Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

Best Uses for the Clip and Trim Coverage Tools

By aquaveo on November 19, 2024

Did your Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) project end up with an excessive amount of arcs, nodes and points in a coverage? Maybe the shapefile you imported converted many more details than your project needed, or extracting features from your raster did the same. There are several ways you could go about simplifying the project to ensure the simulation only covers what is needed. We have a couple of tools that can help you simplify the amount of feature objects your project will deal with: the Clip tool and the Trim Coverage tool.

Both located in the Toolbox under the Coverages folder, the Clip and the Trim Coverage tools allow you to limit the feature objects within an area and create a new coverage containing what is desired.

The Clip tool limits arcs to only those inside a selected separate coverage that has a polygon which defines where to trim the feature objects on the target coverage. This trim coverage will typically be a coverage you create and can be of any coverage type. The Clip tool quickly creates a new coverage with arcs, nodes, and points located within the polygon desired. Where the arcs are “cut” at the polygon edge, a new node is created at the new endpoint.

Example of the Clip Tool before and after

The Trim Coverage tool works similar to the Clip tool but has a few more options. The extra options allow you to choose to trim to the inside or to the outside of the selected coverage polygons, trim to the inside being the default. And also, you can specify a buffer distance to trim to: how close to the polygon boundary you want the arcs, etc. to be trimmed to.

For either of the tools, you will need the coverage containing the arcs, nodes, and points needing to be limited, and also, the coverage containing the polygons which will define the boundaries of where the clipping or trimming will occur. For the Trim Coverage tool, you have the two additional parameters to define, if desired.

After entering a name for the soon-to-be created coverage, run the tool. For both the Clip and Trim Coverage tools, it will clip all the arcs to the limits of the polygon, creating a new endpoint or node at the point where the original arc intersected the polygon boundary.

Head on over to SMS and see how these tools can help your project today!

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SMS

Three Methods for Assigning CHD

By aquaveo on November 12, 2024

Do you have a Ground-water Modeling System (GMS) project where you are needing to edit values in your constant head cells? If it is a simple grid approach, academic-style project, editing each cell is likely fine. But if you have a large, more complex, conceptual model, editing the constant head cells may prove problematic. Here are some ways that you can accomplish this with a minimum of effort.

A constant head (CHD) cell is an area where the water levels will remain fairly steady no matter what the inflow or outflow may be. Lakes, coastal areas, etc. are good candidates of constant head boundaries. Assigning cells to be constant heads provides a steady boundary where the water levels will stay the same for the model duration.

Example of a CHD boundary

The constant head cells are typically assigned or edited in one of three ways. One method is to directly edit the IBOUND array. When setting up a MODFLOW simulation or when editing packages, the MODFLOW | Global Options menu will let you choose the IBOUND package to edit the options there including the array. Copying and pasting data from an external spreadsheet into the array could save you time here.

Another method is to select a set of cells and use the 3D Grid Cell Properties dialog. You can right-click on a cell to bring up the dialog. Make sure you are on the MODFLOW tab and edit the “IBOUND” and “Starting head” rows. If multiple cells are selected, this will edit all selected cells.

The simplest method is to define the constant head zones using feature objects as part of a conceptual model in the Map module. When you set up a coverage using the feature objects, the Coverage Setup dialog will allow you to assign CHD to cells in the grid. You can change what the default assignment will be if you also select “Layer Range” and make changes using the Attribute Table.

Whichever method you choose to assign CHD, when you are ready to run your ground-water model, the Model Checker can be used to see if there are errors in the assigned constant head cells. Then you can correct those cells mentioned specifically by using the IBOUND array or the Cell Properties dialog as mentioned above.

Head on over to GMS and see which method of defining your constant head cells works best for you!

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GMS

Easily Snapping Outlet Points to Stream Arcs

By aquaveo on November 5, 2024

When creating your Watershed Modeling System (WMS) project, did you find that your outlet point isn’t in the right place on the stream arc? Outlet points are placed at the points of confluence in a watershed. Designating an outlet point is necessary for delineating a watershed, but it must be placed correctly. The Snap Outlet Points to Streams tool, found in the Toolbox, can help place the outlet points in the correct locations.

Example of a point that is not snapped to the streams

If an outlet point is near but not on a stream arc, WMS can automatically snap an outlet point to the stream, or the stream arc to the outlet point, within a very limited range, depending on which was created first. But if two stream arcs are close together, and the outlet point between them, the auto-snapping may place it on the wrong stream arc, thus making the watershed delineation incorrect. Or, the outlet point may be placed far enough away from the stream arcs that WMS can’t automatically snap it to the appropriate stream arc for watershed delineation. When an outlet point is placed incorrectly, it can cause problems for your model. Either the watershed delineation will fail, or the basins created could have incorrect boundaries. This is where the Snap Outlet Points to Streams tool can be useful.

The Snap Outlet Points to Streams tool will allow you to place outlet points away from the stream arcs but still snap them to a stream. It allows you to define how far away from the outlet point to look for a stream arc. While you still should be cautious about outlet point placement, it gives you a little more latitude in creation locations to ensure the correct delineation of the watershed.

To find the Snap Outlet Points to Streams tool, you will need to look in the Toolbox under the Coverages folder. When you open it, you will choose the input coverage containing the outlet points, and also, the input raster streams file. You will need to define the maximum distance in map units for the tool to search for the stream arcs to snap to. After entering a new coverage name for the output coverage to be created, you can run the tool.

Head on over to WMS and try the Snap Outlet Points to Streams tool today!

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WMS

Is a Paid or Community License Right for You?

By aquaveo on October 29, 2024

For us at Aquaveo, we seek to provide state-of-the-art software for your water resources projects. We’d like to see as many hydrologists, civil engineers, and more using our software to better the community and the world. For this reason, we provide with our Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) software, both a trial, community, and paid editions.

The trial version grants you full access to all the features of SMS for a limited time. Typically, this trial period is for two weeks. During the trial, you can use any of the models or functionalities in SMS. This lets you decide what features of SMS you will need for your project.

After the trial period, or when you are ready, you can contact our sales team for a pad license. WIth a full license, you can select what features you want included. Aquaveo has two primary editions: Riverine, and River and Coast. Add-ons are available for each for the packages, or you can custom build what is unlocked so you have exactly the tools and modules you need for your work.

For some of our users, only a limited number of features are needed. The community edition of SMS includes only some of the core components, such as the GIS and Mesh modules, and a few of the more common surface-water models available, such as SRH-2D, ADCIRC, and CMS-Flow. Some limits have been added to these features, for example the number and size of meshes is limited in community edition. The community edition mostly supports small or simple projects and is not intended to support large or complex models.

SMS Community Edition

There are several advantages to having a paid license over relying on the community edition, including access to newer tools and functionality. Furthermore, a current paid license allows access to Aquaveo's technical support and other resources. Fortunately, it is possible to upgrade to a paid license at any time. Once you have a paid license, you retain access to all the features for the version of license you purchase.

Download SMS today and see what version works best for you!

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SMS

Reliable Grid Conversion with the Voronoi UGrid from UGrid Tool

By aquaveo on October 22, 2024

Did you realize while planning your Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) project that a different unstructured grid (UGrid) would be a better fit? UGrids are very flexible and can be refined around streams, wells, basins, and other objects. But sometimes, one type of UGrid may fit better than another for a particular project. The Voronoi UGrid is one of the more flexible types of UGrids available in GMS. The Voronoi UGrid from UGrid Tool in the Toolbox is there to help convert a UGrid into a Voronoi UGrid.

For most UGrids, the attributes and boundary conditions assigned are associated with the edges, points, and nodes, all on the outer edges of the cells. For a Voronoi UGrid, those things are associated with the point at the center of the cell.

Example of a Voronoi grid

If your model is fairly straight-forward, has structured boundaries or rectangular domains, UGrids with rectangular cells might still be the better choice. Or, if you require computational efficiency, the Voronoi UGrid may not be your best choice. However, if those are not considerations, then using the Voronoi UGrid from UGrid Tool may be a good option for you.

With a Voronoi UGrid, you get even greater flexibility to refine around irregular boundaries thus improving your groundwater model’s accuracy. The cells of the Voronoi UGrid are created with an algorithm that depends solely on the geometry of the points, arcs, and polygons in the active coverage. Voronoi UGrid cells can have more sides (up to eight) than just the three or four sides allowed in most other UGrids. Therefore, it can fit into the boundaries of a model and be refined along arcs and at points much more accurately.

You will find the Voronoi UGrid from UGrid Tool in the Unstructured Grid folder of the Toolbox. The Voronoi UGrid from UGrid Tool only needs the input UGrid and a name for the new Voronoi UGrid it will generate. There are some limitations to the tool. Conversions may not occur if any created final cells would have more than 8 edges. The UGrid being converted must contain only 2D cells. And there can also be no disjoint regions where cells aren’t connected to the rest of the UGrid.

Head on over to GMS to see if the Voronoi UGrid from UGrid tTool will help your model!

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GMS

Benefits of 3D Structures

By aquaveo on October 15, 2024

Does your Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) project require simulating the effects of bridges or culverts? For some time we have had the capacity to simulate these structures in 2D or 1D for use with numeric models such as SRH-2D and TUFLOW. More recently, we have added the ability to create and insert these structures in 3D thus improving your modeling capabilities and visualization options.

When running a model, having a bridge or other structure in the model can change the results of the model run. 3D structures provide more detail for how the structure will fit into the landscape. SMS allows the creation of the structure and inserting it into the 2D model, so you can see how and where it fits into the project. This potentially makes for a more accurate model. Furthermore, an unstructured grid of the 3D structure can be generated to visually show how the structure fits into your model..

3D structure example

Currently, SMS has the ability to create two kinds of 3D structures: bridges and culverts. It can also customize each one to include multiple configurations. 3D structures provide extra flexibility in the simulation, such as being able to have variations in the bridge ceiling along the entire width, which can match the reality of bridge structures much more closely. Your model can also include more than one 3D structure and a mix of types of structures as well. But note, multiple 3D structures could slow down your simulation. Currently, 3D structures can only work with SRH-2D models.

Creating a 3D structure will also automate some things you would have likely needed to do manually beforehand, like create the voids necessary for piers and walls. This reduces the potential for errors that manual void creation can have and improves the reliability of the model.

The 3D structure can be used as part of an observation plot and can also generate a new dataset for the maximum water surface elevation (ceiling elevation) in the model. Overtopping is, of course, included, as well as pressure flow through the culvert or under the bridge.

Head on over to SMS and see how adding 3D structures can improve your project today.

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SMS

Incorporating Inline Steering in CMS

By aquaveo on October 8, 2024

Are you wanting to internally couple a CMS-Wave model with your CMS-Flow model? The Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) offers the Inline Steering Model Control option, which allows CMS-Flow steering using CMS-Wave data. The steering is controlled by the CMS-Flow model executable and not SMS. The steering tool is useful in facilitating the process of launching models multiple times. Furthermore, the steering module automates repetitive user tasks. Using the steering tool for CMS will enable data sharing between circulation and wave propagation numerical models.

Example of CMS inline steering

In SMS version 12.1 and later the Inline Steering option is reached by going to the CMS-Flow Model Control dialog:

  1. Build and run a successful CMS-Wave model.
  2. Right-click on the CMS-Flow simulation in the Project Explorer and select Model Control.
  3. Select the Wave tab and select the Inline steering option under the drop-down in the Wave information heading.
  4. Import the specific CMS-Wave solution file.
  5. Enter the inline steering value.

Coupling of models is an efficient and accurate means of calculating wave-driven currents, setup and setdown, and wave-current interaction in nearshore regions, including tidal inlets. In SMS version 12.0 and earlier the steering tool can also be used to facilitate the transfer of data from wave models to circulation models and back. In versions 12.1 and later, the CMS-Flow Model Control is used for steering.

When using Inline Steering, it is necessary to build a CMS-Wave model prior to incorporating any data into CMS-Flow. Following that, it is then possible to build a model in CMS-Flow using the stored data and solution files. If you encounter problems with the CMS-Flow simulation results, and notice that neighboring outputs are not quite right, check the Steering Interval option in the CMS-Flow Model Control Dialog. If this option has a number less than 0.25 inputted, it causes problems as there is no proper indication for CMS-Flow to include CMS-Wave solutions in its calculations. To fix this, set the steering interval to a number greater than zero, and the CMS-Flow simulation should respond to the CMS-Wave inputs.

Try Inline Steering for your CMS-Flow models in SMS today!

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SMS

How to Prioritize Interpolating Multiple Rasters

By aquaveo on October 1, 2024

Do you have a project requiring multiple elevation rasters that are difficult to reconcile with each other? To manage the rasters, and get the best data for your project, our Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) has many tools in the Toolbox to help. One of these, the Interpolate Priority Rasters tool, gives you the ability to prioritize the elevation data from each raster.

When multiple rasters are interpolated to the geometry, multiple datasets will be created, one for each raster. A raster catalog can help consolidate this information but it doesn’t prioritize data. With the Interpolate Priority Rasters tool, you can specify exactly which raster takes precedence first, second, and so on. It will create one dataset that contains all the prioritized information. This ensures that the information most important to your model can be retained and used.

Multiple overlapping rasters

Rasters downloaded from separate sources, or from the same database but at differing times, can contain discrepancies in the data. When the rasters overlap, those differences can create problems with the model. If major discrepancies exist, some of the other tools in the Toolbox can help correct them before using the Interpolate Priority Rasters tool.

In GMS, the Interpolate Priority Raster tool can be used with both 2D and 3D UGrid geometries. All that is needed for this tool is a geometry selected, a dataset used to provide default values for interpolation, a method for interpolation, and the selected rasters placed in the order of priority. Once run, a new dataset is created with the integrated data. If the new dataset is meant to be the elevation of the target geometry, you will need to map it manually because it will not be done automatically, but you will have an interpolated raster that is consistent across the model.

Head on over to GMS and try the Interpolate Priority Rasters tool in your models.

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GMS

Announcing WMS 11.3 Beta!

By aquaveo on September 24, 2024

We are pleased to announce the release of WMS 11.3 in beta! Our developers have been working on several updates to the Watershed Modeling System (WMS). They have added some new features and improved the functionality of others. We'll highlight a few of them here.

GSSHA Permafrost

We are pleased to share that we have now added the ability to model permafrost regions with the GSSHA numeric model in WMS 11.3. With the addition of permafrost options to GSSHA models, your. Permafrost parameters can be defined and set under the GSSHA menus, Job Control and Map Tables. Also when you select a Feature Point/Node and right-click on it and select Attributes to open the Properties dialog. Output graphs and reports on soil temperatures can be generated for further analysis.

Permafrost options in WMS 11.3 beta
Feature Objects Clean Option Updates

We have made several improvements and updates to the Clean Option in our Feature Objects menu. Our developers have improved the cleaning algorithm, so that it is now significantly faster on large coverages. This will improve the efficiency of your model runs.

The Clean Option user interface has also been completely updated. It has the same functionality as the old interface but it now contains more options giving you more flexibility. You can choose to clean all feature objects or only selected ones. You can also now choose to do a full clean on feature objects, or only selected types of clean up.

Search Box for Recent Files

We have also added a search box to the Recent Files dialog. WMS shows the 5 most recent projects you have worked on when you click on File. When you click "More…" below that list of five projects, the dialog that comes up now includes a search box at the top. Rather than scrolling through the list of recent projects, you can now use the search box to find your modeling project more quickly.

These are only some of the great new and updated features in WMS 11.3 beta. Head on over to Aquaveo and try out the WMS 11.3 beta today!

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WMS

Discover the Map Activity Tools in SMS

By aquaveo on September 17, 2024

Aquaveo’s Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) comes equipped with various tools that streamline the water modeling process. In this collection, the Map Activity and Map Activity to UGrid features in the toolbox allow you to precisely define active and inactive areas of a grid or dataset. Some models and processes depend on being told which areas are active for which purpose these tools have been included.

The tools Map Activity and Map Activity to UGrid are located in the software Toolbox in the Datasets folder and Unstructured Grids folder, respectively. Both will create a new object based on the defined activity: either a new dataset or a new unstructured grid (UGrid).

The Map Activity tool has the ability to choose the activity dataset that will define the values for the new dataset using the Value dataset option, and the ability to choose the dataset that will define the activity for the new dataset using the Activity dataset option. Once you have selected the inputs, the only thing left to do is name the new activity dataset and run the tool. The tool outputs a new dataset that displays the custom inputs in the Graphics Window.

Example of Map Activity to UGrid tool

An important step when using the Map Activity to UGrid tool is establishing the proper activity coverage that defines the active and inactive areas of the unstructured grid. Ensure that you create an “Activity Classification” coverage with defined polygons in order to run the tool successfully. Additionally, assign polygons to the coverage to enable specificity when mapping activity. This tool has the ability to choose the geometry that will define the values for the new UGrid using the Input grid option, and the ability to select the coverage that will define the activity for the new UGrid using the Activity coverage option. After selecting the inputs, you name the new activity UGrid and run the tool. As a result, the tool populates a new UGrid that displays the given dataset inputs in the Graphics Window.

Now that you’ve been introduced to the activity tools in SMS 13.3, try using them in your surface-water models today!

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SMS

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