SITES
Software Development

Over the past several years, scientists in the Hydraulic Engineering Research Unit have cooperated with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the development of SITES, Water Resource Site Analysis Software. The new software is the result of NRCS and ARS having refined the DAMS2 Structure Site Analysis Program. The SITES program retains the previous capabilities of the DAMS2 software with added capabilities and computational refinements. The most significant changes are related to the incorporation of new technology for design and analysis of earth auxiliary spillways developed from both laboratory studies and field data. The SITES software features iterative application of a three-phase approach to predicting the extent of vegetated earth spillway erosion. The three phases are the failure of the vegetal cover and development of concentrated flow, surface erosion in the area of concentrated flow leading to formation of a headcut, and the downward and upstream advance of the headcut. The technology introduces a Headcut Erodibility Index to describe the resistance of exposed geologic materials to headcut advance during phase three. The SITES software also allows the use of vegetal retardance in backwater computations for spillway ratings and the use of erosionally effective stress for stability design of the spillway exit channel. These capabilities place the software on the leading edge of technology in the area of earth spillway design and analysis. SITES may be used for the design of new structures or for analysis of the performance of existing structures.

An integrated development environment for application of the software was developed cooperatively by ARS, NRCS, and Kansas State University to simplify the task of entering required data and to provide graphics to assist in interpretation of the output. This interface greatly simplifies management of complex watersheds, and is now a part of the Sites package.

For additional information, contact Darrel Temple or Greg Hanson.

Sites Fact Sheet