WMS:Read Stage File

Water levels are used in WMS as scattered data sets and can be imported as scattered data set (x, y, z). Files can be in a simple delimited format as shown here within a text file or spreadsheet and imported through the Text Import Wizard.

"id" "x" "y" "stg1" "stg2" 1 110 0 45 47 2 110 20 48 49 3 110 40 51 53

Data can also be formatted in a scatter point file, or in the same stage file format used in earlier versions of WMS (version 6.0 and earlier).

Since water levels are imported as a scatter data set and stored completely separate from the TIN, it is not necessary to match water level locations with TIN vertices (but it is okay if they are). This also removes the necessity of creating stream in the TIN. This flexibility provides the opportunity to incorporate water levels along rivers as well as over the floodplains that are either observed or simulated from a river hydraulic model.

One of the problems, though, with this new format is that there is no longer a way to "interpolate" stage values between known fixed stages as could be done in previous versions. If you wish to bring forward your data from earlier versions of WMS then you should read the stage file into the older version, interpolate the stage between fixed stage points, and save the stage file (including both the fixed and interpolated stages). Version 7.0 of WMS will then read this stage file and create scattered data points for each of the locations in the old format stage file.

Related Topics

• Overview of Flood Plain Delineation
• Delineate Flood Plain
• Text Import Wizard