1.  INTRODUCTION

The Service Hydrologist Information Management System (SHIMS) supports the service
hydrologist by providing an automated method for keeping records of locations within their area
of responsibility.  It consists of a database for storing data for locations pertinent to the hydrologic
program, and an interface to manipulate the data and perform certain utility functions.  This
database holds information about observers, river gage locations, and forecast points.  The
program can generate full reports of river gage stations (E-19), abbreviated reports of river gage
stations (E-19A), other reports, lists, labels, and Rolodex cards.

This new version of SHIMS is necessitated by an assessment of the needs of the WFO Hydrologic
Forecast System (WHFS), which is part of the ongoing AWIPS deployments.  This system
includes a database referred to as the HydroBase database.  Like SHIMS, there is a user interface
application to the database, which is also referred to HydroBase.  The HydroBase database
contains a significant amount of data which is initially populated using data from the SHIMS
database.  In order to facilitate the transition from the SHIMS structure to the HydroBase
structure, a new version of SHIMS which more closely matches the HydroBase structure was
required.  Once an office switches over to HydroBase, use of SHIMS will cease, as per regional
approval.

With this update, the structure of SHIMS contains 25 tables holding 183 fields. There is much
confusion about how to fill in many of these fields.  This document attempts to clarify the usage
or these fields and provide the Service Hydrologist or Hydrologic Focal Point a single, definitive
reference about the contents of every field in SHIMS.  Screen dumps with short descriptions of
each field are presented in Section 7 of the document, while detailed descriptions of each field in
SHIMS are given in  Appendix A .  It is imperative that the information in Appendix A be
referenced when entering data into SHIMS.

As mentioned above, the SHIMS database is a subset to the HydroBase database. However,
installation of the hydrologic applications of AWIPS cannot begin until the SHIMS subset of
HydroBase is completed, and then "converted" to the HydroBase structure.  Therefore, it is to the
advantage of the field office that the SHIMS database be filled in as completely as possible in the
preceding months before AWIPS arrives.  Many fields in SHIMS are particularly relevant to the
WFO Hydrologic Forecast System (WHFS) which uses the HydroBase database.  In the discussion
of the fields in SHIMS, references are given to those fields that have particular importance in the
WHFS.   

SHIMS uses a WINDOWS-like interface under character-based DOS.  This was intended to give
the service hydrologist a taste of what working with HydroBase will be like.  The experience in
using a mouse in SHIMS will prove useful in moving to HydroBase.  However, Paradox 4.5 for
DOS has many limitations that do not exist in the UNIX/X-Windows environment that HydroBase
works in.  Therefore some compromises were made, and as a result, this version of SHIMS does
not look like HydroBase.


This document begins with a brief history of the SHIMS project, followed by a discussion of the
required hardware and software, and instructions on installing this upgrade and executing the
SHIMS application.  The various displays and forms are then discussed in detail, with example
screen displays.  Then, assorted functions such as accessing SHIMS through Paradox, generating
reports, running utilities, and exiting SHIMS are described.  The sections of the document body
are intended to follow the options available to the user via the pulldown menu in the main SHIMS
display.  Lastly, some trouble shooting information is provided.
 
The appendices provide detailed information on the important SHIMS functions.  In particular,
Appendix A  and Appendix B give details on each and every field in SHIMS regarding it content, purpose,
and format.  Appendix C and D contains samples of output from the SHIMS database, with
Appendix D listing a copy of output from the AWIPS WHFS product formatter which uses certain
data originally provided by SHIMS.  Appendix E and Appendix F give system related information detailing
the SHIMS database structure and files.

It is intended that this document serve as a central, comprehensive presentation of all information
associated with SHIMS.  This document serves as a user's guide, a system manual, and a
reference manual; hence, it's name of "The Complete SHIMS Manual".

The authors would like to thank all the National Weather Service personnel who have given their comments
and suggestions to improve SHIMS.