Marcus McGrath
Several dams fail or nearly fail each year, including two in Mississippi during late August-early September 2012 in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac. Such catastrophic conditions are why Marcus McGrath’s research at the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering is so valuable.
The Atlanta native, who is pursuing both a master’s and a doctoral degree in engineering science with an emphasis in computational hydroscience, is helping NCCHE develop state-of-the-art software called CCHE2D-FLOOD. Part of the Decision Support System for Water Infrastructural Security (DSS-WISE™), the desktop program is used to accurately calculate the inundated areas — as well as the arrival time — of a flood due to dam breaks or levee breaches.The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked NCCHE to provide an inundation map in case of a breach at Percy Quin State Park Dam last fall.
“We were able to set up and run a dam-break simulation within minutes and provide a predicted inundation flood map to the people on the ground,” McGrath said. “This program is fast enough and flexible enough to provide results during an emergency situation or to predict many possible scenarios ahead of time.”
The resulting inundation map and arrival time data can then be analyzed using the geographic information system-based postprocessor module of DSS-WISE™ to estimate consequences of the flood such as loss of life and urban and rural damage.
McGrath also helps administrate another set of tools called DSS-WISE Lite, of which CCHE2D-FLOOD is a part.
“DSS-WISE Lite is a completely automated system for completing dam-break simulations,” he said. “This system is connected to an online portal called Dams Sector Analysis Tool, a collaborative effort between the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which provides access to a wide range of analytical functions regarding dam safety.”
Together, these tools allow users to obtain a first-tier dam-break analysis within minutes using only a Web browser and minimal information about the dam, and without having to buy expensive software or powerful computers. This is in contrast to current methods, which may cost a significant amount of money and may take months to set up and run by trained engineers. Already more than 130 dams in 19 states have been analyzed using this system, which became operational in February 2012.
The development of these projects is being done almost entirely by McGrath; Mustafa Altinakar, NCCHE director and professor; and Vijay Ramalingam, research software developer. Funding for the project came from the Southeast Region Research Initiative. Partners for these projects include the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and Dams Sector branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Argonne National Laboratory.
More than 84,000 dams are located in the U.S. — most of them privately owned — and many are nearing the end of their intended life span. A large number of these dams do not have a quality emergency action plan.
“In addition to aiding in emergency situations, our system fulfills a need to categorize these dams by greatest risk, allowing resources to be focused on the most important ones,” McGrath said. “We hope that our software and systems will help bring about greater safety concerning the world’s most precious resource: water.”
