Innovyze Introduces InfoWorks ICM RiskMaster Extension for Economic Evaluation of Flood Risks

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Innovyze Introduces InfoWorks ICM RiskMaster Extension for Economic Evaluation of Flood Risks

Powerful Risk-based Analytics Enable Comprehensive Evaluation of Flooding Event Consequences and Alleviation Strategies

Broomfield, Colorado, USA, January 28, 2014 — Pushing the limits of smart water network innovation, Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, today announced the release of InfoWorks ICM RiskMaster. The revolutionary risk-based analysis extension enables InfoWorks ICM to accurately compute both the damage caused by specific flood events and expected annual flood damage. Calculations are based on the hydraulic, hydrologic and economic data for any number of simulated damage receptors including residential, commercial and industrial properties. These powerful predictive analysis capabilities provide InfoWorks ICM users with both a quantification of the current flood risk associated with their collection systems and a long-term planning framework for making the most effective decisions on flood risk management and alleviation strategies. Traditionally, flood management policies have been based on the design standard approach, where policy makers decide on an appropriate protection level to be achieved (degree-of-protection) in designing and managing their collection systems. In contrast, flood management policies based on risk focus on the consequences of flood events and the best alleviation measures over a given time period. With its powerful risk-based analytics, InfoWorks ICM RiskMaster expands the modeling power of InfoWorks ICM to let users accurately assess and better manage their collection systems and protect properties from flood events. Rather than expecting the collection system to simply service a specific loading level, the new extension directly takes into account all types of events based on their probability of occurrence. It combines the inundation results of multiple events with a database of receptors (properties) and their vulnerability, based on the probability of occurrence. The outcome is an estimate of the economic impact of floods in terms of expected annual damage (EAD) value, and a database of inundation depths ordered by return period, showing the predicted flood recurrence for each receptor. The results can be displayed in both tabular and graphical format. They provide a comprehensive view of the hydraulic system performance and the consequences of flood events. This critical information is invaluable to engineers and stakeholders in alleviating the impact of flooding by making informed, cost-effective decisions that improve the design, maintenance, rehabilitation and management of their collection systems.  “Flood risk analysis methods provide the most powerful and effective means of evaluating flood damage reduction projects,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, F.ASCE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “With InfoWorks ICM RiskMaster, different flood risk management alternatives and their potential impacts can be readily assessed and compared, and the best plan identified. This tool gives users the vital power to take faster, more informed steps to maximize net flood reduction benefits (flood damage prevented by the plan) and more effectively protect our communities and waterways.”