Workshop 1

Using the HEC-FDA Version 2.0 Software

Objective

(45 mins) – In this hands-on workshop participants are introduced to the HEC-FDA Version 2 user interface. Participants will become familiar with the Impact Area set importer, Terrain importer, and Properties editor. Participants will also import an HEC-FDA Version 1.4.3 model into the Version 2 software.

Downloadable Workshop Materials

Software Version

HEC-FDA Version 2.1 Beta will be used during this course.  Download the portable version of the software by following the instructions provided, here: Download the HEC-FDA Software. Detailed instructions are included on this page.

Workshop Overview

During this workshop students will:

• Familiarize with the new user interface
• Import a terrain
• Import an Impact Area set
• Explore study Properties
• Set a spatial projection
• Create a new HEC-FDA Version 2 study from a Version 1.4.3 study

Introduction to HEC-FDA

Per the day 1 reading assignments, you should have reviewed the HEC-FDA Quick Start Guides.

Part 1 – Create a New HEC-FDA Study from Scratch

Download Workshop Materials

1. From the Downloadable Workshop Material section:
2. Download the HEC-FDA Version 2 software.
3. Download and save the workshop datafiles. 
   1. Extract the downloaded datafiles. Right-click and select Extract All. Set the "Files will be extracted to this folder" path to: C:\Workshops\FDA\data 
   2. Note, if you extract the datafiles without setting the path identified above, then the path to your extracted data will be:
      1. Part 1 data will save to the following path: C:\Workshops\FDA\data\MuncieData
      2. Part 2 data will save to the following path: C:\Workshops\FDA\data\WS1_Part2\ApplicationGuideStartingData

Create a New Study

1. Open HEC-FDA Version 2.
2. From the File menu, click New.
3. In the Study Name box, enter a name for the study (e.g., Workshop1). Select the browser ellipse button to set the study path in the Select Folder browser window.
4. Navigate to the desired location for saving the new study (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\myWS) and click Select Folder. 
5. Enter a description in the Description box (e.g., This is the first workshop) and click OK.

Import Terrain Data

Purpose

A terrain is a spatial data set that contains the ground elevations for a defined area of interest. For HEC-FDA modeling, terrain data should be obtained from the HEC-RAS model. 

Terrain data can also be obtained from the US Geological Survey (USGS), or by working with a geographic information system (GIS) specialist.

Terrain data is used for one or both of the following: (1) using hierarchical data format (.hdf) results for hydraulics, in which case the terrain should be in HDF format, or (2) obtaining ground surface elevations at structures, in which case the terrain can be imported as an HDF or as a raster grid file (.vrt, .tif, .hdf or .flt). Only one terrain file can be imported.  

Steps

The terrain file used in the Muncie study is the same file used by the hydraulic engineers in modeling the existing condition hydraulics. The units of measurement of the terrain data are elevation in feet based on the EPSG:2965 (NAD83/Indiana East) coordinate reference system.

1. From the Study Tree, right-click Terrain and select Import Terrain. The Import Terrain dialog opens as a tab.
2. Enter a name for the terrain (e.g., Muncie Terrain).
3. From the Terrain Path box, click the ellipse button to open the Select File browser window.
4. Navigate to the location you saved the terrain file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\MuncieData\Terrain), select the file "Terrain.hdf". Make sure the folder containing the .hdf file also includes the accompanying .tif files, and then click Open.
5. From the Import Terrain dialog, click OK.

Review and Edit the Study Properties

Purpose

The study properties allows users to set many of important parameters in HEC-FDA, including the discount rate and period of analysis.

Tips and Tricks

Keep track of the units of measurement. Units of measurement will not be tracked nor handled within HEC-FDA Version 2. For example, if terrain elevation is measured in meters but the first floor elevation is measured in feet, HEC-FDA will not know about the discrepancy - this will have to be handled outside of HEC-FDA. 

Steps

1. From the File menu, click Properties. The Study Properties dialog opens as a tab.
2. From the Study Properties dialog review the defaults and user-defined content.

3. From the Study Projection box, in the Project Projection File, click the browser ellipse button to open the Select File browser window. 

   

   You may need to expand the HEC-FDA main window to view the entire Study Properties tab. Alternatively, click to pop out the tab as a window. Click again to return the dialog to the HEC-FDA main window.

4. Navigate to the location of the terrain projection file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\MuncieData\Terrain), select the file "NAD 1983 StatePlane Indiana East FIPS 1301 (US Feet).prj", and then click Open.
5. Click Save to save your edits. Click Close.

Import Impact Area Set

Purpose

An Impact Area is a defined geographic area of interest. Impact Areas sets are imported in the form of a polygon shapefile. The shapefile must have a string or integer field that identifies a unique name for each Impact Area. Only one Impact Area set can be imported.

Steps

1. From the Study Tree, under Impact Areas, right-click on Impact Area Set, and click Import Impact Area Set. The Import Impact Area Set dialog opens as a tab.
2. Enter a name in the Impact Area Name box (e.g., Muncie Impact Areas). Enter a description in the Description box (e.g., Workshop 1 impact areas for Muncie dataset).
3. From the Shapefile Path box, click the ellipse button to open the Select File browser window.
4. Navigate to the location of the impact areas file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\MuncieData\ImpactAreaSet), select the file "ImpactAreaFinal.shp" and click Open.
5. From the Unique Name list select, Name. Note the names of the two impact areas in the Muncie dataset.
6. Click OK to import the impact areas.

Part 2 – Create a New HEC-FDA Version 2 Study from Version 1.4.3 Data

Follow the steps below to create a new HEC-FDA Version 2 study from a Version 1.4.3 study. For more information review the tutorial: Version 1.4.3 to Version 2.0 Study Conversion. The HEC-FDA Version 1.4.3 study text files have been provided to you in the WS1_Part2.7z data downloadable at the top of the page.

Import Study From Tab-Delimited Text File

1. From the HEC-FDA main window click the red X at the top right to close the software. Open a fresh instance of HEC-FDA.
2. From the File menu, click Import Study.  The Import Study From Tab-Delimited Text File dialog opens as a tab.
3. From the Study Name box enter a name for your study (e.g., WS1part2_Beargrass).
4. From the Tab Delimited Import File, click the click the ellipse button to open the Select File browser window.
5. Navigate to the location of the HEC-FDA Version 1.4.3 exported text file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\WS1_Part2\ApplicationGuideStartingData\HEC-FDA_Study), select the file "FDA_ExportASCII.txt" and click Open.
6. From the Study Path box, click the ellipse button to open the Select Folder browser window. Navigate to the desired location for saving the new study (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\myWS) and click Select Folder.
7. Enter a description in the Description box (e.g., This is the second part of the first workshop).
8. Click Import and view the Import Log.

Import Impact Area Set

Steps

1. From the Study Tree, under Impact Areas, right-click on Impact Area Set, and click Import Impact Area Set. The Import Impact Area Set dialog opens as a tab.
2. Enter a name in the Impact Area Name box (e.g., Beargrass Impact Areas). Enter a description in the Description box (e.g., Workshop 1, Part 2 impact areas for example Version 1.4.3 dataset).
3. From the Shapefile Path box, click the ellipse button to open the Select File browser window.
4. Navigate to the location of the impact areas file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\WS1_Part2\ApplicationGuideStartingData\ImpactAreas), select the file "BeargrassCreek.shp" and click Open.
5. From the Unique Name list select, Name. 
6. Click OK to import the impact areas.

Import Aggregated Stage-Damage Functions

Steps

1. Right-click on Aggregated Stage-Damage Functions under Economics within the Study Tree. Click on Import Stage-Damage Functions from Tab-Delimited Text File. The import dialog opens as a tab.
2. From the Base Name box, give the functions a base name (e.g., BearStgDmg) and enter a description in the Description box (e.g., These are aggregated stage-damage functions for Beargrass).
3. From the Tab Delimited File box click ellipse button to open the Select File browser window.
4. Navigate to the location of the same HEC-FDA Version 1.4.3 exported text file (e.g., C:\Workshops\FDA\data\WS1_Part2\ApplicationGuideStartingData\HEC-FDA_Study), select the file "FDA_ExportASCII.txt" and click Open.
5. Click Import and view the Import Log.
6. A set of stage-damage functions will be created in the study tree for each combination of plan and analysis year. For example, all without-project base year stage-damage functions (one for each impact area) will exist as a set of stage-damage functions. The name of the set of functions will be the base name plus the plan and year. 

Review the Study Data for Part 2

There are four plans in the workshop data: Without which represents the without-project condition, Plan 1 which consists of a detention basin and channel modification, Plan 2 which consists of a floodwall only, and Plan 3 which consists of all three. The detention basin and channel modifications are reflected through their condition-specific discharge-frequency and stage-discharge functions, which are the Plan 1 functions. The levee for Plans 2 and 3 in reach SF-9 is the floodwall found under Lateral Structures. Plan 2 uses the without-project discharge-frequency and stage-discharge functions. 

Test Your Knowledge - Question 6

Find the OSNB Occupancy Type. There are errors in the text boxes. What are the errors?

Hint

From the Study Tree, right click on the imported occupancy types dataset, and select Edit. From the editor, select the OSNB occupancy type and hover over a highlighted box (e.g., yellow highlight).

Conclusion

Each of the workshops have solution projects. Download the solution projects below to compare to your projects.

• Part 1: Workshop 1 Solution.7z, Workshop 1 Solution.zip
• Part 2: Workshop 1 Part 2 solution (7z), Workshop 1 Part 2 solution (zip)

To access the files, unzip and then:

1. Open the HEC-FDA Version 2 software.
2. From the File menu, click Open. The Open Study dialog opens as a tab.
3. Click the ellipse button in the Study Path box to open the Select File browser window.
4. Navigate to the Workshop 1 solution projects (e.g.,Muncie_WS1_Solution OR Beargrass_WS1_Solution), select the *.sqlite HEC-FDA file and click Open.
5. From the Open Study tab, click OK.

Review the answers below to the workshop questions. Close FDA when finished with the workshop.

Return to top of page.

Best Answers to Test Your FDA Knowledge Questions

Related Topics

• Page:
  Aggregated Stage-Damage Functions (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Analytical Frequency Function (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Continuous Distributions (HEC-FDA Technical Reference)
• Page:
  Create New Study from Version 1.4.3 Data (HEC-FDA Quick Start Guides)
• Page:
  Differences Between Version 1.4.3 and Version 2.x (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Economic Data (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Flood Risk Assessment and HEC-FDA (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Frequency Functions (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Getting Help and Additional Resources (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Glossary (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Graphical Frequency Function (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Hydraulics (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Known Issues (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Occupancy Types (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Part A Create Study then Import or Specify Study Data (HEC-FDA Quick Start Guides)
• Page:
  Part B Compute Aggregated Stage-Damage Functions (HEC-FDA Quick Start Guides)
• Page:
  Projection of Geospatial Data Sets (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Recommended GIS Skills (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Structure Inventory (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Study Dimensions and Compute Configuration and Results (HEC-FDA User Manual)
• Page:
  Version 1.4.3 to Version 2.0 Study Conversion (HEC-FDA Training)
• Page:
  Version 2.0 Certification Report (HEC-FDA User Manual)