TUFLOW GIS Integration

"The TUFLOW QGIS plugin turned five years old in April this year. In this short time it has been downloaded over 50,000 times. The popularity of QGIS and the TUFLOW plugin, either as part of, or the sole GIS package for TUFLOW modelling, is reflected by the 5-star rating in the repository and the steadily rising download rate we are seeing for the toolkit. Thank you for your support, encouragement and suggestions. Your feedback is what inspires us to continue adding new features."    

Ellis Symons, TUFLOW GIS Integration Lead

New User Documentation

The all new user documentation for TUFLOW Viewer and other TUFLOW plugins is consolidated within the QGIS Tips and Tricks >> TUFLOW QGIS Plugin section of the TUFLOW Wiki.  Please check it out and any constructive feedback appreciated.

Updating the user documentation for TUFLOW Viewer has been a major priority this year. We made good use of our downtime during COVID-19 lockdown in the UK by adding over 70 new pages to the TUFLOW Wiki for the TUFLOW Viewer. The benefit of hosting this information on the Wiki instead of within a traditional Word or Pdf document is we were able to include videos demonstrating the tasks, options or features highlighted in the respective reporting sections. We expect this addition to the reporting will be appreciated by all. Visit the TUFLOW Viewer page of the Wiki to access the new user documentation. 

Documentation for the Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR) to TUFLOW tool has also been updated on the Wiki to reflect recent updates to the tool that were made to stay in step with recent guidance from the ARR team. Visit the ARR to TUFLOW page of the Wiki for more information.

New Tools

There have been several significant new TUFLOW QGIS plugin tools released in the past year:

• Extract SCS for TUFLOW – This tool uses the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) runoff curve number method to estimate hydrology inflows for TUFLOW modelling. The tool currently supports default catchment values for the Auckland region (NZ), based on the Auckland City Council TP108 guidance. As an alternative to TP108, users can manually specify catchment specific parameters. Future development of this tool will include the ability for batch processing.
• SWAN GIS Tools – The SWAN GIS Tools provide a simple graphical user interface to assist in the development of SWAN wave spectra model control and input files. The set of tools is designed to streamline the development of SWAN models in a compatible format for linked SWAN/TUFLOW FV coastal models.

Existing Tool Updates

In addition to the new user documentation and features, we have also been busy working on numerous enhancements and updates to existing tools in the TUFLOW QGIS plugin. Some highlights include:

• New customisation options for the TUFLOW Viewer, including new legend options for the plotting windows, background colour, and font sizes.
• The ability to import Flood Modeller results into TUFLOW Viewer and interact with the results in a similar manner as ESTRY results. This includes plotting time series results, cross-sections with/without water level results, and longitudinal profiles allowing the ability to easily view and analyse the results of TUFLOW/FloodModeller linked models within QGIS.
• ReFH2 to TUFLOW has been updated to give users the choice to use of the latest ReFH2 engine(v2.3) and add climate change factors.

A full list of all updates can be found in the Changelog for the TUFLOW plugin in the QGIS Plugin Manager.

Future Plans

Planned future developments for the second half of 2021 include:

• Continued development of QGIS tools to help with TUFLOW FV workflow. 
  • Reading of integrated nodestring flux and point output time series plotting reference files for easier result loading by TUFLOW Viewer.
  • Advanced NetCDF output wet/dry cell identification and user controls for intermittent wetting/drying result datasets such as bed elevation, bed mass and sediment fluxes.
  • Improved visualisation of rotated SWAN wave spectra modelling grid outputs.
• Adding support for Geopackage format to the existing workflow tools. This development aligns with the planned new GIS format developments in the 2021 TUFLOW Classic/HPC release.

If you have any suggestions for new features of enhancements to existing features please email them to support@tuflow.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.