Projects and scenarios

A Source model consists of two parts - a project and one or more scenarios. A project is a wrapper for a collection of one or more scenarios. It identifies the project name, description, and any scenarios associated with the project. You can only have one project file open at a time and you should not open the same project file using more than one copy of Source.

 A scenario is the representation of a node-link network in Source. The relationship between a project and a scenario is shown in Figure 5.

A scenario describes the major processes in a river system or catchment that are modelled. This includes catchment and sub-catchment definition, rainfall runoff and constituent generation models, data sets and parameters. You can create multiple scenarios to:

• Break complex projects into distinct parts; or
• Duplicate existing scenarios to conduct what-if experiments without disrupting the original.

Any change to the definition of sub-catchments, node-link network, FUs, or the models within FUs, forms a new scenario. Similarly, a different set of inputs or parameters can be used to set up a new scenario, such as a change in land use or a climate change.

Projects

Creating a new project

To create a new project, do one of the following:

• Choose File » New » Project...;
• Click New Scenario on the File toolbar; or
• Press Ctrl+N on your keyboard.

You can only have one project file open at a time. Do not try to open the same project file using more than one copy of Source because you may lose your work.

In the resulting window (Figure 1), enter the following:

• The project name. Give it a meaningful name or accept the default;
• The scenario name. Once again, provide a meaningful name or accept the default. All the scenarios in a project must have unique names;
• Choose the desired kind of scenario (refer to About scenario types for the different types available); and
• Click OK.

Figure 1. New Project dialog

Saving a project

To save an open project, choose File » Save. This saves a project file with the extension *.rsproj.  If it is the first tiime you are saving your project, the Save As dialog opens and gives you the opportunity to choose the location and name of your project file. By default, the name of the file is the name of your project. If you wish to save a different version of your file, choose File » Save As... 

Closing an open project

To close an open project, choose File » Close project. This closes the current project and prompts to save your work (Figure 2). Click the appropriate button.

Figure 2. Close project

Opening an existing project

To open an existing project, either:

• Choose File » Open Project; or
• Click Open Project on the File toolbar.

This opens the standard Windows™ open dialog (Figure 3). Note that opening a new project prompts you to save any open project.

Figure 3. Open project

Copying projects

You can duplicate existing projects by copying them. In your local machine's File Explorer, select the desired project, right-click and choose Copy. In the target location, right-click and choose Paste.

Scenarios

About scenario types

Three scenarios have been described in this guide:

• A schematic scenario is primarily concerned with modelling longer time-scales;
• An operations scenario is primarily concerned with shorter time-scales. It utilises facilities for forecasting and working with unaccounted differences, and typically makes heavy use of the Tabular Editor; and
• A catchments scenario which deals with the management of upland catchment processes. It is usually constructed using the Geographic Wizard for catchments which is a structured sequence of steps that guides you through the construction process.

It is important to choose the correct type of scenario before you start building your model. Although a project can contain several scenarios, a scenario type is fixed once it is created and cannot be changed later. Note that scenarios are independent of each other; a change in one scenario does not impact another scenario.

The operations described for a project (above) are also available for scenarios. In addition, you can also import and compare scenarios.

Working with scenarios

Scenario management

Various menu items allow you to manage scenarios at a high-level.

• When running different scenarios, you can use scenario input sets to set values for input parameters. Choose Edit »  Scenario Input Sets... to open the dialog;
• Tools » Export summary... allows you to save a text archive of the chosen scenario to a .csv file; and
• Feature Table (accessible via Edit » Feature Table...) provides an overview of the selected scenario, and can be used to edit component parameters.

Creating a scenario

A project must contain at least one scenario. Whenever you create a new project, you are also prompted to create a scenario. You can create additional scenarios using any of the following methods:

• Choose File » New » Scenario...;
• Click New Scenario on the File toolbar; or
• Click New Scenario (by menu) on the Project Explorer toolbar.

To create an Operations scenario, first create a Schematic scenario. Then, choose Tools » Rivers Operations to open the River Operations dialog.

Opening a scenario

When a project only contains one scenario, that scenario is opened automatically when you open the project. However, when a project contains more than one scenario, you must open each scenario individually. To view a scenario that is contained within a project, double click the scenario name from the list in the Project Hierarchy. This opens the appropriate editor for the selected scenario, and changes the scenario name to a bold appearance so that you know it is the current, or active scenario.

You can also select a scenario from the list of loaded scenarios on the View menu. Selecting a scenario from the list makes it active. 

Source supports backward compatibility for projects created in Source after v3.1.0.

You can duplicate existing scenarios as a whole, provided they are part of the same project. You may want to do this if you wish to experiment with variations without affecting your original scenario.

To copy a scenario as a whole, click Copy Scenario on the Project Explorer toolbar. Source makes a copy of the current scenario and asks you to name the copy (as shown in Figure 5). You can either accept the proposed name or supply one of your own. Keep in mind that scenario names must be unique within a project.