I saw a pre-marketing ad for GeoStorm by CivilGEO and was intrigued. CivilGeo is Chris Maeder’s next adventure after having BOSS International acquisition of IP by Autodesk years ago. They have produced GeoHECRAS that allows users to build HEC-RAS models with elements that, well, the US Army Corps of Engineers supports. I haven’t used the either Geo software packages.
CivilGEO
Now that the end of May has arrived, and well, passed since I started this series, and wrote the introduction I just re-wrote, CivilGeo has their marketing website up. It is good to see the value that they included in the software. This appears to be a wrapper around EPA-SWMM based on their FEMA claim. At least someone reads the regulations and understands how navigate this bit.
This is another simulation class product - they offer “innovative and modern approach to stormwater engineering by automating many of the tedious and manual tasks typically required to create, design, iterate, analyze, and submit a stormwater model.” While not a design tool - it hints at automating design using an iterative process.
GeoSTORM (here)
Strengths: GeoStorm appears to mimic the other Geo packages for standard workflows and support for CAD, GIS, and terrain formats. Some of the same strengths originally found in StormNET (now Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis or SSA) appear on the list of features, along with elements from other popular packages. This appears to support land use polygons, watershed delineation once only found in GIS packages. The reporting looks significantly better, and the limitations of SSA (Undo/Redo, Scenarios, Multiple Runoff methods) seem overcome.
Weakness: Hard to say - I do not see a demo or any images of the user interface. This is new software just coming off a recent beta based on the prior information I saw, so evaluating the weakness is difficult.
Prices put it on the more expensive side of the standalone design tools.
Opportunity: It is an interesting play to merge their successful GeoHECRAS product with the 1D stormwater product using the EPA-SWMM engine.
Threats: Is this just another EPA-SWMM product which has a large competitive market.
Best of luck! If you have tried this software, let me know. Its an interesting opportunity of a tool, but it lacks the true urban 1D/2D flooding that Tuflow, and the other packages such as XPSWMM, InfoWorks ICM or PCSWMM appear to accomplish.