Each WEAP analysis is conducted in a single area. An area is typically a watershed, but could also be a larger or smaller geographic region. The last viewed area will open automatically when WEAP starts.
These help files contain comprehensive information on using the WEAP software. To get started, we suggest you familiarize yourself with some of the major concepts:
Help: Use the Help menu to get access to WEAP's online documentation. Press the F1 key to get context-sensitive help anywhere in WEAP.
Views: WEAP is structured as a set of five different "views" onto your Area: Schematic, Data, Results, Scenario Explorer, and Notes. These views are listed as graphical icons on the View Bar, located on the left of the screen.
Current Accounts: The Current Accounts represent the basic definition of the water system as it currently exists, and forms the foundation of all scenarios analysis.
Scenario analysis is at the heart of using WEAP. Scenarios are self-consistent story-lines of how a future system might evolve over time in a particular socio-economic setting and under a particular set of policy and technology conditions. The comparison of these alternative scenarios proves to be a useful guide to development policy for water systems from local to regional scales.
User Interface: This documentation assumes you are familiar with Windows-based programs. The main screen of the WEAP system consists of the View Bar on the left of the screen and a main menu at the top providing access to the most important functions of the program, and a status bar at the bottom of the screen showing the current area name, current view, licensing information and other status information. The layout of the rest of the screen will depend on which view is selected.
Calculation Algorithms: WEAP calculates a water and pollution mass balance for every node and link in the system on a monthly time step. Water is dispatched to meet instream and consumptive requirements, subject to demand priorities, supply preferences, mass balance and other constraints.
Sample Data: WEAP comes with a sample data set for a fictional area called the Weaping River Basin. The User Guide refers to this data set when describing data entry screens and reports. It is worthwhile exploring this data set, as it illustrates most of the features of WEAP and the types of analysis that WEAP facilitates. Essentially, the area depicts a river basin with growing problems of water shortages, groundwater depletion and environmental pressures. These problems of the Reference Scenario are addressed in a series of scenarios employing a variety of both demand- and supply-oriented measures.
Importing Data: If you have a full sequence of annual or monthly data, for example on streamflows or municipal demands, the Read From File function allows you read this data from an ASCII data file.
Additional Information on the hardware and software requirements for using WEAP, and on how to license the system and obtain technical support is also available.
See also: Background, Overview, WEAP Approach