Inter-Provincial Partnership names Jim Dumont as the Engineering Applications Authority for the Water Balance Model
Engineering Applications Authority
Ted van der Gulik, Chair of the Inter-Provinciall Partnership, has announced the appointment of Jim Dumont as the Engineering Applications Authority for the Water Balance Model for Canada.
Scope of Responsibilities
The Engineering Applications Authority is responsible for developing and/or overseeing development of the hydrology applications and stream health methodologies that enhance the Water Balance Model as a scenario modeling and decision support tool for use at the site, neighbourhood and watershed scales.
“Jim Dumont created the vision for merging the QUALHYMO hydrologic engine with the Water Balance Model user interface,” states Ted van der Gulik. “The 
Inter-Provincial Partnership embraced Jim’s vision; and together, we brought it to fruition. Having this combined tool will enable us to advance integration of good land use planning with innovative engineering design.”
QUALHYMO is the acronym for QUALity HYdrologic Model, and is the tool of choice by experts in Ontario and Alberta.
Why Jim Dumont
“The Inter-Provincial Partnership named Jim Dumont as our Engineering Applications Authority because he is a recognized specialist in hydrologic modelling. Furthermore, he has over 30 years experience in the fields of water resources and civil engineering, including all phases of planning, design and construction. Jim Dumont is a leader in his 
field,” continues Ted van der Gulik.
“Of particular relevance, Jim Dumont contributed to the early phases of QUALHYMO development when Dr. Charles Rowney developed the QUALHYMO continuous hydrologic simulation model for the Ontario Ministry of Environment in the early 1980s.”
“Jim Dumont’s professional relationship with Dr. Rowney was the key to bringing Dr. Rowney on-board as a member of the Water Balance Model team. We have since appointed Dr. Rowney as our Scientific Authority,” concludes Ted van der Gulik
About the Water Balance Model
“The WBM was created to provide information to a multiple of users with wide range of technical backgrounds; ranging from little technical knowledge to hydrologic experts. As a result the WBM interface has been developed with a restricted number of data variables,” explains Jim Dumont. “An expert in hydrology may find this restriction to be limiting. For this reason, an Expert Interface will be implemented as a future enhancement.”
WBM Interface
“The WBM interface has embedded within it the climate data, land use and surface cover provided by supporting municipalities, standardized data entry and reporting systems along with some basic data processing capability. It is the interface that accepts the user data and prepares it for use by the QUALHYMO engine, and then formats the calculation results into a standard reporting format.”
QUALHYMO Engine
“QUALHYMO simply does the calculations using the data file input created by 
the WBM interface, and then hands back the calculation results to the WBM interface. A user could perform the same calculations without using the WBM interface, and simply use QUALHYMO as a standalone computer program. However, we believe that there is a substantial benefit in saving of time and effort through use of the collected and verified data in combination with the standardized reporting for regulatory reviews and approvals.”
“Over time, we envision that we will expose more QUALHYMO features in order to provide the power users with enhanced capabilities when they apply the Water Balance Model,” adds Ted van der Gulik. “Our immediate priority in promoting use of the Water Balance Model is to provide a bridge between engineering and planning that ultimately influences the greening of the built environment.”
