Creating a RAS Terrain

for 2D Modeling
Chris Nygaard, P.E.
Cameron Ackerman, P.E., BC.WRE

USACE, Institute for Water Resources, Hydrologic Engineering Center

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Overview
• Projection
• Creating a RAS Terrain Layer
• Types of Terrain Models
• Building a Terrain Model
• Key Feature Considerations
• Cell Size Considerations
• Importing Terrain Information to RAS

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Overview
• Projection
• Creating a RAS Terrain layer

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Projection

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Projection
• Data used in RAS Mapper must be a common coordinate system.
• Projection will be used to re-project Terrain data that is imported into
RAS Mapper.
• Defined using esri PRJ file.
• Web Imagery will be projected on-the-fly to RAS Mapper coordinate
system.

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Projection Files
• Not all PRJ files are the same

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Terrain

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A good model starts with good terrain …

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Terrain Cell Size Considerations
• Purpose and scale of model
• Detailed bridge analysis - piers in terrain
• Typical riverine model – only bridge opening in terrain
• Small enough to represent the land surface accurately, NOT any
smaller
• Terrain model for 2D computations needs to accurately reflect
features that direct flow
• Align 2D cell faces with the controlling features

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 Terrain Model Types
• Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) • Grid
• Triangulated points define surface allows • Single value at regular intervals. Cell
for higher density in important areas. size determines surface resolution.
• User-defined triangulation through points • Fast mathematical computations
and break lines

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Building a Terrain Model
Verify and Process Points
• Remove of points that are not necessary/incorrect in representing the
ground surface
• Redundant points (more points = more processing)
• Bridge deck elevations
• Make sure to add important features
• Top of roads
• Top of levees
• Top of floodwalls
• Bridge approaches
• Hydraulic structures
• Replace over-water returns with bathymetric data

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Building a Terrain Model
Bare Earth Points

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Building a Terrain Model
Bare Earth Points

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Building a Terrain Model
Bathymetry Points

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Building a Terrain Model
Bathymetric Data Added

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Building a Terrain Model
Problems?

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Building a Terrain Model
Breaklines
• Breaklines are used to enforce triangle edges and elevations. They
ensure that interpolation is done “correctly” along linear features.
• Channel banks
• Steep drops (drop structures, waterfalls)
• Roadways
• Levees
• Bathymetry points

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Building a Terrain Model
Breaklines
• Breaklines with elevations insert points to enforce elevations and
triangle edges

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Bridges
• Removal of bridges from terrain
data is important for 2D
modeling.
• High ground directs flow –
determined directly from ground
surface model.
• 1D modeling place cross sections
at appropriate locations as work
around.

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Terrain Cell Size Considerations
• Purpose – scale of model
• Detailed bridge analysis requires piers be represented
• Riverine model requires flow opening is represented
• Small enough to represent the land surface accurately, NOT any
smaller
• Terrain model needs to accurately reflect linear features that direct
flow. HEC-RAS uses a 2D computational grid as the underlying
representation of terrain. 2D cell faces should be aligned with linear
feature in the terrain.

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Raster Cell Size

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Raster Cell Size

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HEC-RAS Terrain Fixes

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Hydraulic Structure Elevations

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Terrain Model Development Summary
• Terrain models are developed as TINs
• Model is typically exported to a Grid for visualization and analysis
• TINs are more difficult to render
• TINs are more expensive to store
• Calculations with TINs more difficult than with rasters
• Grid-cell size determines the effective accuracy of the resulting terrain
model
• How are you going to represent a levee in a raster with a 20ft grid cell?

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Terrain in RAS Mapper
• Uses GeoTIFF format
• Tiled data for more efficient storage
• Compressed data for efficient storage
• Pyramided data for fast visualization
• Allows for on-the-fly inundation
mapping
• One Layer for Multiple Terrain
Models
• No file size limitations – BigTiFF
supported

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Terrain in RAS Mapper
• Various formats are supported
• Binary Floating Point Raster (FLT)
• Esri Arc/Info Grid format
• GeoTIFF (still rounds and compresses)
• Others (e.g. USGS DEM, etc)
• Imported data is rounded to based on precision selected
• Default is 1/32 (~0.03 ft) (1/128 for metric)
• Recommended that a projection is defined for the RAS Mapper
project first.

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Terrain Importer
• Add files – allows user to select rasters for import
• Order raster files based on Priority on what cell value should be used
if there is overlap by the terrain models.
• Highest Priority to the top

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Terrain Importer
• Rounding – Precision which
data is stored
• Terrain Filename and Folder
• name.tilename.tif file for each
imported terrain tile
• name.hdf file contains “stitch”
information for data gaps
• name.vrt file contains statistics
info and color ramp info

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Terrain Importer
• Data is translated, projected, rounded for all data
• Data is pyramided (overlays) and compressed
• TIN stitches created for overlapping regions
• Terrain.hdf is the single layer loaded to RAS Mapper

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Improving Channel Data – From XS

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Export Channel Surface to GeoTiff

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Adding Channel Data
• New Terrain
• Priority – Channel data highest

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Terrain with Channel

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Terrain Data Download

• USGS Terrain
• GRiD (CRREL)
Terrain Data Download
Terrain Data Download
Terrain Build
Questions?

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