Roadmap on Releases for ArcHydro

[TedCronin]

Is there a roadmap on ArcHydro for Near to far term listing of functionality?

[DeanDjokic]

Arc Hydro is not a product and does not have an explicit "road map".  In general, new Arc Hydro functionality is developed through specific customer projects and the tools and knowhow developed through those projects are then rolled into Arc Hydro and made available to the community.  Some of the functions (usually enhancements to existing functions) are developed based on specific requests from the users (when we hear many users asking for the same functionality) or during tool updates and bug fixes.

Having said that, here is what is on our “short list” (end of 2022) in no specific order (and possibility that we swap some functions in and out):

• Terrain processing:
  • Incorporation of new Spatial Analyst functions (Pro 3.0) for flow direction and flow accumulation without need for filling into Arc Hydro terrain processing workflows.
  • HAND derivation from NHDPlusHR (tools and workflows).
• Watershed delineation:
  • Batch watershed delineation for polygons.
• Hydraulics:
  • Calculation of Manning’s n for cross-sections and export to HEC-RAS .sdf file.
  • Computation of left and right overbank lengths and export to HEC-RAS .sdf file.
• Hydrology:
  • Calculation of CN raster from land use and soil hydro group lookup table.

Longer-term (2023), we will be looking at the tools and workflows for hydrographic feature extraction from high-resolution DEMs.  This includes streams, “lakes”, and wetlands.  Many of these tools and workflows already exist in Arc Hydro, but we will be revisiting those with the goal to minimize user inputs and streamline the process.  This will cover both “traditional” techniques as well as introduction of new machine learning techniques.

If you have any specific ideas, feel free to contact the Arc Hydro development team directly (archydro@esri.com).

[Anonymous User]

Hi Dean!

I hope all is well with you down in Redlands.. These upcoming developments look very exciting, particularly the incorporation of the new Spatial Analyst functions and feature extraction enhancements. We have acquired extensive Lidar to support floodplain modeling and mapping here in Ontario, with more acquisitions to come, so it will be interesting to see eventually how some of your methods of extraction can be employed (including wetlands!).

Just one item of clarification in the above 'roadmap' discussion.. When you say "without need for filling into AH terrain processing workflows", does that mean with little or no impact to existing workflows? If so, would that include the "Adjust Flow Direction.." functionality?

We have employed these functions extensively in our workflows with great success and would be great to know that they will continue to be supported in Pro 3.0. We have also overcome many of the challenges of working with lakes that are very close in proximity treating them as separate entities in our processing. And now with the new hydro network functionality in Pro, we are seriously considering the migration from 10.8 to Pro (likely 2.9.x since 3.0 is still a fair ways off) in the near future.

Take care,

John Gaiot

[DeanDjokic]

John, good to hear from you.  Hope things up North are moving along :-).

Yes, the new terrain processing workflows are geared for high-resolution DEMs (Lidar/IfSAR derived).  And from current experiences and ideas, it will still be a "hybrid" where there will be some "Adjust Flow Direction" activities.  High rez DEMs are noisy and without some massaging the results are not necessarily what they need to be.  Specially in landscapes with built features where culverts/bridges can still pose significant problems for hydro feature extractions. And in hydro-flattened areas that can introduce additional problems.  So it will be some change to the current AH workflows, some new AH tools, and some use of new capabilities in 3.0/3.1.  But in a nutshell, it will still be quite a bit of "tweaks" and steps in the workflow.

To take advantage of the new core SA hydro stuff you will have to be in Pro 3.0.  In 2.9, we have all key Arc Hydro functions for terrain preprocessing working, but all the new stuff will be 3.0 and up based.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the heads-up Dean. It all sounds great what you're doing, and yes we have experienced similar challenges on our end with high resolution DEMs. Working in that realm, you need to have knowledge of all the subsurface connections to capture the true behaviour. That is a primary reason for us still working in the 30m realm for our regional analysis work (even with lidar data) as we don't have a comprehensive inventory of culverts etc. and working in a coarser resolution actually overcomes most of those scenarios particularly in rural upstream areas (the coarser res conveniently cuts through all narrow barriers). However, once we know those connections (as they continue to trickle in over time), I'm confident our tools will be able to handle practically any scenario at any size and resolution with our testing to date (minus wetlands, that's still a work-in-progress and it depends on whether we can get the necessary resources behind it).

And thanks for the 3.0 tip, I did jump to the new version temporarily out of curiosity to see how it looks like but had to scale back to 2.9 as our organization is not quite ready to take that leap!