Delineation of bridges and culverts Watersheds (advanced problems)

[FernandoVasconcellos]

Hi all!

After a long pathway, I obtained the synthetic drainage lines of my study area, quite well defined. I intersected them with a roads layer and found about 3,000 consistently defined drainage points. I also have the catchments and the adjoint catchment well defined at the drainage lines joints. But I need to delineate the watersheds for each culvert or bridge. When I try to use "Delineate from multiple I and O" the ArcMap simply stops responding. I think the "Batch watershed delineation" would be a better function for my purpose, but I can't find a way to automatically generate the 3,000 batch points I have (actually I'm working in a small mask, with 150 pilot points). Even when I use the tool/button "Batch point generation" to manually define just 1 of the 150 points I have, the "batchdone" field gets a "-1", what means that the delineation has failed (with no explanation why that or any clue in the ArcHydro to help to solve the problem). DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO DELINEATE THE WATERSHEDS TO PREDETERMINED POINTS (THOUSANDS OF THEM)? I'd appreciate any help at all!!!

[MarkBoucher]

but I can't find a way to automatically generate the 3,000 batch points I have

I often used the tools in HEC-GeoHMS (http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-geohms/download.html). There is one under "Basin Processing" named "Import Batch Points" that might bring them all in for you. I've used GeoHMS tools  in the same "session" as ArcHydro without having to create a GeoHMS project. Those tools have come in handy many times.

[MarkBoucher · Accepted solution]

As for the batch point delineation not working... I've had problems with it too.

For a project I did in 9.3, I had several dozen points and found I had to run the delineations in a certain order for each watershed. There was no common pattern for making them work.  I would run them and those that returned a -1 Batch done I'd manually calculate back to 0 and try again. For my project I finally found a pattern and created a new field and input a number representing the order. When I had to re-delineate, I'd do it in "phases" following the order in that field. I believe it only delineated those batch points that were selected. Doing thousands could be a challenge.

[FernandoVasconcellos]

Thank you very much, Mark! You gave me "more fuel" to keep moving ahead from the point i've been stuck for weeks! Good to know you had same difficulties with the batch delineation, so I don't credit my difficulties to my lack of experience. I'm trying to build an interesting model using the ArcGIS in a postdoctoral project, but I'm new to GIS and wouldn't have arrived where I am without the help of experienced users like you. I also have to say that the limitations of the tools (ArcMap and ArcHydro) and the "unhelpful help files" of both are very frustrating. I really thought the state of the art was more advanced. Anyway, I will start getting familiar this GeoHMS you mentioned and then try the path you suggested. I really appreciate your help!

[MarkBoucher]

You're welcome.

Another tip is that once you create one Batch Point and the Batch Point layer is created, you can copy and paste other points to that layer and then just fill in the fields using the Field Calculator. There is nothing "special" about creating them using the Batch Point Generation Tool other than creating the initial layer. Another pointer is that once the layer is created, you may want to copy it to another layer. One thing I do with things start going south is I simply delete geodatabase and start over, keeping the rawdem, agreestream, innerwalls, and outerwalls layers. These four layers are the basis for the hydrologically correct DEM (fil). If you have them, and you keep the options simple, you will always get the same result when you get to the fil step. Since the Batch Point layer is in the geodatabase, its nice to create a backup so you don't have to recreate it if you decide to start over. I keep the four key layers outside of the geodatabase and raster folders.

Also, I've posted a collection of ArcHydro tips here: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/48100-ArcHydro-Problem-Solvers. I'm not the expert. I've just hit my head against the wall a few times and decided to memorialize some lessons learned (partially so I wouldn't forget them!)