Once a run has been made, there is typically a large volume of data to analyze. This section provides an overview (and links to additional documentation) of some of the features available to view, analyze, an debug model results. This includes plotting, statistical slots, SCTs, expression slots, and the model run analysis tool. The model run analysis tool includes a special results section which includes information specific to USACE methods.

Saved plots configurations can be moved amongst models by exporting the configuration from one model and then importing into another. See Exporting and Importing Output Devices in Output Utilities and Data Visualization for details on this utility.

Statistical Table slots compute statistics on a series of data. The user creates the slots and then selects the series slot for which the analysis is to be performed. Then, the user selects the statistical function to use and applies data filters as necessary. (Make sure to configure the statistical slots to only analyze data from the run range, not data before the start timestep or after the finish timestep. To do this, in the filter, select the Run Range option) The result is a table of data that can be viewed, plotted, or exported. Statistical slots that result in data that is decimal or percent (i.e. an exceedence curve) can be plotted with a probability scale. This is similar to plotting the data on probability paper.

See Statistical Table Slots in User Interface for details on statistical slots.

Another useful tool for viewing data is the System Control Table (SCT). The SCT is a customizable, editable spreadsheet view of slots in a RiverWare model. The SCT presents series data in a scrollable grid of numeric values and lists other types of slots for easy access. The SCT is a view into the model and as such, the user can have more than one SCT for a given model. For example, the user may create (and save) an SCT that shows all reservoir Outflows or one for all reservoir Storages. Or, the user may configure an SCT to show all of the desired information about a single reservoir.

See SCT Overview in System Control Table (SCT) for details.

Expression slots are computational expressions that can contain slot names and other variables. The user can either create a Series Slot with Expression or a Scalar Slot with Expression. They are used to calculate any quantity the user wishes to see. For example, the user may create slots that compute “combined Storage of all Reservoirs,” “weekly average Outflow of Reservoir 1,” “the ratio of Hydrologic Inflow to Control Point Inflow.” The logic for an expression slot is developed in the RiverWare Policy Language (RPL). Expression slots can be evaluated automatically at the beginning of run, beginning of timestep, end of timestep or end of run. They can also be evaluated outside of a run.

Therefore, there is a lot of flexibility with expression slots and are very useful for debugging, post processing data, and other analysis. See Series Slots With Expression in User Interface for details on expression slots.

The Model Run Analysis tool is a grid showing how each object solved on each timestep; see Rulebased Simulation in Debugging and Analysis for details on this utility. The Special Results Details dialog provides additional information for each object/timestep including information specific to USACE methods, as shown in Figure 6.1. This section provides more information on accessing and using the tool.

Access the Special Results Details dialog using the following methods.

As with other model run details dialogs, Special Results Details dialogs can be undocked to display the information in a separate window. Because this dialog is naturally large due to the amount of information it displays, viewing it undocked is most likely preferred. Select the Detach button to undock and use it as a separate dialog. Use the File, then Dock in Model Run Analysis to redock it. When docked in the Model Run Analysis dialog, a splitter allows the dialog to be resized as necessary.

The Special Results Details dialog contains a tab labeled USACE Methods which presents information related to certain USACE methods described in this document. Only Reservoirs, Control Points, and Computational Subbasins have information that is presented by this dialog. Figure 6.3 shows the tool.

The USACE Methods tab displays results in two tables. The upper table displays the values of several series slots in the time range from the given timestep through the Forecast Period (the forecast period is taken from the computational subbasin which has a non-null Flood Control method selected, of which there should only be one).

The slots displayed are ordered into functionality groups: Flood Control, Surcharge, Inflow Forecasting, Low-flow Releases, and Hydropower. The displayed slots are those likely to be helpful in understanding the behavior of the various related USACE methods. This list of slots is based on the method selections and includes both intermediate results that are not normally visible to the user as well as regular slots that are closely related to the flood control algorithm. The slots are shown in a tree-view so you can control the display by selecting the + and - operations.

Any slot listed in this dialog (including the invisible ones) can be opened or plotted using right-click context menus.

Table 6.1 provides diagnostic information on why the Flood Control release was limited. This table is only displayed on Reservoirs and is only populated when Operating Level Balancing is selected.

It is recommended that the user test the model at each stage of development. For example, the surcharge release results should be verified before moving on to flood control. The following testing strategies explain how to compare RiverWare results with results from the SUPER model. However, a similar testing strategy may be devised to compare RiverWare with results from another model or historical data.

For testing purposes, it may be useful to create rules that set the storage slot on each reservoir to the final, known storage value taken from another model or from historical data. These rules can be used to incrementally test portions of the model. Since these rules need to overwrite the values computed by the surcharge release and flood control rules, they must be higher priority. Add a policy group above the flood control policy group and add a rule for each reservoir in the model. The rules should be ordered such that the upstream reservoirs execute first and the downstream reservoirs execute last (same order as the surcharge release rules). Each rule should set the reservoir storage slot equal to the final, known storage value (either taken from historical data or another model run). These values should be stored in a custom slot in RiverWare. Figure 6.4 shows a sample rule. These rules should be used for testing purposes only and would not be a part of the final flood control model.

When these storage rules are active, they will overwrite the results of the policy. Each rule will reset the reservoir storage to the known values (stored in a custom slot). This will trigger each reservoir to redispatch with the Solve given Inflow, Storage method. Each reservoir will compute a new outflow which will be routed downstream.

The set storage rules, discussed above, are required to accomplish this incremental testing. These rules allow the RiverWare model to be reset, at the end of each timestep, to a state equivalent to the SUPER model at that timestep. This ensures that the RiverWare model begins the next timestep in the same state as the SUPER model. As discussed above, the set storage rules should be the highest priority rules and will reset the reservoir storage to the SUPER storage value for that timestep. The SUPER storage values need to be obtained from a SUPER run that only has the desired calculations enabled. Store these values in RiverWare on custom slots.

In order to test the surcharge release results, the surcharge release rules and set storage rules need to be active. The regulation discharge and flood control policy groups should be turned off. The goal of this testing is to compare the surcharge releases computed in RiverWare with the surcharge releases computed in SUPER. Both models should produce the same results, within some accepted tolerance. The set storage rules are necessary because, without them, the reservoirs in RiverWare will fill up to the top of the flood pool and stay there (because only the surcharge release rule would be active). The user may be wondering why the flood control rules couldn’t be used instead of the set storage rules. The reason is that it would defeat the purpose of incremental testing. If the RiverWare flood control results deviate from SUPER, then the models have deviated and it would be meaningless to compare surcharge release results.

When the RiverWare model is run with the surcharge release and set storage rules, the model will compute the surcharge releases at each timestep. Then the set storage rules will reset the reservoir storages to the known SUPER storage values. The final surcharge release values can then be compared to the final SUPER surcharge release values. If the values do not compare, debug the problem. When these values match up, proceed to the next level of testing.

To test the regulation discharge results, the surcharge release, regulation discharge, and set storage rules should be active. The regulation discharge and empty space results computed by RiverWare should compare with the SUPER results.

Once the surcharge release and regulation discharge calculations have been verified, the flood control calculations can be tested. To test these, the surcharge release, regulation discharge, and flood control rules should be active. The set storage rules should not be active because they would overwrite the flood control results (although some types of specific testing may need to make use of the set storage rules).

Follow a similar approach as described above to test these three policies. The user should make a determination on a case-by-case basis as to whether the set storage rules should be enabled.