Our Mission

Since 1978, CHI has been dedicated to the global development of healthier communities and ecosystems by providing and encouraging best water management software and practices. We feel that the quality of life is highly dependent on the quality of the local water environment.  Our mission therefore, is to bring about better ecosystems and environmental planning, design, construction and management of urban drainage systems, by developing, distributing and supporting innovative software solutions that are easily attainable for many and can be used by the widest possible user community around the world.

Our Philosophy

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CHI believes that urban water systems can be designed in a way that supports environmental goals rather than working against them. Our PCSWMM software technology offers engineers the tools to design urban water systems that are less invasive, less disruptive, closer to the intended natural hydrologic function, and thus encourage higher biodiversity. These tools not only facilitate responsible planning and design; they ultimately lead to healthier human communities.

Our fundamental drive is to expand our engineering concepts and technology from their strong foundation in Newtonian physics to include and embrace Darwinian principles. We believe that the design of sympathetic water systems greatly impacts the quality of life for humankind and all nature. Using intelligent modeling, planners, engineers, and managers can transform drainage infrastructure to create better communities. PCSWMM’s environmental and ecosystem sensibilities foster a wider biodiversity of plants and animals, and inevitably encourage the development of thriving human societies. CHI partners with clients the world over to manage the development of water systems and drainage infrastructure through technological solutions that help integrate physical, biological and ecosystem data into very long-term sustainable environments. 

Rather than confining thinking to just Newtonian physics, we believe that practitioners ought to direct their attention further up the hierarchy of concerns towards ecology and Darwinian principles. In this view, a sustainable drainage system is an environment supporting a diverse host of life-forms, which adjusts as the population mix evolves – and which ideally is designed to maximize bio-diversity. Planning such a system is challenging, and requires building more complex models that support wider bases for knowledge. For instance, we model the gamut of flow velocities, depths, temperature, pH, turbidity and chemicals and link to aquatic ecosystem models; at a minimum this certainly requires a philosophy of continuous modeling.

On the other hand, traditional engineering and its bedfellows have sought to minimize entropy, using methods that ultimately replace natural habitats with surfaces that are generally abiotic or worse. Changing a traditional mindset is an incredible challenge but we believe it can be well worth the effort.  CHI will continue to develop solutions that ultimately result in reducing our impact on the world, bettering our environment and improving the quality of life for all.