Watershed Analysis

Function

This command has a collection of tools to analyze the runoff of a surface defined by triangulation. After selecting the triangulation file of the surface, the program docks a dialog on the left side of the drawing window. While the Watershed Analysis dialog is running, other AutoCAD and Carlson commands are not available. To zoom or pan the drawing view, use the buttons at the top of the dialog, or use the middle button of a wheel-mouse.

The Process button calculates the flow connections between the triangles and along the edges of the triangulation. Most of the Watershed Analysis functions make use of these flow connections. So running Process is typically the first step. The Rainfall amount is used in the Process function for figuring the runoff volume to determine when the volume is enough to spillover a local depression in the surface. Besides the Rainfall amount, the runoff coefficients as defined in Define Runoff Layers are also used to calculate the runoff volumes. When the local depression is small enough the srunoff will continue through. Otherwise this spot is called a sink for where the runoff stops.


The Draw Watersheds function draws the watershed areas using the settings under the Options tab. The back arrow next to the Draw Watersheds button will erase any previous Draw Watershed entities. The Fill Watershed Areas option will solid fill hatch each area using different colors. The Draw Sink Locations setting draws a symbol at the low point for each drainage area. The Draw Pond Areas option draws a solid fill hatch in blue for the area covered by the runoff volume of low points. In the example shown, the Fill Watershed Areas and Draw Sink Locations options are active. The Draw Max Flow Lines option draws polylines for the longest flow line within each watershed. These longest flow polylines can be used to calculate the time of concentration.


The Draw Pond Areas button draws solid fill hatch in blue for the areas covered by the runoff volume of low points. This is the same function as the Draw Pond Areas option within Draw Watersheds routine.

The Watershed Above Point function reports the watershed data of the current pointer position in real-time as the pointer is moved around. The watershed data is shown in a tooltip next to the pointer position. This data has values for the overall watershed that the position is in including the sink elevation, sink name, drainage area and average slope percent. This data also has values for the watershed above the current point including the drainage area and runoff volume. Plus this data shows the elevation and runoff coefficient at the current point. If the position is picked with the mouse, then the program draws a polyline perimeter for the drainage area above the current point.

The Runoff Tracking function draws flow lines that follow the surface. The Single Point Tracking method draws the flow lines starting from the picked high points. The Whole Surface Tracking method draws a flow line starting from the middle of each triangle in the triangulation. The Major Flow Tracking method draws starting in triangles where the drainage area coming into triangle exceeds the specified Cutoff Area Above value. The flow lines can be drawn as either 2D or 3D polylines. For 2D polylines, the linetype can be specified or the special linetype with flow direction arrows can be used. This special flow linetype has controls for the size and frequency of the flow arrows.



The Draw Connections function draws lines with arrows between the triangles for how the program has determined their flow connections.


When a triangulation file is processed by Watershed Analysis, some of the flow connection data is stored into the triangulation file to speed up reprocessing. The Reprocess Topo function resets this flow connection data to start the flow calculations from scratch.

The Detail Inspector function reports flow connection data at the pointer position in real-time as the pointer is moved. This data includes the current position triangle number, connecting flow triangle number, sink node number, watershed name, border elevation, ridge elevation, low elevation, downstream sink number, number of source triagnles, number of source nodes, current elevation and spillover elevation.

The Inspect function reports runoff flow data at the pointer position in real-time as the pointer is moved. The runoff data is shown in a tooltip next to the pointer and in the Data tab. This data has values for the overall watershed that the position is in including the sink elevation, sink name, drainage area and average slope percent. This data also has values for the watershed above the current point including the drainage area and runoff volume. Plus this data shows the elevation and runoff coefficient at the current point. When the Hatch Area Being Inspected option is active, the watershed area for the current position is hatched during inspection.

The Watershed Report function runs the report formatter to choose which of the watershed parameters to report. The Pond Report function reports the position and depth of each ponding area.

Besides calculating the runoff of the triangulation surface, Watershed Analysis can also process the runoff effects from structures for inlets, storage ponds, culverts and channels. The structures in Watershed Analysis are simply for placement and watershed delineation. These structures do not have design considerations for parameters like pipe size. In the Structure tab, there is a list of the structures to apply with the current surface. The list shows the name, type and drainage area for each structure. The Draw function will draw symbols for each structure. The Inlet structures act as sinks in the watershed and capture all the flow that comes to the inlet point. Each inlet is defined by a single point and a name. The Storage Tank structures also act as sinks and are defined by a single point and name. The Culvert structures route the flow from the culvert inlet to the outlet. The culverts are defined by two points for the inlet and outlet and by a name. The Channel structure is the same as the Culvert except that it can have more than two points to define the flow path. The structure data can be stored to a Watershed Structure File (wst) using the Save button. The Load button can read the structure data from either a wst file or from a sewer network file (.sew).


Pulldown Menu Location: Watershed
Keyboard Command: watershed
Prerequisite: Triangulation File
File Name: \lsp\cntr_grd.arx