For CWMS, a watershed is a set of data, information, models, and images that represent watershed lands and the channels, gages, and water control features within the watershed. An existing watershed can be opened from any of the modules. (If a new watershed needs to be created, refer to Creating a Watershed).

Only one CWMS watershed can be open at a time. Therefore, if a watershed is open and you attempt to open another watershed, CWMS will close the initially opened watershed. The software will first prompt you to save the watershed, if you do not save the watershed, changes will be lost. 

There are two methods available to open a watershed. First, if the watershed has been opened before, from the CWMS CAVI main window, from the File menu, point to Recent Watersheds, from the list, select the correct watershed. The second way to open a watershed follows: 

  1. From the CWMS CAVI main window, from the File menu, click Open Watershed, the Open Watershed dialog will open (Figure 1).
    Figure 1 Open Watershed Dialog
  2. From the Available Watersheds box (Figure 1), select a watershed, click OK. The Open Watershed dialog will close, and the selected watershed will display in the CWMS CAVI main window.

If there are no available locations or a new location is required, you can add a location from the Open Watershed dialog (Figure 1). 

Click Edit, the Create Watershed Locations dialog will open (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Create Watershed Locations Dialog

  1. Click Add Location, the Add Watershed Location dialog will open (Figure 3). In the Name box, enter a name for the new watershed location. In the Location box, you can enter a pathname for the location of the watershed.  The easier option is to click Browse, a Select Watershed Location browser will open (Figure 4).
  2. Browse to the folder that contains the appropriate watershed, click on the name. The Folder Name box (Figure 4) will now contain the appropriate location. Click Open, the Select Watershed Location browser will close, the select folder's pathname will now display in the Location box (Figure 3).
  3. Click OK, the Add Watershed Location box will close (Figure 3), and the new watershed location will display in the Create Watershed Locations dialog (Figure 2). Click OK, the Create Watershed Locations dialog will close.
  4. From the Open Watershed dialog (Figure 1), the new location will display in the Available Locations box, and is available for you to use.

Figure 3 Add Watershed Location

Figure 4 Select Watershed Location Browser