Model:TopoFlow: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Hydrology]] | [[Category:Hydrology]] |
Revision as of 12:06, 20 November 2009
Contact
Name | Scott Peckham |
Type of contact | Model developer |
Institute / Organization | CSDMS, INSTAAR, University of Colorado |
Postal address 1 | 1560 30th street |
Postal address 2 | |
Town / City | Boulder |
Postal code | 80305 |
State | Colorado |
Country | USA"USA" is not in the list (Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, ...) of allowed values for the "Country" property. |
Email address | Scott.Peckham@colorado.edu |
Phone | 303-492-6752 |
Fax |
TopoFlow
Metadata
Summary
Technical specs
In/Output
Process
Testing
Other
Latest NewsA beta version of TopoFlow 1.5 is now available (September 3, 2008) and this website has been updated to reflect the new features. You can download the new version, new HTML help system and new documentation by clicking on the links below. Please note that an improved method for linking unsaturated and saturated subsurface flow is not yet complete in this beta release. A new modeling paper by Pohl et al. (2009) obtained good results using TopoFlow and is listed in the References section below. New Movie: Click on the following image to watch a movie that shows the space-time distribution of discharge in a small basin in Kentucky in response to a short, spatially-uniform rainfall event. <localVideo width="264" height="216" image="Small_KY_Discharge.png" caption="Spatial discharge movie" type="video/msvideo"> Small_Q_w_Sound.avi </localVideo> What is TopoFlow?TopoFlow is a powerful, spatially-distributed hydrologic model with a user-friendly point-and-click interface. Its main purpose is to model many different physical processes in a watershed with the goal of accurately predicting how various hydrologic variables will evolve in time in response to climatic forcings. Time evolutions for single pixels (such as hydrographs), collections of user-selected pixels, or entire grids (as animations) are all supported as output options. The currently supported physical processes are:
Processes such as sediment and contaminant transport and landform evolution are planned for future releases. For each physical process, the user selects a "method" to be used to model that process from a droplist of options, and then specifies the input data that is required for that method and the output variables that are of interest. TopoFlow is designed so that users can use existing methods, share methods with others, or add their own methods and incorporate them into the graphical user interface. A method called "None" is always available to turn off any given physical process, and cleanly-written templates are provided to simplify the task of adding new methods. TopoFlow also includes a growing number of pre- and post-processing tools. Some of the pre-processing tools included in the latest version are: (1) a tool for parameterizing channel geometry and roughness with either contributing area or Horton-Strahler order, (2) a "profile-smoothing" tool to remove "jumps" in DEM profiles, (3) a tool for computing a "normal depth" grid, (4) a data interpolation tool for creating time-indexed grid stacks from time series data for 3 or more stations (via inverse distance method), (5) shortwave and longwave radiation calculators and (6) a multifractal, rainfall simulation tool. TopoFlow is written in a high-level, array-based programming language called IDL (Interactive Data Language). IDL is a product of ITT Visual Information Solutions (formerly Research Systems, Inc.). Advanced features like:
make IDL especially well-suited to the needs of the TopoFlow project. Programs written in IDL are also highly portable across computer platforms, so that TopoFlow runs almost identically on Windows, Mac, and Unix platforms. (TopoFlow was also designed to handle byte order issues transparently, so that data sets can be shared between platforms.) How Do I Install and Run TopoFlow?To run TopoFlow, you first need to download the file: TF15b_IDL63.zip (for IDL 6.3) or the file TF15b_IDL60.zip (for IDL 6.0) and unzip it. This bundle contains a file called topoflow.sav and two folders called Images and Help that contain resource files. You will need to manually create the main TopoFlow folder and copy these files to that folder. The main TopoFlow folder should be named: "C:\Program Files\TopoFlow\" for Windows, "/Applications/TopoFlow/" for Mac OS X, and "/usr/local/TopoFlow/" for other Unix platforms. You will then need to obtain one of the following applications:
Each of these applications has the ability to "restore" or run TopoFlow, which is stored in the file topoflow.sav. You can create a shortcut or alias for this file and place it somewhere in the IDL search path or in the RiverTools "menu" folder. You can download an IDL installer from ITT Visual Information Solutions that lets you choose whether to install just the free IDL Virtual Machine (IDL VM) or the full IDL application. Installers are available for most of the popular operating systems including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The IDL Virtual Machine is free and allows you to run any IDL "SAV" file that has been compiled with IDL 6.0 or higher. A full, licensed copy of IDL allows access to the IDL command line while TopoFlow is running and provides a very flexible modeling environment. (Note: In order to run IDL or IDL VM under Mac OS X, you will first need to install the optional X11 application from Apple if it has not already been installed.) In order to create some of the input files that are required by TopoFlow, you will also need an application that can extract geomorphometric grids such as D8 flow grids, slope grids and contributing area grids from digital elevation model (DEM) data. This functionality is available in hydrologic GIS programs such as RiverTools. RiverTools is a user-friendly, point-and-click environment for the GIS analysis of digital terrain, watersheds and river networks that is also written in IDL. It also has a large number of useful tools for DEM preparation, visualization, analysis and grid editing. A summary of key functionality is available on the RiverTools website. (See the Fact Sheet, Key Benefits and Image Gallery.) TopoFlow can optionally be installed as a plug-in to RiverTools (in its User menu) and can then take advantage of some of the additional capabilities that are built into RiverTools. Where Can I Learn More About TopoFlow?TopoFlow 1.5 has a new HTML-based help system which includes a tutorial in the Help menu and Help buttons in many of the dialogs. You can download documents with more information that relates to TopoFlow by clicking on the following links:
Additional documentation, PowerPoint presentations and sample data can be downloaded by following the links at the top of the navigation bar on the left-hand side of this page. Who are the Developers of TopoFlow?The TopoFlow project grew out of discussions in 2002 between Scott Peckham (University of Colorado, Boulder) and Matt Nolan (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). The initial idea was to merge two spatial hydrologic models into one and add a user-friendly, point-and-click interface. One of these models was a D8-based, rainfall-runoff model written by Peckham which supported both kinematic and dynamic wave routing as well as both Manning's formula and the law of the wall for flow resistance. The second model, called ARHYTHM, was written by Larry Hinzman and colleagues at UAF (see Zhang et al., 2000) for the purpose of modeling Arctic watersheds. It therefore contained advanced methods for modeling thermal processes such as snowmelt, evaporation and shallow-subsurface flow and was validated with field data for several Arctic watersheds. The first version of TopoFlow was launched at a user workshop in Fairbanks in 2003. Since then, the number of users and the number of people contributing code has continued to grow. TopoFlow has been specially-designed so that new methods for modeling physical processes can be added easily without affecting the existing set of built-in methods. The number of tools and methods available to users therefore grows as the user community of hydrologists using it for their research grows. Contributors to the TopoFlow project so far include:
TopoFlow is distributed as very clean, open-source IDL code, complete with a user-friendly graphical user interface, context-specific help, etc. The goal is for users to use this code as a template for contributing and sharing new hydrological "methods" that they may develop. People interested in contributing to the project should contact S. Peckham. The latest versions of source code can be accessed via Subversion. Who Uses TopoFlow?TopoFlow has so far been used for the following projects:
FundingPartial funding for this work has been provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (OPP-0229705), which is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. IssuesHelpInput FilesOutput FilesDownloadSourceCommand-Line AccessIf you plan to make changes, use this command to check out the code as yourself using HTTPS: # Project members authenticate over HTTPS to allow committing changes.
svn checkout https://csdms.colorado.edu/svn/topoflow
When prompted, enter your CSDMS Subversion password. Non-members may only check out a read-only working copy of the project source. To obtain a CSDMS Subversion account or to become a member of this project, please email csdms@colorado.edu. GUI and IDE AccessThis project's Subversion repository may be accessed using many different client programs and plug-ins. See your client's documentation for more information. http://csdms.colorado.edu/viewvc/?root=topoflow Subversion HelpFor help on how to use Subversion, an excellent manual is available online at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/ |