JanJaap (JJ) Brinkman
Director Deltares Singapore Branch
Co-Director NUSDeltares
Innovations in hydro-modelling
software

What is Deltares?

What is Deltares?
The Dutch Water and Subsurface
research Institute

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Deltares in het kort
15 years old Deltares 2008
100 years of expertise Delft Hydraulics 1927

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Deltares in het kort
15 years old Deltares 2008
100 years of expertise GeoDelft 1934
TNO groundwater & subsurface
Public Works knowledge units

Deltares is the independent National Research Institute in
the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure.
➢ We are one of the 5 Dutch TO2 (=Applied Research)
Institutes, together with MARIN, NLR, TNO and WUR
➢ Not-for-profit
➢ Unique hydraulic/geotechnical laboratories and leading
computer modeling facilities (freeware /
open-source policy)
➢ 840 staff (mostly MSc/PhD, 39 nationalities)
➢ Offices in Delft and Utrecht, The Netherlands
and branch offices in Singapore, Indonesia, USA,
Abu Dhabi/Dubai and Vietnam.
Dutch National Research Institute

In Singapore

NUSDeltares
The long-term knowledge
alliance
National University of
Singapore NUS and Deltares

SDWA
The Singapore Delft Water Alliance
NUSDeltares
The long-term knowledge
alliance
National University of
Singapore NUS and Deltares

SDWA 2006 – 2012
The Singapore Delft Water Alliance
NUS-TUDelft-Deltares
NUSDeltares
The long-term knowledge
alliance
National University of
Singapore NUS and Deltares

Now with TMSI, CNCS,
NUS Cities,
TUDelft and
also…
NUSDeltares
The long-term knowledge
alliance
National University of
Singapore NUS and Deltares

TCOMS - the National Hydrodynamic
Research Institute

TCOMS – Deltares
Long-term cooperation
Combined development and
innovation
on water management
for Singapore and the region
TCOMS - the National Hydrodynamic
Research Institute

Innovations for Singapore and the region
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• NEPTUNE water quality monitoring and modeling (NEA)
• Tuas groundwater study (PUB)
• Jurong Island groundwater extraction studies, Phase 1 and Phase 2 (PUB)
• Polder development Pulau Tekong, Smart Polder System (HDB)
• Environmental Impact Study of land reclamation (HDB)
• In-Stream wetlands (Nparks)
• Vulnerability of reservoir water quality to climate change (PUB)
• Old alluvium groundwater recharge (PUB)
• Operational management systems for optimal reservoir operation (PUB)
• Wave overtopping study (BCA)
• Feasibility study Mandai mangrove and Mudflat rehabilitation (Nparks)

Lab Facilities,
Experiments
and
Software
DELTARES
TCOMS NUS

And together we have and develop Software…
Over
Deltares
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Hydrosoftware Geosoftware Games en apps Decision support
tools

Groundwater projects Singapore (2012-2019)
• Groundwater Modeling and Risk Assessment Study for
Jurong Island (phase 1 and 2)
− 2013-2019
• Evaluation of risk and potential of groundwater in Tuas
reclamation
− 2016-2019
• Groundwater Potential of offshore Old Alluvium in
Singapore
− 2015-2016

Polder development at Pulau Tekong (2014 – now)
• New polder development, first-of-its kind in Singapore;
− Leads to a substantial reduction of sand demand
• The reclaimed land is below the surrounding sea level and
protected from the sea by a dike;
− 10 kilometers long, up to 15 meters wide at its crest, 6 meters above sea level
• The polder has a comprehensive water management
system;
− Extensive drainage network, a fresh water body and two pumping stations
• Involved agencies: HDB, PUB
• Continuation:
− Ongoing combined research on future Polder Design Requirements (CoT)
− Future living Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BZB6ko_Nc

Water Quality of Reservoirs and Coastal Waters
Reservoirs
• Explore the impacts of climate change, changes in land-use,
and social-economic development on water quality in
Singapore reservoirs over next 100 years and define possible
mitigation measures.
− 2016
Coastal waters
• Neptune OMS, developing, implementing and validating the
national water-quality monitoring and prediction service for
Singapore’s coastal waters.
− 2011-2014

Neptune model

Nature June 29 – New coastal level dataset…
The world is changing, certainly in SE Asia…

Of course our software solutions are changing too…
• Technically ready for next-gen questions
− VERY large amount of computations (e.g. probabilistic risk)
− VERY large domains (e.g. flood impact forecasting on entire continental coastline)
• Sustainable
− Have local entities work with models
− Have local entities bring their own local data into models
− rapidly urbanizing areas: models kept up to date locally.
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Technical requirement: SPEED
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1. Demand in practice → modeling needs to be faster: need for speed!
− Rapid assessments for desktop studies
− Forecasting 100s of ensemble member for extreme weather impacts
− Event sets for insurance industry → 10,000s years of synthetic simulations over
very large domains
2. Compound flooding requires taking into account more-and-more
processs
− Hydrology (local rainfall, upstream flow, dam management etc.)
− Wave-driven flooding via Xbeach-1D can be cumbersome + high model
resolution can be prohibitive
− Subgrid topography for sub-grid cell variability may be required
− Groundwater flooding?

SFINCS is open-source
GPLv3 licensed code https://github.com/Deltares/SFINCS
Beta executable, downloadable from https://download.deltares.nl/en/download/sfincs/
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All developments are aimed for speed with preservation
of as much physics as possible
• Point sources (rivers and pumps)
• Levees (weir formula)
• Rainfall and infiltration
• Wind forcing and atmospheric pressure
• Coriolis
• Viscosity
• Geographic coordinates
• Sub-grid topography

Compound probabilistic flooding.
Also part of Singapore’s National Model…
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Co-occurrence Dependence

• Technically ready for next-gen questions
− VERY large amount of computations (e.g. probabilistic risk)
− VERY large domains (e.g. flood impact forecasting on entire continental coastline)
• Sustainable
− Have local entities work with models
− Have local entities bring their own local data into models
− rapidly urbanizing areas: models kept up to date locally.
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Of course our software solutions are changing too…

Moving towards HydroMT
HydroMT (Hydro Model Tools) is an open-source Python package at the interface between
data, users, and water system models.
It includes GIS, hydrological, statistical and plotting methods needed for rapidly building inter-connected
environmental models for hydrology, water quality, groundwater, water resources and environmental
impacts applications.
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Build Update Plot Stat
Cloud-ready
Scalable
Reproducible
Flexible
Fast

About HydroMT: Building a model
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Steps to build a model
1. Select the data you want to use by
preparing a data catalog or use a pre-
defined one.
2. Select your region of interest.
3. Select the model components you want to
build and the options (data source,
resampling method etc.) by preparing a
model setup configuration file or
use a pre-defined one.
4. Build your model using the Command Line
Interface (CLI) or Python.
> hydromt build model “my_model” “{‘basin’: [x,y]}” -i model_build.ini
-d data_catalog.yml -vv

About HydroMT
Data-centred model building with HydroMT
− Rapid model building/updating globally
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Useful in quick scan analysis
Ventiane Laos example: flood hazard and impact mapping
Wflow + SFINCS + Delft-FIAT
Useful in data-scarce regions
Coumpound flood modelling Mozambique

Make use of Global datasets and tools

From fighting against water to living with water
From civil engineering to nature based solutions
Paradigm shift

Towards HydroMT…
Data-centred model building with HydroMT - plugins
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https://deltares.github.io/hydromt/latest/index.html

Global Tide and Storm Surge Model
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Global Tide and Surge Model
• Depth-averaged barotropic model, no boundary
conditiond
• Delft3D Flexible Mesh
• Unstructured grid with resolution increasing towards
the coast
Applications
• Metocean & boundary conditions for local models
• Operational forecasting
• Reanalysis of historical extremes
• Future climate projections
Usage
• Large internal exposure & usage
• Basis of IPCC-AR6 assessment on SLR and various
ohter web-based tools
• Many high-impacts publications
GTSM wiki:
https://publicwiki.deltares.nl/display/GTSM/
Global+Tide+and+Surge+Model

Gravity potential
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- Tides are fully driven by
tidal potential. There are
no boundary conditions
- Tides indirectly generate
their own gravity potential
feedback.
- The solid earth yields
under tidal pressure.
- Together these are
called Self-attraction and
loading

Global datasets and tools, how will the tides change?

South-East-Asia surge
and tide Model
(SEASAT)

South-East-Asia surge
and tide Model
(SEASAT)

Storm Surge Model
•Open BC
•India Ocean
•Pacific Ocean
•ArafuraSea

Gulf of Bengal model
Singapore
model
Gulf of Thailand model
South China Seas
model
Java Sea
model
Banda Sea
model
TCOMS – Deltares will
Invite / Initialize
The SE Asia(n)
Platform
April/May 2023
North Australia Coastline
model

Global Data Services
Making global data available
on a digital platform for everyone
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Deltares
Software
Days
South-East
Asia
2019

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Proud you are here as part of our large Open Source User Community…

08:30 – 09:00 Registration and coffee
09:00 – 10:30 Opening
• Official opening of the DSD-SEA 2023 – Prof. Yong (NUS)
• Introduction and Program – JanJaap Brinkman (NUSDeltares)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea and coffee break
10:30 – 12:00 Block I: Global to local approaches
• Global to local multi-hazard forecasting: Deltares global model, system and
service – Kun Yan (Deltares)
• 3D hydrodynamic and water quality modelling for Hong-Kong – Julien
Groenenboom (Deltares)
• Global vegetation monitoring – Bregje van Wesenbeeck (Deltares)
• Large scale groundwater management – Ali Meshgi (Deltares)
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:30 Block II: Long-term planning – climate change and climate resilience
• Flood Hazard and mitigation in cities: the example of Charleston SC – Prof. Ap
van Dongeren (Deltares – NUSDeltares)
• Environmental Change in the Mekong Delta: Integrated Modelling – Dr. Sepehr
Eslami (Deltares)
• BlueCAN: cutting carbon emissions by improving water quality – Dr. Guus
Kruitwagen (Witteveen+Bos)
• Climate Stress Test Toolbox – Hélène Boisgontier (Deltares)
14:30 – 15:00 Tea and coffee break
15:00 – 16:30 Block IV: Short-term planning – forecasting and operational systems
• Australian Flood Inundation Forecasting System (FliFS PoC) – Shoni Maguire
(Australian Climate Service) & Chris Leahy (Bureau of Meteorology)
• Bangkok flood forecasting and early warning system – Dr. Siriluk Chumchean
(Panya Consultants Co., Ltd.)
• Environmental and Hydro informatics Integration in the Taiwan River basins –
Jhih-Cyuan Shen, Ph.D. (FondUS Technology)
• Oil Particle Tracking Modelling – Yanna Zhou (National Environment Agency)
16:30 – 17:00 Closing
• Summary of the day and introduction to the courses
• Closing ceremony
17:00 – 18:30 Drinks and networking

Courses – 23rd
and 24th
February
During the following two days, three one-day courses will be organised to get users introduced to different
Deltares software for groundwater modelling, coastal planning, and river basin forecasting. Each course is given
twice so that attendants can decide to follow the two software of their choice. The three courses are:
Groundwater modelling using iMOD Suite
In this course, we will study how the iMOD Suite provides tools to efficiently build and
visualize groundwater models for applications such as groundwater availability, recharge
and tracking of groundwater flow paths.
River basin forecasting using Delft-FEWS and Wflow
In this course, we will discuss the basic principles of river basin forecasting and how Delft-
FEWS provides the platform for forecasting systems. River basin modelling will use Wflow,
Deltares’ state-of-the-art and open-source hydrological modelling framework.
Hydrodynamic modelling using Delft-3D FM
In this course, we will explore how Delft-3D FM supports detailed hydrodynamic modelling
of rivers, coasts, or urban cities utilizing a flexible mesh concept.

• Software as a Service
• Data as a Service
• Model as a Service
• Computing as a Service
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Into the cloud

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• Innovation as the driving force
• Continuous improvement of work processes
• Tapping new data sources
• Exploring new technologies
• New distribution channels for data, models, software
• Cooperation!
Ready for the future

Please enjoy
Thank You