BDWS (Beaver Dam Water Storage)

>>> Full documentation <<<

See the full documentation for detailed installation instructions, usage information, tutorials, and code description.

>>> Full documentation <<<

BDWS is composed of three python classes which allow for spatial estimation of water storage created from the construction of beaver dams. The BDLoG class uses results from the BRAT model to generate dam locations along a stream network. BDLoG also generates dam heights for each dam location from empirical distributions of measured beaver dam heights. The BDSWEA class uses dam locations and dam heights to estimate the area inundated by these beaver dams, and the volume of water each resulting pond might store. The BDflopy class uses the existing FloPy moduleto parameterize MODFLOW-2005 to estimate how these dams may also affect groundwater storage.

How to use BDWS

Dependencies

Python version: 2.7.x
Python modules: gdal, numpy, flopy
Programs: MODFLOW-2005

Installation

The entire repository can be cloned to your machine directly from github, downloaded as a compressed folder, or individual files can be downloaded. Repository directories and files are described below.

• docs/
  • contains the pages for this documentation website
• sphinx/
  • contains the source code for building documentation website pages with the sphinx module
• tutorials/
  • contains data for use in the BDWS tutorials
• bdws.py
  • source code for the BDLoG and BDSWEA classes
• bdflopy.py
  • source code for the BDflopy class
• run.py
  • example script for usage of BDWS

BDflopy code is in a separate file because it requires use of MODFLOW-2005 and the flopy module. Some users may wish to use BDLoG and/or BDSWEA without BDflopy.

To clone the github repository, enter the following from a terminal.

$ cd /path/to/project
$ git clone https://github.com/konradhafen/beaver-dam-water-storage

This will create a new directory containing everything in the repository at the location:

/path/to/project/beaver-dam-water-storage

General usage

Currently, it is recommended to use BDWS to create python scripts to model beaver dam water storage.BDWS has been developed and tested using the PyCharm IDE <https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/>. Below are brief examples describing how to use BDWS classes. For more detailed examples of BDWS implementation visit the tutorials <example.html> page of the documentation.

BDWS code is hosted at https://github.com/konradhafen/beaver-dam-water-storage in the bdws.py and bdflopy.py files. Classes can be imported as follows.

from bdws import*
from bdflopy import *

BDLoG takes a vector stream network created by BRAT <http://brat.joewheaton.org>_ and generates locations of individual dams on a rasterized stream network.

Initialization of BDLoG requires a shapefile created by BRAT <http://brat.joewheaton.org>_, a DEM, a rasterized stream network, path to output directory, and a proportion of maximum dam capacity to model. The following code will initialize BDLoG, generate dam locations and dam heights, and save output files for a maximum capacity (1.0) scenario.

model = BDLoG('path/to/brat.shp', 'path/to/dem.tif', 'path/to/fac.tif', 'out/dir', 1.0)
model.run()
model.close()

BDSWEA uses dam locations and dam heights generated by BDLoG to estimate the area and surface volume created by beaver dam construction.

BDSWEA requires output files (see below) from BDLoG for initialization. BDSWEA initialization requires a DEM, a flow direction raster derived from the DEM, a rasterized stream network, the dam ID raster created by BDLoG, an output directory, the dam location and attribute shapefile created by BDLoG. The following code will estimate beaver pond inundation and write files necessary for parameterization of MODFLOW.

model = BDSWEA('path/to/dem.tif', 'path/to/fdir.tif', 'path/to/fac.tif', 'path/to/id.tif',
                'out/dir', 'path/to/pts.shp')
model.run()
model.writeModflowFiles()
model.close()

BDflopy implements the existing FloPy module <https://modflowpy.github.io/flopydoc/>_ to automatically parameterize MODFLOW-2005 to estimate changes to goundwater storage resulting from beaver dam construction.

BDflopy requires the path to a MODFLOW-2005 executable, path to directory of input rasters, path to directory of BDSWEA outputs, path to directory to write outputs, and name of DEM file in inputs directory for initialization. The following code will initialize BDflopy.

model = BDflopy('path/to/modflow.exe', 'input/dir', 'bdswea/out/dir', 'out/dir', 'dem.tif')

BDflopy.run() requires additional parameters. Horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity (as a raster, numpy array, or single value), a factor to convert conductivity values to meters per second, the fraction of soil available for water storage (e.g. field capacity or porosity), and a factor to convert the soil fraction to a proportion. This will write MODFLOW's input files, run MODFLOW, and generate output raster files. BDflopy.run() can be implemented as follows.

model.run('path/to/hk.tif', 'path/to/vk.tif', 1.0, 'path/to/frac.tif', 1.0)
#or
model.run(1.0, 1.0, 0.000001, 20.0, 0.01)

Then close the class object.

model.close()