Services

At Heron, we offer a range of niche services within the water resources and natural hazard industries. Contact us to discuss any opportunities where we may be able to help.

Hydrologic Modelling and Calibration

We are experts in hydrologic modelling and calibration, with our team consisting of professors and industry experts with many years of experience in this area. Our team includes the lead developer of Raven, Dr. James Craig, as well as the developer of the Dynamically Dimensioned Search (DDS) algorithm for model calibration, Dr. Bryan Tolson. We are the foremost experts in Raven, but also support projects with other hydrologic modelling software including HEC-HMS.

Hydraulic Modelling

We specialize in hydraulic modelling for design of flood studies, including HEC-RAS 1D ad 2D, and our own software for regional-scale flood mapping called Blackbird. We bring the right combination of theoretical knowledge and applied practice to deliver your modelling projects successfully.

Flood Mapping Studies

Heron staff have supported numerous flood hazard and flood mapping studies, undertaking the technical modelling, field assessments, preparation of conceptual design for flood mitigation, geospatial analysis, production of final mapping, and organizing the Public Information Centres for Environmental Assessments.

Forecasting

We have developed workflows for streamflow and inundation forecasting, performed at regular intervals and running continuously on private servers. This service can be arranged for hydrologic and/or hydraulic models to remove the hassle of generating forecasts and running servers by your organization, letting you focus your attention on decision-making.

Regional Flood Mapping Model and Data Products with Blackbird

We are the developers of the Blackbird software for regional scale and real-time flood mapping, which can support activities such as inundation forecasting. This software is developed in house and is published in literature, and has been used commercially in a few pilot studies. Contact us if you are interested in discussing how we can apply Blackbird or develop flood risk data for your project.

Scripting and Workflow Development

Our team has deep expertise in scripting, coding, geospatial analysis, and the development of efficient workflows to meet your needs. We have expertise in Python, C++, R, HTML, Java, and other languages needed to create efficient workflows. Our team includes authors of the RavenR package and the Magpie workflow, as well as the RavenView interface. An example shiny app developed by our team is the shinyFFA dashboard for rapid flood frequency analysis at Water Survey of Canada gauges.

Geospatial Analysis

Our team has deep expertise in GIS software and geospatial analysis, including generating maps with QGIS and ESRI ArcMap, developing processing workflows in Python and R, efficiently processing rasters, netCDF data, and working with external tools such as Whitebox. If you have a geospatial problem, drop us a line!

Coastal Modelling

With software such as SWAN, XBeach, Delft3D, SFINCS, and faster empirical methods, we have the experience to deliver the coastal modelling required in your project.

Climate Change Analysis and Adaptation

We have undertaken numerous climate change and adaptation projects, including building flood adaptation software for Eastern Canada, analyzing climate data, and processing downscaled future projections for hydrologic studies. If you are looking to update Intensity Duration Frequency curves, process meteorological data, or undertake your climate change adaptation strategy, drop us a line.

Engineering Design

We have experience in designing infrastructure projects, including channel designs, armourstone walls, coastal protection including properties on the Great Lakes, and assessing failures at existing sites.

Hosted Raven Files

Interested in sharing your Raven setup with a client or within your team, but not everyone is a Raven expert? We can host your model files on our server and provide you with a URL to share instead so everyone can see the model setup and results in RavenView (see demo here).

Training and Courses

The team at Heron has delivered many professional and academic training courses on topics related to hydrologic modelling, Raven, R, netCDF handling, and more! We routinely hosted open registration for Raven courses and have developed custom courses for organizations, and also have our online course catalogue for self-registration.

Real-time Interactive Displays

From hydrologic streamflow forecasts to inundation extents with Blackbird, we build real-time displays for data, model results, and use our own in-house servers to deliver them at low cost. See our Waldemar Live Demo for a Blackbird display and the Liard RavenView demos.