Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

Aquaveo has joined in the Engineering with Nature (EWN) initiative started by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by adding Engineering with Nature tools into the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS). EWN aims to move toward a more efficient, sustainable, and resilient approach to engineering by considering social, environmental, and economic impacts. To support the mission of EWN initiative, SMS has developed multiple tools. Let's look at some of these tools.

Adding engineering features into your project can sometimes be a long and tedious process. With the EWN Features tool in SMS you can streamline the process, reducing the amount of time that would have been spent inputting the necessary data before. The EWN Features tool is built especially for creating feature objects to represent structures in natural environments. To use the tool, create a new map coverage and select the EWN Features type in the Engineering with Nature folder under the list of Model types to begin building structures into your SMS project.

Once you have a EWN Features coverage, you can create polygons to model the feature. You then can assign attributes and properties to the polygon. Once you have the feature properties defined, you can use the tools in the coverage to insert the define feature into a 2D mesh or 2D unstructured grid (UGrid).

Another EWN tool is the Sediment Volume Management tool. The Sediment Volume Management tool allows you to calculate cut and fill for sediment volume. Like the EWN Feature tool, this tool is accessed by creating a new map coverage with the Sediment Volume Transport type found in the Engineering with Nature folder under the list of Model Types. In the coverage you can create polygons and assigned sediment parameters. Then the sediment volume calculations can be performed using the tools in the coverage.

Additional EWN tools are in development for SMS. Look for them in future releases of SMS. In the meantime, try out using EWN in SMS today!

Have you needed to use netCDF files with Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro? NetCDF files are intended to provide standardization to multidimensional scientific data. These files can be imported and used in ArcGIS Pro and are compatible with Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro. However, they must first be converted using ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tools.

ArcGIS Pro has a few tools specifically dedicated to manifesting netCDF data as a familiar data form in ArcGIS Pro. These data forms include feature layers, rasters, and tables. Once netCDF data has been converted, it can be used with any Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro tool that accepts the given data form.

The ArcGIS Pro tools for netCDF data are found in the Multidimension Tools Toolbox. There's a toolset devoted to netCDF data, but some of the other tools in the Multidimension Tools toolbox will also work with netCDF data.

The following is a suggested workflow for working with netCDF data and Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro:

1. Use the appropriate tool from the Multidimension Tools toolbox to convert the netCDF data to the desired data form.
2. If necessary, add it to the Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro geodatabase. This might be essential depending on what you hope to do with the data.
3. Make any necessary adjustments or additions to the data to ensure compatibility with the Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro tool you hope to use.
4. Use the feature layer, raster layer, and table view in the Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro tool of your choice.

A similar workflow exists for Arc Hydro Groundwater for ArcGIS Desktop:

1. Load netCDF data into the map.
2. Use the appropriate netCDF-related tool from the Multidimension toolbox.
3. The output of that tool (e.g. a netCDF feature layer) can be used as input to any geoprocessing tool that accepts that kind of input.
4. If desired, the temporary layer from the Make NetCDF Feature Layer tool can be saved to your computer's drive with the "Save To Layer File" or "Copy Features" tool.

It's possible that the netCDF data does not have the appropriate data for use with Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro. You might have to edit the data to ensure compatibility (e.g. adding HydroIDs). Furthermore, converting netCDF data to a feature layer or a raster does not mean you have all the data needed to run your Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro. Usually, the feature layer, raster layer, or table will just be one piece of running a tool effectively.

Try using netCDF data with Arc Hydro Groundwater Pro today!

When working with a MODFLOW 6 model in the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) it can be important to mark specific cells inside a project as inactive to keep it out of the computational domain. Using inactive cells can speed up the performance and accuracy of your model. Incorrectly designating cells as inactive or active can cause inaccuracies in your model or keep it from converging. Here is some guidance for working with inactive cells that will help create a better MODFLOW 6 model.

When choosing which cells to mark as inactive in GMS, it is helpful to know how to find information about the cells in the first place, as well as what information MODFLOW 6 is using to calculate the X, Y, Z, and S values of that cell. The display above the graphics window that shows the values of the selected cell is using the cell center for its calculated values. If the inactive cells have a low elevation that is inaccurate for the model, it will drag the Z value for the active cells on the edge down to meet the inactive cell. This happens because the outside active cell has nodes in the Z value that still need something to attach to as there cannot be gaps between the nodes. This will distort the cells in unintended ways and create errors in the model.

MODFLOW 6 uses IBOUND to determine which cells to mark as active and which to mark as inactive. Marking a cell with an IBOUND value of zero will make it inactive.

There are a few ways to inactivate cells in a MODFLOW 6 model. The first is to create a polygon that will separate the active and inactive cells. Select the polygon that contains the cells that are to remain active. Go to the Feature Objects menu and select Activate Cells in Coverage(s). This will automatically make any cells that aren’t selective inactive.

The second way is to select a group of cells with the cell selection tool. Then go to the MODFLOW menu | Advanced | Cell Properties… and change the IBOUND dropdown menu to inactive. This will inactivate only the cells that have been selected in the graphics window.

The cells can also be set as inactive by editing the IBOUND Array directly.The IBOUND dialog can be found by clicking on Global Options under the MODFLOW menu. There is an IBOUND button in this dialog window where the IJK coordinates can be set to zero manually.

Making use of inactive cells can improve you MODFLOW 6 model. Try out MODFLOW 6 in GMS today!

Do you have a Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) project where you need to adjust the elevation values for a small area of your mesh? Some projects require updates to the localized areas of the mesh elevation. It may be that you’ve received updated elevation data for part of the project area, or you discovered a flaw in the elevation data on the mesh. You could manually update the elevation on each node of the mesh, but this could be rather time-consuming. Using the Scatter Module in SMS, you can incorporate the new elevation values into your mesh.

Ideally, you will be able to obtain correct elevation data that covers the entire mesh domain, which you could simply interpolate over to the mesh. But when you only have updated elevation data for a localized area, you can use this workflow to update the elevation data.

1. Right-click on the desired mesh and select Convert > Mesh → 2D Scatter.
2. Name the new scatter set whatever you'd like (or keep the default) and keep all other settings the same.
3. Choose Scatter | Merge Sets to open the Merge Scatter Sets dialog.
4. Check the box for each scatter set that you would like to merge.
5. Make your newer data higher on the list so that it will be given priority. Do so by selecting a scatter set and using the Move up or Move down buttons.
6. Choose Delete lower priority scatter points and check the box for Maintain triangulation.
7. If desired, name the new scatter set something other than the default.

This will create a new scatter set that overwrites the old data with the new data.

From here, which course you take will depend on whether you need just the z values to change, or if you need the mesh geometry to change as well.

To only change the elevation values in the existing mesh, do the following:

1. Right-click on the new scatter set and select Interpolate to....
2. Check the boxes for the scatter set z or elevation dataset as well as the box for Map Z.
3. Choose the starting mesh from the list on the right.

To create a new mesh with the new elevation values, do this:

1. Right-click on the merged scatter set and select Convert > | Scatter → 2D Mesh.
2. Name the new mesh whatever you like and press OK.
3. Edit the new mesh as needed.

The Scatter Module in SMS gives you a variety of options for fixing and adjusting elevation data. Try out the Scatter Module in SMS today!