Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

After you have created a model in the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS), it is not uncommon to need to move your vector data or solution datasets from one geometry to another. It could be that your model ran using a 2D mesh and now you want to move the vector data to an unstructured grid for use in another simulation. SMS gives you the ability to accurately move vector data from one geometry to another which can significantly enhance the precision of your modeling efforts.

The Interpolate to UGrid tool is a powerful feature designed to streamline this process of moving datasets from one geometry to another. The Interpolate to UGrid tool is located in the Toolbox with the suite of dataset tools.

The Interpolate to UGrid tool facilitates the interpolation of a dataset associated with one geometry to another within the same project. While it primarily is meant to work with unstructured grids (UGrids), it can be used with other geometries such as 2D meshes or Cartesian grids. The tool will accept any dataset on the geometry, including vector and elevation sets.

The tool will follow an interpolation process to assign values on nodes or cells from one geometry to the next. Because of this, it is important to review the dataset after it has been moved, to verify that it transferred as expected.

The Interpolate to UGrid tool gives you several features that let you control the process of moving data from one geometry to another. These include:

• Versatile Interpolation Methods: Choose the interpolation method that best suits your data and modeling objectives to achieve optimal results.
• Customizable Interpolation Dimension: Tailor the interpolation process to match the dimensions of your target grid, whether it's 2D or 3D.
• Truncation Options: Control the range of interpolated values with flexible truncation options. Whether you want to preserve the original data range or define custom minimum and maximum values, this tool provides the flexibility you need to fine-tune your results.
• Extrapolation Capabilities: Handle extrapolation scenarios with ease, choosing from various extrapolation options to extend your dataset beyond the convex hull of the scatter point set.

Whether you're working with unstructured grids, 2D meshes, or other geometric entities, this tool provides the functionality and flexibility you need to enhance the accuracy of your modeling efforts. Make use of the Interpolate to UGrid tool in your SMS projects today!

Are you struggling to define separate constant concentrations for different chemicals in your MT3DMS model areas? MT3DMS is an invaluable tool for groundwater modeling, but like any software, it has its limitations. The Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) incorporates MT3DMS into its interface, which includes both the benefits and limitations of MT3DMS. The inability of MT3DMS to define separate constant concentrations for different chemicals in the same area can be a hindrance for modelers aiming for precision and accuracy in their simulations. So what should you do if your MT3DMS model requires defining constant concentration for two or more chemicals in separate areas?

There's a workaround provided by the MT3DMS developers for defining multispecies simulations. By using negative values in the table for species that need to be left undefined, you can effectively overcome this constraint and tailor your model to your specific needs. In GMS, this value is entered on the Source/Sink Mixing Package dialog for MT3DMS.

Note that it may seem as though a value of zero would have the same result when defining concentration. However, this is not the case. Entering a value of zero will be recognized as the same as entering a positive value. Therefore, it is important to enter a negative value for species that need to be left undefined when working with a multispecies simulation.

When running MT3DMS, cells that have negative values entered for a species will not have constant concentration for that species applied to that cell. Concentration, constant or varying, will be applied to all cells where the value is positive. As always, it is important to review the entered species values before running the model to ensure accuracy.

Now with more understanding of how to work with constant concentration values for multiple species in MT3DMS, see if you can use it in your GMS project today!

Have you ever found yourself working on a mesh in the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) that has holes in places you don’t want them? Then you may want to check out the new Fill Holes in UGrid tool in the SMS toolbox. This tool can be a quick and easy way to fill in any undesirable voids in your 2D mesh or unstructured grid (UGrid).

The Fill Holes in UGrid tool can be found in the SMS toolbox under the Unstructured Grids folder. From there, all you need to do is select the mesh or UGrid that has holes or voids you want filled from a dropdown list, give the new mesh a name, and run the tool. From there, SMS will create a duplicate of the input mesh, only now the mesh will have elements where the holes used to be.

But what if you want to keep some of the voids in your mesh? That’s where the Extract Subgrid tool comes in handy. The Extract Subgrid tool can isolate a portion of a mesh, which is useful if the mesh is particularly large, or if you want to confine any changes to one specific area.

To create a subgrid, first you need to create an Area Property coverage with a polygon outlining the area you want to isolate. Then open the toolbox and find the Extract Subgrid tool, which is located in the Unstructured Grids folder. Select the mesh from the “Grid” dropdown, the coverage from the “Subgrid boundary coverage” dropdown, and enter a name for the new mesh. Now you can use the Fill Holes in UGrid tool to fill the voids in just the isolated portion of the mesh.

If you use the subgrid method to fill the voids in your mesh, there is one more tool you’ll want to know about: the Merge 2D UGrids tool. You can use this tool to merge the subgrid back with the original mesh. This tool is also in the toolbox under the Unstructured Grids folder. To use this tool, select the subgrid from the “Primary grid” dropdown, the original mesh from the “Secondary grid” dropdown, and choose a name for the new mesh.

The Fill Holes in UGrid, Extract Subgrid, and Merge 2D UGrids tools can help simplify and smooth the mesh editing process, no matter the project. Open SMS 13.3 and check out what these three tools can do for you today!

The Arc Hydro Groundwater tools developed by Aquaveo help you manage groundwater and subsurface data within ArcGIS. When ESRI released ArcGIS Pro as the successor to the ArcGIS Desktop applications, we made some changes to the AHGW tools to adapt to the interface of the new ArcGIS application. Today we’ll talk about some of the differences you should expect when making the switch to AHGW Pro. If you're curious about ArcGIS Pro in general, you can follow this link to learn more about it.

One of the major visual differences between AHGW in ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro is the location of the tools. All the AHGW tools in ArcGIS Desktop are located on an AHGW toolbar that can be either docked or floating. In ArcGIS Pro, the AHGW toolbar has been replaced with an AHGW Pro ribbon which includes only some of the tools that were on the old AHGW toolbar. The rest of the subsurface and groundwater analyst tools are imported as a python toolbox. Additionally, AHGW wizards have been converted to panes, which contain all pages of the wizard.

Some of the tools that were previously available in the AHGW desktop applications are not available in AHGW Pro. Some of these tools will be included in upcoming iterations of AHGW, but there are some that will get left behind. Most notably, we have no plans to include any of the AHGW MODFLOW analyst tools in ArcGIS Pro. You may also notice that other file import and export options have been removed.

We made functional changes to some of the AHGW tools in ArcGIS Pro as well. AHGW Pro has moved away from using raster catalogs, using mosaic datasets instread. This may be a little confusing at first, as the tools still have "raster" in the name. Just know that when it says raster, it means mosaic dataset. There are lots of tools that can help you create and modify mosaic datasets inside of ArcGIS Pro, which you can easily find just by typing "mosaic dataset" in the search bar at the top of the window.

Go to ArcGIS Pro and check out the new AHGW Pro tools today!