HydroBIM's journey: Designing the drainage of an African railway from Europe
- Use cases
HydroBIM, a specialist water engineering company, recently took on the challenge of designing the drainage system for a large-scale infrastructure project in East Africa - managed entirely from their European office in Poland.
HydroBIM planned surface water management for a large infra project in East Africa.
Scalgo Live is now a global platform, enabling users worldwide to explore surface water and experiment with various solutions. In regions without pre-prepared national elevation data, users can upload their own elevation models to conduct comprehensive analyses directly within the platform.
Surface water planning is a critical global challenge in infrastructure development. Roads, highways and railroads inherently alter natural water flow, making comprehensive surface water management essential to prevent potential flooding.
Images from the project site location (courtesy of HydroBIM's project partner).
Wojciech Korona is a hydroengineer and the Technical Director at HydroBIM, with extensive experience in the water and sanitation sector. In this blog, Wojciech explains how Scalgo Live supported in the planning and design of a new railroad in East Africa - a project they managed from their office in Poland - effectively addressing various geographical challenges.
1. Map initial conditions - Importing data
"Working on a strategic project requires very good assessment of the initial conditions. As part of the kick-off phase, it is necessary to identify the key elements needed to prepare optimal design solutions both technically and financially", says Wojciech.
HydroBIM began by importing detailed elevation data and land cover information into Scalgo Live. This step provided an immediate overview of the project location's surface water conditions. As part of the initial assessment, they mapped flow paths, watersheds, and flood-prone areas, establishing the foundation for further analysis and planning.
Importing data to Scalgo Live is a very easy process. The data is downloaded into a Workspace whereafter the surface water analyses can be computed on the uploaded data.
"I remember using Scalgo Live to demonstrate that the catchment area for a given object wasn't large. Despite suggestions to avoid it due to time constraints, I was able to clearly explain everything in seconds with just one click."
Wojciech Korona, HydroBIM
2. Plan solutions - Run calculations & optimize
With a clear understanding of the hydrological conditions, Wojciech and his colleagues at HydroBIM proceeded to develop drainage solutions with Scalgo Live allowing the team to:
- Analyse the impact of planned surface water structures on runoff and watersheds and decide what to do next.
- Import custom data and designs to assess their effect on the hydrological situation.
- Refine designs through easy and fast iterations.
Mapping of surface water conditions allows for precise placement of structures, such as locations of culverts inlet and outlets in relation to planned ditches and main infrastructure.
"Scalgo Live allows for one-click watershed identification together with its parameters such as land cover classes which are used further as an input information for dynamic modeling calculations"
Wojciech Korona, HydroBIM.
3. Prepare data for HEC-RAS - Export & analyse
Wojciech and his team's workflow seamlessly integrated Scalgo Live with other software. For this project they conducted HEC-RAS simulations to analyse the dynamics of surface water flow:
- They exported the numerical terrain model and land cover model from Scalgo Live
- This data was then used to build a hydrodynamic model in HEC-RAS 2D for dynamic flow simulations
4. Validation of the design - View & present results
The final phase involved validating the drainage system design. The easy data import enabled HydroBIM to quickly check how their design would work when implemented.
- Simulation results from HEC-RAS were imported for easy visualisation and sharing of results.
- The platform facilitated the analysis of results from the dynamic model for planned structures.
- The team could easily present design solutions alongside hydrological and hydraulic considerations.
Hydrodynamic analysis results for a bridge structure.
"Scalgo Live is an essential tool for designers - it speeds up work and enables solution presentations and live updates during meetings."
Wojciech Korona, HydroBIM
HydroBIM's experience demonstrates that with the right tools and expertise, it's possible to design complex infrastructure drainage systems for distant locations. By leveraging the global team in Scalgo Live and integrating it with other specialised software, they successfully bridged the gap between Europe and Africa, setting a new standard for remote infrastructure design.
