Tech Notes: sites and environmental tools; pump intake design standard

EcoLog ERIS has replaced its legacy mapping system with Esri’s enterprise geographic information system (GIS) technology. EcoLog ERIS  produces on-demand research services for property sites and neighbouring areas indicating historic and current environmental concerns. The service also supplies corresponding reference materials.

The new web-based application allows ERIS to automate numerous mapping tasks and produce better quality reports at a faster rate. Powered by ArcGIS for Server, the new application automatically pulls information from over 460 federal, provincial and private sector databases of environmental records to identify potential environmental threats on Canadian properties. It displays information through ArcGIS Viewer for Flex.

The application has drastically reduced the time spent in compiling reports as ERIS staff no longer need to access individual databases to verify addresses and parcel information. They have also automated tasks such as adding labels to map features, typically the longest task in producing a report. Reports now have aerial imagery, distance and elevation information, and interactive map layers.

Customers can now also access a dynamic map on the ERIS Web site to easily locate the sites they would like information on, as well as to view the entire area their report will cover. In  future, customers will be able to order a report and receive it on their desktop within minutes with the addition of a new Self-Serve Instant Report.

EcoLog ERIS is a division of Business Information Group, which is also the publisher of Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine.

For more information, click here.

The Hydraulic Institute has updated the 1998 edition of the ANSI/HI standard on pump intake design and published ANSI/HI 9.8–2012 Rotodynamic Pumps for Pump Intake Design.

The standard enables users to configure functional pumping facility designs and provides remedial measures for problem intakes.

The standard provides a flowchart to serve as a guide to the use of this standard and can be used to locate the appropriate section(s) in the standard.

The following types of intakes are included in this standard:

Rectangular intakes

Formed suction intakes

Circular pump stations

Trench-type intakes for clear liquids and for solids-bearing liquids

Tanks – pump suction

Can vertical turbine pump intakes

Unconfined intakes

Circular plan wet pit for solids-bearing liquids

The standard also includes:

Physical model studies of intake structures and when they are necessary

Inlet bell design

Required submergence for minimizing surface vortices

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Performance enhancements for trench-type wet wells

Alternate formed suction intake designs

For more details, click here.