Build a Flood Modeller Catalogue
    • 01 Aug 2022
    • 5 Minutes to read
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    Build a Flood Modeller Catalogue

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    Article Summary

    The Catalogue Tool has been designed to help organise and manage all data associated to a river/floodplain modelling project using Flood Modeller and/or TUFLOW. It incorporates standardised templates to guide the user to collect all required data associated to a project. Follow the step-by-step guide below to build your own Flood Modeller Catalogue.

    Click here to find out more about using the Flood Modeller Catalogue Tool.

    Note:

    The first version of the Catalogue Tool has a couple of limitations that users should be aware of. It cannot check all full paths specified with model files as it only expects relative paths to be used. Furthermore, it cannot check the validity of "files within files". This is an issue within TUFLOW models where the control file (tcf) contains references to other TUFLOW files (these will be checked providing paths are defined with a relative format) and the referenced files then also reference further files (i.e. GIS datasets references in the tgc/tbc file types). The validity of these latter GIS data will not be checked and so the modeller should review these files themselves.

    How to Start Using a New Catalogue

    The Flood Modeller interface contains Catalogue related functions in the following panels:

    Projectsimagescataloguepanels.jpg

    Note:

    If your interface does not display the extra Catalogue related tabs on the map panel, the (right-hand) network panel and the main toolbar then you will need to reset your interface view to activate them. Go to the Home tab of the main toolbar and click on the Layout icon. Then select “Reset Layout” from the displayed menu. This should activate all new tabs (and they should then remain active in future sessions).

    At the start of a session the catalogue panels will be blank. To add one or multiple Flood Modeller simulations and their associated metadata to a catalogue, utilise the catalogue functionality as follows:

    • Before starting a new catalogue, you should ready some or all of the 1D simulations for your project. It is recommended that you set these up under a common folder structure, e.g. “…\MyProject\MyModels\MySimulations...” as this will reduce the complexity of the associated catalogue setup.
    1. Start a new catalogue – click New in the Catalogue tab of main toolbar

      Projectsimagesnewcatalogue.jpg

    2. Click OK in Select Template popup window (see The Catalogue Template section for more details).

      Projectsimagesselecttemplate.jpg

    3. Click Folder Connections on the Catalogue toolbar tab (see Key Concepts: Folder Connections for more details).

      Projectsimagesfolderconnections.jpg

    4. The Folder Connections window is displayed. Click Add Folder and browse to select the existing folder on your system containing the model files you wish to include in the catalogue.

      Once the selected folder is listed in the Folder Connections table click Save to store this in your catalogue and then click the “X” in the corner of the window to close it.

      Projectsimagescatalogueaddfolder.png

    5. Set the model type for the “Models” section of the new catalogue. In this quick start guide we are adding 1D only models, thus select “Flood Modeller 1D” from 1D solver dropdown list.

      Projectsimagescataloguemodels.jpg

      The basic catalogue template sets up a blank model entry called “Model 1”. Within this will be “Scenario 1” and within this will be “Simulation 1”. These names can be edited to something pertinent to your project (and then data can be added to them). Alternatively, right-click at the appropriate level of the catalogue content “tree” to add new items (i.e. models, scenarios or simulations).

    6. To add new 1D simulations to your catalogue right-click on the “Simulations” section header (within “Model 1” > “Scenario 1”) and select “Add simulation by scanning folder
      Projectsimagescataloguenewsims.png

    7. The folder connections window is displayed. Click “Select Folder” (with relevant folder in folder connections table highlighted). A standard folder selection window is again displayed with the highlighted folder connection pre-selected. This gives you the option to drill down further to a specific sub-folder.

    8. Click OK to start scanning for 1D simulations within the specified folder (and sub-folders). The scan identifies all simulations matching the defined type, i.e. ief files for Flood Modeller 1D. These are displayed in a new window:

      Projectsimagescataloguesimscan.png

    9. Tick which simulations to add to your catalogue. Click Add to proceed. The simulations will appear listed in the appropriate section of the catalogue.

      As part of this process, the tool will prompt you to specify if numerical components of your 1D simulation filenames represent return period or AEP. If you select one of these options the tool will try to automatically extract this information as metadata.

      Projectsimagesaddsimstocatalogue.png

    10. Now click Data Scan in main toolbar to scan all simulations in your catalogue and extract associated metadata, e.g. simulation diagnostics, linked input and output files (i.e. event data, results files from completed runs, etc.)

      Projectsimagescataloguedatascan.png

      Each simulation will have associated metadata that can be added to the catalogue. These are displayed in the Simulations tab of the right-hand panel. This is a tree view that can be expanded to show metadata from all loaded simulations (though data from the selected simulation in the main catalogue view will be fully expanded and visible by default).

      Initially the majority of values for these metadata will not be populated. Some data will be filled in by the data scan, however others always require manual entry. Some fields have either option – they will have a padlock icon against them. Click the padlock to release fields for manual entry.

    11. At any time, you can check what data are still missing in a catalogue by running the validate function – click Validate Catalogue in main toolbar.

      Projectsimagesvalidatecatalogue.png

      This function generates a report detailing missing data in your catalogue. In addition, fields marked as required in the template are highlighted in orange if missing and fields marked as recommended are shown in yellow. Note, you have the option in the catalogue toolbar to turn off this highlighting.

    12. When ending a Flood Modeller session ensure you click Save in the Catalogue toolbar to save any changes made to the new catalogue (Flood Modeller will prompt you to save the current catalogue if you try to end a session and changes have been made).

    13. An example of a completed catalogue is shown below.

      ProjectsimagesCataTool.png

      This example can be recreated using the catalogue data included in the Flood Modeller example data (see the "CatalogueData" sub-folder within the example data). To access these data browse to the zip file below and unpack to a suitable location:

      C:\Program Files\Flood Modeller\gui\FloodModeller_ExampleData.zip


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