An HEC-FIA alternative consists of information on consequences for a given hazard. An HEC-FIA alternative is a combination of an Inundation Configuration, Impact Areas, Structure Inventory, Critical Infrastructure, Impact Response Curves, Agricultural Data, and computation settings. If the HEC-FIA project contains more than one alternative (for summer and winter crop conditions, for instance), you can build HEC-FIA model alternatives around each of them.
For further information on how to develop the information required in defining an alternative in HEC-FIA, see the HEC-FIA User's Manual.

Import a HEC-FIA Alternative

To import an HEC-FIA alternative: 

  1. From the File menu, point to Import, click HEC-FIA, and Import Alternatives dialog (Figure 1) opens.
    Figure 1 Import Alternative Dialog
  2. Click Select/Add Project, and a file browsing dialog opens.
  3. From the file browsing dialog, navigate to and select the HEC-FIA 3.0 project file (.prj extension) you wish to import.
  4. Click Open, and the file browsing dialog closes.
  5. From the Import Alternatives dialog, click Import, the HEC-FIA alternative is imported, and a confirmation dialog opens.
  6. Click OK, and the close confirmation dialog closes.
  7. Click Close, and Save your watershed.

Edit a HEC-FIA Alternative

To edit an HEC-FIA alternative:

  1. From the Watershed Pane in the Setup Module, select the HEC-FIA alternative you want to edit.
  2. Right-click the selected HEC-RAS alternative and the HEC-FIA Shortcut Menu (Figure 2) appears.
    Figure 2 HEC-FIA Shortcut Menu
  3. Click Alternative, and the HEC-FIA Alternative Editor (Figure 3) appears.
  4. Edit the HEC-FIA alternative as desired. For further information on how to modify HEC-FIA alternatives, see the HEC-FIA User's Manual.
    Figure 3 HEC-FIA Alternative Editor
  5. Click OK, and HEC-FIA Alternative editor closes.
  6. Save your watershed.

It is recommended that you only make changes from the Impact Area Editor (Figure 4), for the price index values. To access the Impact Area Editor, right-click a HEC-FIA model alternative from either the table in the Modeling Module or from the Watershed Pane in the Setup Module, and select Impact Areas.

Figure 4 HEC-FIA Impact Area Editor

For further information on how to edit HEC-FIA alternatives and impact areas, see the HEC-FIA User's Manual.

Copy an HEC-FIA Alternative

To copy an HEC-FIA alternative:

  1. Launch HEC-FIA from the CAVI taskbar.
  2. In the HEC-FIA watershed pane, select the HEC-FIA alternative you wish to copy.
  3. Right-click the selected alternative to bring up the HEC-FIA Alternative Shortcut Menu shown in Figure 5.
    Figure 5 HEC-FIA Alternative Shortcut Menu
  4. Select Save As from the alternative shortcut menu.
  5. The HEC-FIA Save As dialog will open (Figure 6). In the dialog, specify a new alternative name in the Name field, and fill out the Description field (if desired). Leave the Directory field alone.Figure 6 HEC-FIA Save As Dialog
  6. Click the OK button to complete the copy process. The copied alternative will now be shown in the HEC-FIA Alternative editor.

Delete an HEC-FIA Alternative

To delete an HEC-FIA alternative: 

  1. Launch HEC-FIA from the CAVI taskbar.
  2. In the HEC-FIA watershed pane, select the HEC-FIA alternative you wish to copy.
  3. Right-click the selected alternative to bring up the shortcut menu shown in Figure 5.
  4. Select Delete from Study and click the Yes button in the confirmation dialog.

For further information on how to delete alternatives in HEC-FIA, see the HEC-FIA User's Manual.