Angel Luis, Aldana Valverde and EDAPHI

The principles of environmental design

The design and development of EDAPHI is based on the following conditions that are considered mandatory for a solution to build hydrological monitoring and forecasting systems.

First condition: user-oriented

This platform has been designed and developed with an approach that is based, first of all, on the user. Thus, at least three types are distinguished:

• Generic user. - Requires easily interpretable information that does not imply knowledge of hydrology, either general or specific.

• Hydrologist user. - Can work with information that requires some knowledge of general hydrology and interpret graphs and other complex results.

• Hydrologist user expert in the system. - This type of hydrologist knows the fundamentals of the system, so he already has the ability to not only interpret, but also supervise the operation of the system and adjust the necessary parameters.

• Programmer (computer scientists, preferably with knowledge in hydrology, and hydrologists with some programming knowledge). - You will be able to build a system or modify an implemented system to adapt it to specific needs

The following table presents the tools and means that a system implemented with EDAPHI makes available:

Second condition: open, adaptable and configurable

The system is built based on open source, with multiple ways to adapt solutions and configure application cases. It has no limitations in use and has the capacity to integrate into other systems, even those that cannot be integrated into others.

Third condition: low implementation, maintenance and operation costs

A common reason why a monitoring and forecasting system stops working, or does so unsatisfactorily, is because there are not enough financial resources to operate it. This solution is based on low costs from implementation and throughout its life cycle. Your needs are minimal in all aspects, resulting in affordable costs

Fourth condition: simplicity, robustness and speed

The simplicity of the hydrological forecasting system, within the inevitable complexity imposed by the problem for which it is built, is one of the fundamental conditions for its use in real time. An aspect that is closely related to it being robust and having short execution times without the need for large machine requirements for calculations.

Fifth condition: integrability

There are solutions that are sold as integrative, but the question must be asked if they can be integrated into other systems.

EDAPHI provides a platform for developing solutions that can be easily integrated into other systems, for which its modules can be used via commands or via programming with Python. On the other hand, it has many modes of information exchange.