ARR 2019 Ensembles Processing

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This page summarizes recommended approach for processing a large amount of ARR 2016 ensembles.

Introduction

The ARR 2016 guidelines require the use of ten temporal patterns to be applied for each design Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) and storm duration combination. This multiplies the number of design simulations by ten and requires additional processing in comparison with the previous approach recommended in ARR 1987. The result files can get very large, the creation of the processing tools can lead to tedious work and the computerised processing can be time intensive.

Choice of Output

As the model results might get large in size the preferred method to process the ensembles is to use FLT grid output format to export the maximums of required values (water level, depth, velocity, hazard, ...) directly from TUFLOW simulation. FLT files are ESRI binary (float) version of the ASC files and their size is about 1/5 of an ASC file. Binary files can also be processed faster by TUFLOW utilities.
Commands in the TCF:

Map Output Format == FLT

Map Output Date Types == h, d, V

FLT Map Output Interval == 0

If using only time-series outputs (xmdf, dat) an extra step will be required to export maximum grids (FLT or ASC) with TUFLOW_to_GIS utility.

Median

Use ASC_to_ASC utility (-statMedian switch) to create median of required values (water level, depth, velocity, hazard, ...) for each storm duration and each AEP.

Maximums

Use ASC_to_ASC utility (-max switch) to create maximum envelope of the median results for each AEP.

Processing Batch File Tips

• Batch file is recommended to be located in the same folder as the result files. This will enable the use of relative path for the input and output files to make the command shorter.
  

Example:

"C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\asc_to_asc_w64.exe" -b -out ARR_Max.flt -max ARR_060m.flt ARR_120m.flt

Instead:

"C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\asc_to_asc_w64.exe" -b -out "C:\Projects\Project_1024\Processing\ARR_Max.flt" -max "C:\Projects\Project_1024\Processing\ARR_060m.flt" "C:\Projects\Project_1024\Processing\ARR_120m.flt"

• A wild card (*) can be used to avoid typing all the file names. Instead ASC_to_ASC utility will automatically read all the files with the same start and end of the filename.
  

Example:

"C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\asc_to_asc_w64.exe" -b -out ARR_Max.flt -max ARR_*.flt

Instead:

"C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\asc_to_asc_w64.exe" -b -out ARR_Max.flt -max ARR_060m.flt ARR_120m.flt ARR_180m.flt ARR_240m.flt ARR_300m.flt ARR_360m.flt

• Looping through variables in a batch file can also be used to make the processing more efficient. Example of such batch file is below:
  

@echo off

:: This sets the variables as local, so you can use another batch file with A and B variables
SetLocal

:: set path to ASC_to_ASC Utility
set ASC_to_ASC="C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\asc_to_asc_w64.exe"

:: set up variables
set A=060m 120m 180m 240m 300m 360m
set B=tp01 tp02 tp03 tp04 tp05 tp06 tp07 tp08 tp09 tp10

:: Loop Through
FOR %%a in (%A%) do (
    FOR %%b in (%B%) DO (
		%ASC_to_ASC% -b -statMedian ARR_%%a_%%b_001.flt
    )
)
pause