Introduction to Source

Welcome to Source - an application that can be used for both catchment and river modelling. Source provides a flexible structure that allows you to select a level of model complexity appropriate to the problem at hand and within any constraints imposed by your available data and knowledge. You can construct models by selecting and linking component models from a range of available options.

Source is designed to:

• Support the construction and operation of river models that mimic river behaviour. Water resource systems can be analysed for periods that range from days to many years; and
• Allow you to construct and interrogate water and contaminant transport models to assess the impact of future change, on parameters of interest.

You can build various kinds of scenarios, including:

• River Manager scenarios to understand and explore long term river behaviour;
• River Operator scenarios, which are intended to support day-to-day operations; and
• Catchment scenarios, which are intended to model water quality constituents (eg salinity).

This guide package provides

• information on operating Source, including specifying catchment geometry, selecting component models, generating river models, running a project and viewing results;
• an overview of the broad concepts underlying Source; and
• information on data formats compatible with Source.

You can find additional information in the following places:

• An email group, accessed from Toolkit at http://www.toolkit.net.au/; and
• Online training, available from http://www.training.ewater.com.au/

As a major provider of modelling products, eWater is responsible for ensuring they are well used. To this end, a set of generic guidelines have been published to promote a best practice, quality assured approach for:

• The application of modelling tools, primarily to address water management problems; and
• The provision of decision support to end-users of model results.

These guidelines cover risk assessment, decision support, and communication and interaction between you and end-users of model results, as well as technical aspects of modelling. They also provide a framework for a series of guidelines relevant to the application of certain functionality in Source, such as modelling storages and wetlands, modelling water sharing rules and uncertainty analysis.

This "key" symbol is associated with recommendations and guidelines for best practice modelling provided by a panel of experienced Source users. However, they are not necessarily appropriate in every situation. You should always rely on your own judgement and experience to decide whether to incorporate a particular recommendation or guideline into your model.

A comprehensive glossary of terms used in Source water resource management and catchment management is available here.

Source is designed for managers, researchers, modellers and consultants to develop computer simulation models of rivers and catchments so as to firstly, understand and explore important aspects of their behaviour and secondly, guide decision making.

To use Source, you should have a good working knowledge of catchment hydrology, integrated catchment modelling, river systems and river system modelling and, preferably, the support of experienced users. This reference manual assumes you have a basic knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry equivalent to completing high school or introductory tertiary courses.

Information produced by Source may be useful for a broader audience of people, including:

• Management and government representatives who want to understand how and where model results were obtained;
• Clients, such as resource managers (of catchments or water), water planners and operators, who rely on a model’s results but are not necessarily interested in the detail of the model development process. They are often, however, interested in understanding general configuration and application issues;
• People affected by decisions supported by model results or who have a general interest in water use in a river system (eg irrigators or environmental groups); and
• People with an interest in water science, who may use model results and want to understand the model’s behaviour.

Since its original implementation as the E2 Modelling Framework, Source has transformed over the years to incorporate the management of catchments and rivers. The framework was originally a basic set of model selection, analysis and scenario tools. Later on, it was split into catchments (under the name WaterCAST) and rivers (Source Rivers). WaterCAST extended the original E2 modelling framework with new models and scientific functionality. WaterCAST was renamed Source Catchments in its first public release, in July 2010.

Source Rivers incorporated River Manager and River Operator, and together, they dealt with the management of river systems. Source Rivers was combined with Source Catchments to create Source in 2011.

Source can be used to:

• Construct river system simulation models that trace water movement through a river system over time;
• Track the ownership of water volumes as they move through a system;
• Understand the generation, transport, transformation, and fate of nutrients and other pollutants; and
• Develop, test and refine management interventions to improve water quality in rivers and reduce pollutant loads to receiving waters.

Generally, Source models are run over periods of the order of years (eg. 100 year simulations) and on either monthly or daily time-steps. Other simulation period lengths and time-steps can be used as are appropriate for the issues being investigated.

As a Source user, you should be familiar with modelling issues such as:

• Detail/resolution requirements and capabilities;
• Choice and application of suitable rainfall runoff, constituent generation and filtering models;
• Choice and application of suitable models for runoff routing and in-channel processing;
• Implications of linking component models together; and
• Uncertainty in data and parameters, and the propagation of uncertainty through to results.

In the case of river operations, you should also know about:

• The daily operation of a river system including flows, dams, weirs, and power plants; and
• The likely response of the river system to operational changes.

It is strongly recommended that you attend Source training to become familiar with how it operates, along with its capabilities and limitations.

Source embodies a new approach to catchment modelling that encourages not only a new way of thinking about constructing models, but also about managing catchment management problems. As with all models, however, there are limitations:

• Source adopts a particular conceptual framework, which may not be appropriate for all problems;
• Source models are built from components. Users need to choose components to build a model to simulate those aspects of river and catchment behaviour that are of interest. Useful models can only be constructed where components are available and where the appropriate components are selected;
• Reliable models also require data that can be used for validation, calibration and checking; and
• Source is not suitable for detailed hydraulic or ecological modelling.

Access to these guides 

You need an eWater toolkit login to access these guides in Confluence.

These guides, in particular, the Source User Guide is set out in a similar way to the Source User Interface in that the main component models are described in turn. However there are also many cross-cutting issues. For example functionality that allows forecasting of flows and constituents applies to many types of nodes. These cross-cutting issues are deal with in separate sections with cross referencing to the descriptions in nodes, links and other components. In addition to forecasting, cross-cutting issues include ownership, ordering, modelling urban systems and resource assessment.

The user interface reference section of the User Guide provides an overview of all the menus, sub-menus and toolbars available in Source, along with a brief description of each of their functions.

These guides have been designed so that they are best viewed electronically. The Source User Guide provides information on operating Source, building and running various scenarios, and viewing and understanding the results. The Source Scientific Reference Guide provides the scientific background of each component used in Source.

Many features of these guide, such as hyperlinks, will not be available if it is printed. 

Searching this guide

You can search for words or phrases in various ways:

• Press Ctrl+F to open the search panel. Enter the search item and view the hits.

You can add comments to each page of the Scientific Reference Guide and User Guide, using the commenting tools built into Atlassian Confluence. You will need an account set up for you by eWater to do this. To request an account please email community@ewater.com.au. These comments will be reviewed periodically by the eWater community team. 

To add a comment, or to provide feedback, scroll to the bottom of a Confluence page and click on the box next 'pen' icon (Figure 1).

Confluence associates comments with your login name. There is no provision to leave anonymous comments.

Source features

There are several features available in Source that allow you to carry out various functions including:

• Navigation aids are present throughout the guide and indicate the section you are currently viewing. They include nodes and links icons present at the top right side of the section you are currently viewing; and
• Contextual menus can be accessed by right-clicking on various elements in the user interface. In some cases, choices in contextual menus duplicate those in toolbars and the main menu structure. In others, the contextual menus are the only way to access a particular function. All contextual menus available in Source are shown with the relevant feature editor or graphic;