Assign Multiple Observation Points Based on Depth from Ground Surface
The June 2022 release of HydroGeoSphere (Revision 2409) introduced a powerful yet simple set of commands to streamline the definition of observation points in your models. With six new commands, you can now assign observation points based on absolute elevations or depth from ground surface, reducing manual input and leaving less room for errors. These new options make it easier to work with field data, ensuring observation points align precisely with real-world measurements. To illustrate their utility, we’ve included an example model demonstrating how to efficiently place multiple observation points relative to ground surface elevation.
Figure 1: “Make observation Point by depth” example input
We introduced a very simple (but very useful) set of commands in the June 2022 release (revision 2409) that should really help you define observation points throughout your model (thanks as always to the user community for the great suggestion!).
In fact, we’ve introduced six new commands that allow you to assign one or more observation points (or interpolated observation points) based on absolute elevations, or based on a depth from ground surface. These new commands include:
make observation point by depth assigns an observation point based on depth from ground surface
make observation points assigns multiple observation points using the ‘usual’ absolute elevation input
make observation points by depth assigns multiple observation points based on depth from ground surface
make interpolated observation point by depth same as above, except it’s an interpolated observation point
make interpolated observation points same as above, except it’s an interpolated observation point
make interpolated observation points by depth same as above, except it’s an interpolated observation point
Figure 2: Resulting distribution of observation points using “Make observation Point by depth”
To illustrate the utility of these commands I have included a very simple example model, based on a Abdul test case ("abdul_multiple_obs_by_depth").
Click here to download the example project.
In this example project we’ve used the make observation points by depth command to quickly assign eight observation points along the center of the Abdul stream channel, exactly 0.5m below the ground surface (see Figure 1). As you can see from Figure 2, assigning these observation points based on absolute elevations could be slightly difficult, since the exact elevations might not be known beforehand! Sometimes in the field you may simply record the depth of the observation point based on the ground surface, so this command should help you work with the data you already have. And as an added bonus you save yourself the trouble of copy/pasting the same command repeatedly.
After running the model we can load the observation points and see how easy it was to place them exactly 0.5m below ground surface:
We hope this saves you some time! As always, let the development team know if you have suggestions for other improvements.