iRIC Software

Changing River Science

SAC Tutorial 1
Slope-Area Calculation Program in iRIC Tutorial 1
This tutorial will provide instruction on the basic operating procedures of SAC within the iRIC interface. It assumes you
are new to using iRIC and as such will provide significant detail to each of the steps in preparing and running SAC in iRIC.
The tutorial utilizes data collected in support of the indirect discharge calculation from the St. Vrain flood in Lyons CO,
during September 2013. In general, the workflow for SAC application in iRIC use the following steps:

1. Launch iRIC GUI and start new project for SAC

2. Launch RivMaker and set up River survey data from survey data
3. Import River survey data into iRIC and build the cross-section grid
4. Setup cross-section roughness information
5. Input project information and water-surface information
6. Saving project and Run SAC
7. Iterate by adjusting the water-surface elevation or roughness
8. Saving project with calculation results

Step 1 – Launch iRIC application

From your desktop choose the iRIC icon to launch iRIC. If you do not have a desktop icon or shortcut you can find
the application in the installation folder, which is typically C:\Program Files\iRIC\guis\prepost or the equivalent folder in
your installation. In the resulting iRIC Start Page Dialog, choose the SAC solver by either selecting the Slope-Area
Computation Program in the Recent Solvers list (Figure 1A) or select the Create New Project button and select the solver
from the resulting list of solvers (Figure 1B).
 A B

Figure 1 Select the Slope-Area Computation Program solver either in (A) the initial list of Recent Solvers or (B) by selecting the Create New Project
button and selecting the solver from the resulting list.

Step 2 - Launch RivMaker and set up river survey data from survey data
The iRIC application is a typical Windows application with menus, toolbars, and a tree-view (Object browser). To help
guide the user with the iRIC application two formats are used: 1) to inform users of Menu items, for example, File ->
Open where the arrow indicates the item under the File menu and 2) Geographic Data | Elevation where the | indicates
the branch under the Geographic Data (Figure 2A). Obviously the menus and toolbars are functional but many of the
function found there can be accessed via the Object Browser by selecting a branch of the tree and right-clicking. Each of
the formats are used to guide the user in this tutorial.

A B

C
Figure 2 iRIC application includes menus, toolbars, and a tree view or “Object Browser”. When discussing menu or Object Browser operations in this
tutorial we use the format in (A) to indicate whether the operation is from the menu or from the Object Browser. (B) When formatting the survey
input files for RivMaker use Excel and the Save As command- select CSV (comma delimited) for the Save as Type. (C) Clicking the mouse icon on the
tool bar results in a dialog that indicates how to pan, zoom and rotate the graphics view

Format of input file

It is necessary to format the input file correctly. The best practice for developing the input file is to work in Excel and
when finished save the file as a .csv. For example in Excel use the menu command File->Save As and in the “Save as
type:” field select CSV (Comma delimited) (Figure 2B). The input file has 5-columns with NO HEADERs. The columns in
order from left to right are: sequence number, Easting (X), Northing (Y), Elevation (Z), and Point Identifier. For example:

1,478360.735,4451380.29,1610.065,LH5-2-G
2,478025.874,4451520.15,1613.371,RH31-3-E
3,478103.863,4451406.7,1611.969,X3-0
4,478371.373,4451372.023,1608.592,X4-101

The Point Identifier field must follow a specific format. In general, that format is Code[X]-X-X. In other words, the
identifier must start with the code (Table 1); two additional identifiers are possible but not necessary. Looking at the
example above the identifiers are:
o LH5-2-G
o RH31-3-E
o X3-0
o X4-101
The high water marks maybe identified with a character code to indicate the quality of the measurement such
as P, G, or E. Note especially that cross-section codes starts with an X followed by a number identifying the
specific cross-section. For example if a user had 3 cross-sections from 1 to 3 then the codes would be X1, X2, X3
and may or may not have additional identifiers. To enforce the discussion the key is to make sure each point
has a proper code. Using Excel rather than a text editor and saving as a .csv file will ensure that there are no
errors such as extraneous spaces, commas, etc…

Table 1 SAC survey input file identifier codes

Code Description
BM Benchmark
RM Reference mark
HUB Surveying or turning point
LH Left-bank-high-water mark
RH Right-bank-high-water mark
GH Stream gage
X[1] Cross-section point
Import survey input file
• From the menu select Option->Tools->RivMaker 1.0.3. This will open RivMaker which is a tool that will
convert survey data into a format that can easily imported into iRIC.
• A survey data file has been prepared; these data were collected following the Lyons flood and consist of 4
cross-sections and several measured high water marks. You can open the file in a text editor to view the
formatting. In RivMaker select Import->Geographic Data->SAC GUI input file and in the resulting
dialog browse to the folder for this tutorial and select the SAC_Input_Lyons_CO.txt file. The result is
shown in figure 3A.
• Note that the different forms of the survey have been parsed into types including: high water marks,
ground points for each cross-section, etc. Also note that cross-section lines have been determined by the
end points of each cross-section.
• You can pan and zoom in RivMaker:
o To pan select ctrl + left mouse.
o To zoom select ctrl + middle mouse or wheel.
o More information can be found by selecting the mouse icon in the toolbar (Figure 2C). Note the
Chart windows identified in the mouse hint dialog are the profile and cross-section views (see
below for further discussion)
• For each cross-section, RivMaker projects the measured data onto the cross-section. The location of each
cross-section line is editable. For example, the cross-section 4 line can be adjusted as follows:
o To edit any object it must be first selected in the Object Browser. Select Cross-sections | X4 in
the RivMaker Object Browser. Then, using the mouse, hover over the right bank endpoint of X4
line and move it so as to balance the offset of the cross-section on the right bank (figure 3B).
• Draw the base line to define the flow direction. Select Base Line in the Object Browser, and then using
mouse left-clicks define the flow direction from upstream to downstream (upper left to lower right).
Finish the baseline by selecting Enter on your keyboard. In addition make sure the baseline extends
past the measured high-water marks at both the upstream and downstream ends of the reach. This
ensures all the high-water marks will be visible when viewing the profile. In this case 3 points are defined
as shown in figure 3C.
• With cross-section and baseline editing complete the water-surface elevations can be viewed by selecting
the icon (Figure 3D). To adjust the water-surface elevation associated with each cross-section double
click the initial value in the table and enter a new value. For the tutorial here use values of 1611.9,
1610.04, 1608.66, 1607.9 for cross-sections X3-X6 respectively. Figure 3E shows the resulting profile view
after editing the water-surface elevations
• Select to view of the topography of each cross-section along with the projected water-surface
elevations.
• Save the RivMaker Project by selecting from the menu File->Save. Use an appropriate name such as
SAC_Tutorial_1.rpro.

A B

C D
 E F

Figure 3 Select screen grabs depicting the results of processing steps described in the tutorial.

Step 3 - Import river survey data into iRIC and build the cross-section grid
• Export the data to be imported into the iRIC application. From the RivMaker menu select River Survey
Data->Export. In the resulting dialog enter a name to save the file such as St_Vrain_Survey. You should
note that from this step, two files will be created: *.riv and a *_wse.csv. You will notice an additional
dialog confirming the creation of the water-surface elevation file (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Information dialog following the save command for the export of the survey data. The dialog indicates that a file containing the water-
surface elevations associated with each cross-section has been created and saved.

• Switch applications and begin working with iRIC. From the menu select Import->Geographic Data-
>Elevation or alternatively in the Object Browser right-click on Geographic Data | Elevation and in the
resulting pop-up menu select Import. Browse to the file you just saved for example, St_Vrain_Survey.riv
and select the file to open. A dialog will open and you can simply keep the default condition (figure 5A)
and select OK. The result will look like figure 5B.
• The next step is to build a grid, this step simply places the surveyed cross-section data into a format used
by iRIC and then passed to the SAC application as an input file. Once the grid is created roughness can
be assigned to each cross-section. To build the grid first select from the menu Grid->Select Algorithm to
Create Grid. The resulting Select Grid Creating Algorithm dialog contains one choice “Create 1.5D grid
from river survey data” (figure 5C). Select this and then the OK button. Next select from the menu Grid-
>Create Grid. The Grid Creation dialog appears – it controls the initial and final cross-section to bound
the grid. Use the default setting (all cross-sections) and select OK (Figure 5D). A second confirmation
dialog pops up (Figure 5D) - select OK. A 1.5D grid is essentially a grid of cross-sections.
 A B

C D

Note: The last field “Number of points in interpolated

cross-sections” is not used for SAC applications.

Figure 5 The result of importing the survey data as export from the RivMaker application.

Step 4 - Setup cross-section roughness information

Roughness can be distributed across each cross-section. There are three options, 1) simple single values, 2) spatially
distributed across each section, or 3) spatially and vertically distributed across each section. To start, a simple constant
roughness will be assigned to each cross-section. Later in the tutorial a spatially distributed roughness will be used.

• To edit the roughness values for each cross-section first de-select (if selected) the Grid Creating Condition
branch of the Object Browser. This step ensures proper selection in the following steps. select Grid |
Node Attributes| Cross-section in the Object Browser. Then using the mouse right-click on the center
point of X3. If you have trouble you might zoom in closer or using the mouse to drag a box over the point
to select it (this last option is best). Then right click and a pop-up menu will appear “Edit Value”. Select
it and the edit Cross-section dialog appears (Figure 6A). The Type drop-down box contains the three
options for specifying roughness. For now accept the Type – Simple. In the edit box for Simple: Roughness
(NVAL(1)) enter 0.05. Repeat this for the other three cross-sections.

Figure 6 The Edit Cross-section dialog. This dialog is available for each cross-section and is used to specify roughess.
Step 5 - Input project information and water-surface information
In this section the project information is entered and the water-surface elevation specified earlier in RivMaker is
attached to the SAC run.

• From the menu select Calculation Condition->Setting. The Calculation Dialog appears. It has two tabs
as indicated by the group box on the left of the Dialog. Both tabs are shown in Figure 7 A-B.
• In the Project info tab enter the appropriate information. Note that in iRIC all values are assumed to be
in MKS units unless otherwise specified. In this case all coordinates are in meters so it’s important to
specify SI/SI units, it could also be SI/English if you want English units for the output.
• Select the Water Surface Elevation tab and then the Edit button and select the Import button. Browse to
the water-surface elevation file that was create for you when the cross-section data was exported out of
RivMaker. The file in this case will be St_Vrain_Survey_wse.csv. Browse to and select this file here. In
a later section of this tutorial the process of iterating the water-surface elevation will be discussed.
• All required information to run a SAC simulation is now complete!

A B

Figure 7 SAC Calculation conditions input dialogs, and a small view of the output showing a summary of the calculations for cross-section pairs.

Step 6 - Save the project and run SAC

Completion of the previous steps are the minimum requirements to run SAC. In this section the project is saved and SAC
is run

• Save the project by selecting from the menu File->Save. Give the project an appropriate name. Note
that saving in this format will save a file as name.ipro.
• Run SAC by selecting from the menu Simulation->Run. Note the icon for this action is a blue arrow. The
same blue arrow is also on the toolbar and you can run the simulation be selecting it there.
• The result will quickly appear in a new window. This window is called the Solver Console window. Note
that you can easily switch between this window and the previous Pre-processing window by selecting
either the console window icon ( ) or the pre-processing window icon ( ) on the right-pane of the iRIC
application. You can save this result to a text file. Make sure the Console window is active and from the
menu select Calculation Result->Export solver console log. Save the file for your records.
• The saved output can be parsed to provide a legacy input file for SAC. Open the console log file you saved
in the previous step and confirm that the top of the file can be parsed to create an input file for the legacy
SAC application.
• Figure 7C shows the result summary with a discharge of 807 m3/s.
Step 7 - Iterate on the values of water-surface elevation.
The user may want to explore the effect of the specified water-surface elevation on the result. In this case the water-
surface elevation is decreased by 20 cm.

• If the RivMaker application is closed – reopen it by selection from the menu Option->Tools->RivMaker
1.0.3. Open the project previously saved SAC_Tutorial_1.rpro.
• Select the vertical cross-section icon ( ) on the right pane of the RivMaker application. In the resulting
view decrease the values of water-surface elevation in the right pane by 0.2 m.
• Export the new water-surface elevations. Below the table is a button – Export to CSV. If you had
previously closed RivMaker then selecting this will open a dialog to export a new water-surface elevation
file – you can choose a new name or select the previous file name. If RivMaker was not closed then it will
automatically save the new elevations to the previously selected file. If you change the filename here you
will have to change the filename in the Calculation Conditions dialog in the iRIC application. Use the
same filename for now: St_Vrain_Survey_wse.csv.
• Once the new file is exported then switch back to the iRIC application. Here it assumed you used the
same file name as the original export St_Vrain_Survey_wse.csv. If so then simply re-run SAC by selecting
the blue arrow in the toolbar. This will pop-up a dialog informing us that the water-surface elevation file
has been updated (figure 8B) – select Yes. Note the new discharge value of 659.5 m3/s in Figure 8C.
• Save the solution by exporting the file as in the previous solution.

Figure 8 Water-surface elevations for each section have been lowered by 0.2 meters.

Step 8 – Use spatially distributed roughness.

Previously a constant roughness value was used at each cross-section. It’s possible to spatially distribute roughness
across each cross-section. The following section suggests a method for sub-sectioning roughness at each cross-section.
However aggressive sub-sectioning should be avoided (see: https://pubs.usgs.gov/twri/twri3-a15/) and so the
following should be viewed as only a workflow for portioning roughness.
• Select the Pre-processing window in iRIC by selecting the icon on the right pane. To edit the values of
roughness we have to select Grid | Node Attributes| Cross-section in the Object Browser. Then – select
the center point of a cross-section and right click to show the Edit Cross-section dialog as before. In this
case we change the Type to Horizontal Distribution (figure 9A). Then select the Edit button adjacent to
the Horizontal distribution and the Horizontal distribution dialog will appear (Figure 9B).
• The best solution in this case with many points it’s easiest to create a .csv file that can be edited in Excel
for distributing the roughness values at each point in the cross-section. Select the export button and
save the file as XS3_NVAL.csv. Using Excel, add NVALs and then reimport into the dialog by selecting
 the Import button and bring the data back into the dialog.
• Open the .csv file in Excel. In Column C use the following equation =IF(B1<1610.4, 0.04, 0.06). This will
use 0.04 for all values less than 1610.4 meters (generally the channels) and 0.06 for all other (generally
the floodplain). Save the file – keeping the format. Re-import into the same Dialog which should now
look like Figure 9C.
• Do the same for the next three cross-sections. The equation used to determine roughness at each cross-
section is as follows:
o XS4: =IF(B1<1608.6, 0.04, 0.06) (figure 9D)
o XS5: =IF(B1<1607.5, 0.04, 0.06) (figure 9E)
o XS6: =IF(B1<1606.0, 0.04, 0.06) (figure 9F)
• Save the project – from the menu select File->Save.
• Run the project by selecting the blue arrow in the toolbar. The resulting summary of discharges is shown
in figure 9G.

A B

C D

E F

Figure 9 SAC results for spatially variable roughness