"WEST® 2009 is out!
Needless to say that I am very excited to see how WEST® 2009 is going to be received and to generate possibilities of new collaborations.
It has been a long effort from the side of our development team and a long wait from the users' side: but I trust you will find WEST® 2009 worth your patience.
 
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the festive season and for a fruitful 2010!"
 
(Dirk Van der Stede, CEO)

Special issue: release of WEST® 2009

GENERAL INFORMATION

• WEST® 2009a released on November 5th 2009

  The new generation of WEST® was released on November 5th 2009 with a completely renovated product suite which comprises the following products:

  
  ♦ WESTforDESIGN which targets design engineers;
  ♦ WESTforOPERATORS, a 'compact' version of WEST®, which is thought as a training support, e.g. for operators;
  ♦ WESTforOPTIMIZATION which gives full access to the model library and maximum flexibility in the use of the several optimization tools;
  ♦ WESTforAUTOMATION which enables the integration of WEST® into custom applications;
  ♦ WESTforIUWS the most advanced product of the suite, which enables integrated modeling of the complex inter-relation between the catchment area, the sewer network, the treatment works and the recipient water body
  ♦ WESTforCLUSTERS is a lightweight distributed execution system that allows for distributing the workload generated by some of WEST®'s computationally intensive virtual experiment types over a number of PCs.
  
  At present, i.e. for the first release, WESTforDESIGN, WESTforOPERATORS and WESTforAUTOMATION are the only products of the suite that have been fully developed.
  It seemed that the previous version of WEST® was not ideal in meeting the needs of a key sector of the modeling market, that is the design engineers. WESTforDESIGN has been developed specifically to simplify the task of these engineers who typically face two key-issues, i.e. limited time and few available data.
  Read more in the "Product overview".

  The development team at MOSTforWATER is currently working towards the second release of the product suite in which a fully working WESTforOPTIMIZATION will be available.
  This will be equivalent to (and will replace) the current full license of WEST® and will also enable additional optimization features that have been requested by WEST® users.

  For the time being, we will certainly continue providing technical support for WEST® v3 but with no further development.
  Technical support will stop once the new product suite will be fully finalized. Users who will not have upgraded to the new version, will be informed timely.

• The MOSTforWATER Management Tool is being updated

  A set of new web-services had been launched earlier this year, in conjunction with the relocation of our offices and announced on our last Newsletter (May 2009).
  That was already a significant step in the direction of re-organizing our web services in a more flexible and user-oriented way.
  Recently, we went further and rethought the entire system: the result is called MOSTforWATER Management Tool (M4WMT).
  The M4WMT can now be accessed by all WEST® users, Distributors and Scientific Centers.
  Access is regulated through a personal login name and password which give access to different levels of information, depending on the type of user.

  Every WEST® user has been assigned a login name and password (please contact us to receive a notification) that he can use to access the M4WMT.
  The following two areas are available:

  
  ♦ Manage Licenses: this will give access to the list of licenses owned by the user; key information is the dongle ID (serial nr.) that a specific license is associated to and the indication whether the license is valid or not.
  The content of a license can be viewed through the [Edit] button.
  Valid licenses have an additional button [LicenseFile] whereby the user can generate and download his license file at any time.
  ♦ Manage Files: this is a special area that contains both general and user-specific documents.
  General documents that will therefore be accessible to all users may be special communications, help files, patches, etc.
  User-specific documents will include the dongle updates programs.
  
  We are currently working on moving (and restructuring) the FAQ from our website to here.

  WEST® Distributors will be able to manage their WEST® customers and related licenses and documents through the M4WMT.
  Their customers will thereafter be given access to the same M4WMT, with users privileges.

  Lastly, WEST® Scientific Centers (SC) are given access to a dedicated level of the M4WMT in which every SC can input all the relevant information regarding its Members and its WEST®-oriented achievements (i.e. Projects, Courses and Publications) and can view the same information of all other SC's of the MOSTforWATER Network of SC's.
  The objective is twofold: on the one hand, every SC will be able to explore what other SC’s are doing which will hopefully favor interactions and transfer of knowledge.
  On the on the other hand, it will give MOSTforWATER a way to monitor the performance of all SC's that will in turn be used every year to assign the credits hence a 'quality label' to each SC, as illustrated below.

• Labeling of Scientific Centers

  A new 'labeling' system for the WEST® Scientific Centers was introduced in the last Newsletter of May 2009 and will become operative as of the beginning of 2010.
  The performance of each SC in terms of contribution to the growth of the WEST® community and to the dissemination of WEST® and more generally of a modeling culture, will be assessed on a yearly basis and will form the ground for the attribution of credits that will classify a SC in one of the following categories:

  
  • SSC: between 30 and 80 credits
  • SSC+: more than 80 credits
  • SDC: 2 consecutive years as SSC+
  
  The incentives to the different categories of SC are as follows:
   

  BENEFIT	SC	SSC	SSC+	SDC
  Discount on purchase of licenses	O	X	X	X
  Publication in MOSTforWATER Newsletter and Website	O	O	X	X
  Discount for training sessions and seminars	O	X	X	X
  1 representative at the STAB meeting	O	O	O	X
  Free support fee for 1 year	O	O	X	X
  1 extra license *	O	O	X	X
  Internship **	O	O	X	X

  
  (*) only available for the top five SSC+
  (**) MOSTforWATER may host a researcher for a short period of on-the-job training.
   
  The evaluation of the performance of the SC’s will be carried out by MOSTforWATER, based on the set of criteria illustrated in the May Newsletter.
  Since the large majority of those criteria have since then been incorporated in the new Management Tool, we are in the process of revising the information that have been entered so far (and of requesting the updates, where necessary).

  At the moment, the result of our survey is the following:

  
  ◊ responsive SC's: 23 out of 26
  ◊ total nr of 'members': 93
  ◊ modeling courses in which WEST® is used as software tool: 10+
  ◊ modeling projects: 15
  ◊ publications: 50+

EVENTS

• WWTmod 2010 (28-30 March 2010, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Québec, Canada)

  WWTmod2010 is the second seminar in the modelling series started in 2008.
  The positive feedback on the first meeting encouraged the organizers to plan the second seminar for 2010.
  Inspired by the modelling seminar series in Kollekolle (Denmark) WWTmod promotes the dialog between experts by providing a regular discussion platform on all aspects of wastewater treatment modelling, especially 'within fence' (whole plant modelling).

  The main objective of the seminar is to present recent findings and successful case studies with the aim of bringing together different 'schools' and approaches with the aim of consensus building and clarification of differences on topics where discussion has matured.
  The process of consensus building is supported by inviting targeted people from research, consulting companies, equipment suppliers and wastewater treatment plants.

  Important dates

  Submission of abstracts:	15 August 2009
  Invitation of presenters:	15 October 2009
  Application for participation:	15 November 2009
  Invitation of participants:	15 December 2009
  Submission of final papers:	01 February 2010
  Early bird registration (until):	01 February 2010
  Seminar:	28-30 March 2010

  More details on the seminar's website.

   

Special issue:
release of WEST® 2009

WEST® 2009 is the new (and long awaited) generation of WEST®.
The first release is called WEST® 2009a and was officially release on November 5th 2009.
WEST® 2009 renovates the 'old' WEST® concept in at least three ways.

NEW FEATURES

• The Influent Generator
  The Influent Generator (in fact termed: Influent/Effluent Generator, as the same concept applies to the Effluent of the plant) is a tool incorporated in the main WEST® environment primarily aimed at assisting the user in generating a suitable input file for the model.
  This may be quite a long, tedious, activity since data for the characterization of the influent may be only partially available, may come from different sources and/or may prove not sufficiently reliable; also, determinations of the influent characteristics are typically conducted with reference to conventional quantities rather than directly with reference to the specific model components (variables).
  A Fractionation Model is therefore needed between the two sets of variables which translates the custom units into model units.
  To provide an approach consistent with the overall concept of building a model graphically, by arranging unit icons and establishing connections between them, the Fractionation Model is to be constructed graphically by means of the Influent Generator Tool.
  On the opposite end of the Plant Layout, the characterization of the effluent is typically expressed with reference to the same custom units that are used to characterize the influent to the plant and as concentrations (for it is to be compared against environmental Standards); so that the transformation opposite to the one carried out on the Input Unit, is to be carried out on the Output Unit, that is a De-fractionation Model.
  Access to the Influent/Effluent Generator is through the influent and the effluent wizards.

• The layers
  A plant layout can be set up making use of layers, that is: assigning each Process Unit to one of the three default layers (i.e. Water line, Control and Sludge line).
  Layers may be independently visualized by (de)selecting the respective Visibility option.
  Irrespectively of the Layer to which a Process Unit is associated, the overall model will evidently treat all units as part of the same general layout.

• New process icons and additional graphics elements
  The 'old' set of Process Nodes of WEST® 3.7.6 has been replaced by a completely new set on Nodes: emphasis has been given to a closer resemblance to the actual unit process (see Figure) that may be more appropriate for inclusion of the plant layout generated in WEST® directly into technical reports.
  Notable improvement in respect to WEST® 3.7.6 are that Process Node can be resized (e.g. to visually match the relative size of unit processes on the plant) as well as moved and rotated in a variety of ways.
  The new design was done by Mariana Koleva of the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Sofia (Bulgaria).

  
  In the same direction, of allowing for a plant layout that can be more visually appealing and that can perhaps be more easily integrated into technical documentation, graphic elements such as text, frames and pictures can be added to the plant layout (see Figure).

• New concept for the generation of executable models
  In WEST® 2009 one is able to define simulation experiments as soon as process units are dropped on the Layout Editor's canvas, without having to first create an executable model
  This approach primarily ensures that the Plant Model is set up in the most efficient and flexible way.
  It is also very convenient as it enables accessing the model properties (parameters and variables) while the model layout is being constructed - which in turns enables setting the parameter values and creating input and output objects (i.e. sliders to change parameter values and plots and tables to view the output of the simulation) while the model layout is being constructed.

• Miscellaneous new features
  
  » Compatibility with the earlier version of WEST® (3.7.6) is ensured through a Project Import functionality
  » All model categories include temperature variation, by default
  » The description of biomass decay of ASM2d has been improved: the new model is termed ASM2dMod (quote)
  » Energy calculation is now incorporated in all relevant models
  » At the end of the steady-state simulation, all models are automatically re-initialized (so that the dynamic simulation can be started immediately)
  » An automatic detection of the steady-state has been implemented
  » An "Info pane" has been introduced that display the relevant information (e.g. parameter values) for the currently selected Process Unit
  » No need for (flux/concentration) unit conversion by means of specific units in the layout

THE PRODUCT SUITE

WEST® 2009 comprises the following products.

• WESTforDESIGN
  «Advanced dynamic modeling and simulation to enhance the design process»
  WESTforDESIGN allows for validation of design options and evaluation of different plant layouts (including control strategies). This is done by running scenarios and evaluating their performance according to user-defined criteria.

• WESTforOPERATORS
  «Easy-to-use dynamic modeling and simulation to assist operational decisions on the plant»
  WESTforOPERATORS enables the operator to perform short-term (e.g. storm events) and long-term (e.g. consistent nutrient removal) evaluations of their plant. The evaluations (e.g. for bottleneck identification) are carried out by running scenarios for specific influent and operational conditions and costs evaluation. The tool is also useful to improve understanding of the WWTP and hence for operator training.

• WESTforOPTIMIZATION
  «Cutting-edge dynamic modeling and simulation to support WWTP process optimization»
  WESTforOPTIMIZATION enables consultants and engineers to optimize the wastewater treatment processes. With its flexibility and fully open model structure (one can change any model in the model library without limitations) in combination with specific tools for easier model calibration and plant performance evaluation (sensitivity analysis, parameter estimation, scenario analysis and uncertainty analysis) and for minimization of objective functions (e.g. costs).

• WESTforAUTOMATION
  «Seamless integration of dynamic modeling and simulation in your WWTP process automation applications»
  WESTforAUTOMATION allows for fast integration of modeling and simulation in custom applications by automation or software engineers. Different SDKs containing comprehensive and extensive documentation and sample sets, allow for linking WEST with SCADA systems or other modeling software (e.g. for CFD, for sewer modeling).

• WESTforIUWS
  «Powerful dynamic modeling and simulation for your Integrated Urban Water Systems (sewer, WWTP, river)»
  WESTforIUWS enables the exploration of scenarios developed by the consultant or system manager (e.g. flow diversions, introduction of tanks, changes in operation, etc.) with regard to water quality and quantity; automatic optimization of the operating parameters; short- and long-term evaluations; uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of the model to identify the most influential operating parameters and to assess the risk of non-compliance with regulations.

• WESTforCLUSTERS
  «Lightweight distributed execution of computationally intensive virtual experiments»
  WESTforCLUSTERS is a lightweight distributed execution system that allows for distributing the workload generated by some of WEST's computationally intensive virtual experiment types (typically scenario and Monte Carlo analysis) over a number of (idle) work nodes (PCs). The software consists of a Master component that processes job descriptions and assigns them to work nodes. Each of these work nodes is equipped with a Slave component that accepts job descriptions and executes them as a background task.