APPLICABILITY OF HEC-DSSVue FOR MANAGEMENT OF HYDROLOGICAL GAGING NETWORK: A CASE STUDY USING SUB-HOURLY RAINFALL DATASETS FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT Hydrological data are typically sequential and often correspond to large datasets, and not all application programs allow their retrieval, storage, and manipulation. This technical article aims to contribute to this subject by reporting the applicability of the Data Storage System of the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC-DSSVue) using 5-min rainfall datasets collected from 10 self-recording rain gages (2014–2023) installed in Southern Brazil. Although the HEC-DSSVue is commonly used to integrate databases into other HEC models (HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS), its application in managing hydrological gaging networks remains undocumented. Our methodology comprised six steps conducted within the HEC-DSSVue: i) acquiring all files generated from each hydrological campaign, ii) addressing irregular-interval time series, iii) evaluating file management functionalities, iv) identifying data visualization functionalities, v) assessing mathematical operations, and vi) examining edition and export functions. The main conclusion was that the HEC-DSSVue is a powerful tool for efficiently managing datasets from hydrological gage networks and supporting data manipulation, thereby making routine tasks more efficient and less susceptible to user-introduced errors.