'for..e.ch gauge in.the" <br />systen; Thts systen w.s also c.pable of logging <br />.11 incomtng ,d.t. tr.nsmissions on an ,..ddtng, <br />tape. printer.' This was .ari.:extremely ,import.nt <br />option since. .stngle,.power .h1t~ .wou'ld;result in <br />the loss of .1lhistoricll iI.ta. . .' '. ' <br />In the. c.se,.of .. 'severe '.storm event, per- <br />sonne.l recorded ~heacclljWl.tor,v.lues. for e.ch <br />. remoteg.uge.. and..then used the. data to comp 1 ete <br />'manual.Thiessenpolygonlime~based flow projec- <br />tions 'flir, themajl!r ,basins.'" "These projection~. <br />...redes,igti~il"~p"be ~omplei,ed '!!nce ever,-,1o,:': c' <br />. lIinutes"'and'were; li.lli ted;,to..thec.nalysis'of:~ ,',', <br />threehour event; 'As.t~enumber. of.r.~ngauges <br />grew from tile "initial'.8to"40;:'"lRanli.lilbu-''' . <br />l.ti9n,o(data required at '1e~st20minutes_per, <br />.10 minute cycle; leavlng'techtiical .dvisors and <br />other 'support peTS!!nne 1, overwhe lnie'dwi th : the, data <br />'reduction"task; As a result, .tllere w.s very.", <br />little tillll! for e~aluatirj~ of d~ta;' ,", ' <br />. "The.system:.lso'provi~ed:~o.direct.method <br />of ,c!,",pensati9~ ,far.'.!lalfunctioning or,.de.d". . <br />gauges. 'This proved to be . serious problen <br />since the probability that a lightning strike <br />will c.use gauge failure is high during a storm <br />event. .. \ <br /> <br />, <br />'.'~:.' <br /> <br />2. ACQUISTIDN AND ANALYSIS OF ALERT SOFTWARE <br /> <br />In 1979 we acquired a Radio Sh.ck TRS BO <br />Model II computer systen with ALERT (Autom.ted <br />Loc.l Ev.lu.tton in Re.l Time) softw.re from the <br />N.tton.l We.ther Service. This processor .nd <br />softw.re provided addition.l data reduCtion <br />c.p.bilities, but sttll did not meei'our needs in <br />. the fa !lowi ng .re.s: <br /> <br />A) . Datavalid.tion for incoming gauge <br />reports was jn.dequ.te to 'fUter .the' 'interference <br />level we were.experiencing. Single'gauge'.ma.l-, <br />functions .nd.lnvalid d.ta transmissions. caUSed':' <br />by routlne g.uge malnten.nce resulted' in f.lse <br />alarm conditions..nd erroneousd.ta displ.ys. <br />8)' Systen..display groups werelnflexible'. <br />and did not provide,.n....~ ,identific.tionot; . ". <br />reporting g.uge.-:sites. '. :';. . '. '. '. ;.. <br />C).. Database' m.intenance,utUtties were. . <br />non-existent. and. as a result .rchived d.ta' ' . <br />. contained signifi'c.nt errors. ' .' ,',' .... <br />. . 0) ,,'Alarm .functions were .inflextble. .rid <br />the ..rchitectu..e.nd';packaging :,ot ,the .TRS;,BD. . <br />series'of ;computers,.....de..extern.l',interf.cing". <br />difficult;,.... .,'.. , ; '.' .'. ",., ,...> ; <br />. .E).The:TRSBO MOdelll'was not as.., .... <br />rellable ,as desired'.and required'use .of'complex',.: <br />procedures.tolnitiallze the data collection <br />process. ..... : _ .. . <br />. ..F) .The software avaUable did not".. . <br />support time-based project tons of storm.events.. <br />.G) ,The.d.t. collection procedure ..did not: <br />accept reports from cert.in m.nuf.cturer's g.uges <br />due to ..bit st.tus.dnconsistencies.',..,'''' . <br />'" '~).' The.most 'signific.nt:.deficiency of:: . <br />this..system;,w.s,.iis..tnJhOity;;to.provideJmultt. ...'. <br />tasking(",~Hl~4~@r ~~ppont.,.,TI1e:'need for'.-;',;',,;c";', <br />. cilncurr:e~t~ SUPPil~! ....liF~wh't:,;tf. ':eyent:jll'ilJect i 9ns' <br />.was !s"Slm~i.l .to,p'roride,ad!qui~e!te~hnl~.L'~:"", . <br />,support ,for real-ti.,. warning' decisions; " :0:'- <br />. . Since.,sou~ce.:.code was ,.nOt,av.llable .for <br />this version 'of the', AlERT .sySten; ,it was .' <br /><:.' imposs.ible,to correct these'deflcie~cies.,:'., <br />", Project. personnel )'e~e, ~eluctant.tQ.develop... <br />.dditional software..whi.ch wouJd...be, dependent upon, <br />thts h.rdware :,.nd 'oper..ting. syst~. J',: ,",,: <br /> <br />3. .-DEVELOPMENT 'OF.THE' STORIlMSYSTEM <br /> <br />, ", ~,L'. " ;' ",-' , ',,': <br />The.STORRM (Sheriff's Telemetry Operated <br />R.infall ;and:RtYer'-.Monitor.) systen. was 'developed. <br />by the Boulder County Shertff!.s Dep.rtment . ..' <br />Technic.l Systems. Group'.nd Emergency Services <br />o tv is i on to correct these def i c i enc t es .nd to <br />meet .ddition.ldesign criteria identified <br />through p.st ,experience. <br />The crttic.lity of thts appltc.tion w.s a <br />major. factor. tn h.rdw.re and softw.re configu- <br />r.tion'decisions. Potentt.lly hundreds of l1ves <br />m.y depend on the proper .nd reliable oper.tton <br />of the system. The b.se processor chosen w.s the <br />