1D Floodplain Mapping with HEC-GeoRAS

This example provides a detailed discussion of how to use the HEC-GeoRAS extension
in ArcGIS for supporting hydraulic model development and analyze with HEC-RAS. This
provides a step to step procedure for developing geometric data for import into HEC-
RAS.
An overview of the steps in developing the RAS GIS Import File (for importing geometric
data into HEC-RAS) and processing the RAS GIS Export File (results exported from
HEC-RAS) is provided to familiarize the user with the ArcGIS environment.
The goal of this exercise is to take you through the process of going from a DEM to the
HEC-RAS modeling environment. Exporting modeled flows from HEC and intersecting
them with the DEM will provide a map of inundation patterns.

Main Tasks
●Load HEC-GeoRAS
●Start a New Project
●Create Contours from a DEM
●Create RAS Layers
●Generate the RAS GIS Import File
●HEC-RAS Hydraulic Analysis
● Import the RAS GIS Export File
● Generate GIS Data from RAS Results
● Analysis of final result
●Layouts

A. Load HEC-GeoRAS
1. Start the ArcMap program
2. Go to View | Toolbars and select "HEC-GeoRAS." The toolbar looks like this:

3. Tools | Extensions menu items

4. Select the extensions as shown in figure
 5. Tools|Customize meanu items
6. Place a check in the checkbox corresponding to HEC-GeoRAS as shown in
figure

7. Press Close button when finished

8. Dock the toolbar where desired

B. Start a New Project

1. Select the File|Save menu item to save the ArcMap document
2. Navigate to the project directory and enter the project name for the ArcMap document
(“Veri” is used for this example)
3. ApUtilities | Add New Map menu items
4. Enter the name “RAS Geometry” for the name and press OK
5. Add Data ” ” button and navigate to the location of the DEM (i.e. A Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) is a digital model or 3D representation of a terrain's surface — commonly
for a planet (including Earth), moon, or asteroid — created from terrain elevation data)
6. The DEM is added to the map as follows
7. Click Arc Toolbox window “ ” and then go to Index and type Raster to TIN (i.e.
A triangulated irregular network (TIN) is a digital data structure used in a geographic
information system (GIS) for the representation of a surface)
8. Select Raster to TIN (3d) then select the Input Raster and Output TIN as follows
and press OK
9. Final output of TIN as shown in figure

10. Right-click on the map, select Properties menu items

11. Data Frame Properties | Coordinate system tab and verify the coordinate system as
follows
C. Create Contours from a DEM

1. Select from task bar as 3D analyst | Surface Analysis | contour menu item and
enter a contour value and Navigate to directory as follows

2. TIN with contour lines , scale 1: 50,000 as follows

D. Create Ras Layers

1. Stram centerline
a. Select the RAS Geometry | Create RAS Layers | Stream Centerline then following
dialog box will appear and press OK

b. Create Stream centerline layer will appear and Press OK

c. Select Editor “ “| Start Editing menu items and then press OK

d. Select Create New Features for the Task and River for the Target features class as
follows
e. Select Sketch “ ” tool and begin digitizing the line in the downstream direction
whether the channel is main or branch.
Procedure:
- Continue digitizing the line on the u/s main channel until you reach the junction
- At junction Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Again digitizing the line on the branch channel until you reach the junction
- At junction, Right-Click | Snap To Feature | Vertex
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Again Right-Click | Snap To Feature | Vertex & digitizing on the d/s main channel
- Finally , Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Editor | Save Edits | Stop Editing
Final figure looks like

- Select River Reach ID “ ” tool to give each river reach a name

- Then click on u/s channel line and give River name and Reach name as follows
- Click on branch channel line and give River name and Reach name as follows

- Click on d/s channel line and give River name and Reach name as follows
2. Bank Lines
a. Select the RAS Geometry | Create RAS Layers | Bank lines then following dialog
box will appear and press OK

b. Create Bank lines will appear and Press OK

c. Select Editor “ “| Start Editing menu items and then press OK

d. Select Create New Features for the Task and Bank for the Target features class as
follows
e. Select Sketch “ ” tool and begin digitizing the bank lines at the edge of the
channel in the downstream direction.
Procedure:
- Continue digitizing line on left side of the u/s main channel until you reach the
junction
- At junction Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Again digitizing line on right side of the branch channel until you reach the junction
- At junction, Right-Click | Snap To Feature | Vertex
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Continue digitizing line on right side of the u/s main channel to d/s main channel
- Then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Continue digitizing line on left side of the branch channel to d/s main channel
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Editor | Save Edits | Stop Editing
Final figure looks like
3. Flow Path Centerlines
a. Select the RAS Geometry | Create RAS Layers | Flow Path Centerlines then
following dialog box will appear and press Yes

b. Create flow Paths will appear and Press OK

c. Flow path layer created successfully will appear and Press OK

d. Select Editor “ “| Start Editing menu items and then press OK

e. Select Create New Features for the Task and Flowpaths for the Target features
class as follows

f. Select Sketch “ ” tool and begin digitizing the overbank Flow path lines in the
downstream direction.
Procedure:
- Continue digitizing line on left side of the u/s main channel until you reach the
junction
- At junction Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Again digitizing line on right side of the branch channel until you reach the junction
- At junction, Right-Click | Snap To Feature | Vertex
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Continue digitizing line on right side of the u/s main channel to d/s main channel
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Continue digitizing line on left side of the branch channel to d/s main channel
- And then Right-Click and press Finish Sketch
- Editor | Save Edits | Stop Editing
Final figure looks like
g. Select Lebel Flow Path Lines “ ” tool to assign a line type
Then click on u/s channel line and give Line type as follows and press OK

- Click on branch channel line and give Line type as follows and press OK
- Click on d/s channel line and give Line type as follows and press OK

- Click on left side of u/s channel line and give Line type as follows and press OK
- Click on right side of branch channel line and give Line type as follows and press
OK

- Click on right side of main channel line from u/s to d/s and give Line type as follows
and press OK
 - Click on left side of the branch and main channel line and give Line Type as follows
and press OK

4. Cross Sectional Cut Lines

a. Select the RAS Geometry | Create RAS Layers | XS CutLines then following
dialog box will appear and press OK

b. Crerate XS Cut Lines dialog box will appear the press OK

c. Select Editor “ “| Start Editing menu items and then press OK

d. Select Create New Features for the Task and XSCutLines for the Target
features class as follows

e. Select Construct XS Cutlines” ” and following box will appear & press YES

f. Enter XS Cut lines Interval and Width as per required then press OK
 g. XS Cut lines should be perpendicular to the direction of flow and oriented from
left to right bank. Cut lines must cover the entire extent of the floodplain to be
modeled.

h. Now, we have to manual delineate the cut lines as follows

- Select Editor “ “| Start Editing menu items and then press OK

- Select Create New Features for the Task and XSCutLines for the Target features
class as follows
- Then,remove and add the XS Cutlines but you have to remember that no two lines
should not be crossed to each other and final figure becomes as follows

- Editor | Save Edits | Stop Editing

i. Previewing Cross sections as follows

- Select the XS plot ” ” tool

- Select the Cross- sectional cut line of interest
- The cross section will be plotted in a new window, as illustracted in the figure
5. Attributes
● Stream Centerline Attributes
- Select RAS Geometry | Stream Centerline Attributes | All, dialog box appear as
follows then, press OK

All Stream Tools will appear the press OK

● XS Cut Line Attributes

- Select RAS Geometry | XS Cut Line Attributes | All, dialog box appear as follows
then, press OK
 All Cross-Section Tools appear and then press OK

E. Generating the RAS GIS Import File

1. Select Ras Geometry | Export Ras Data menu items
2. The dialog shown in figure will be invoked allowing you to choose the destination
directory and filename

3. After pressing OK, GeoRAS will export the GIS data to an XML file and then convert
the XML file to the SDF format.
4. Successful completion will result in the “ GIS data for RAS exported successfully”
message and access to the Close button.
F. HEC-RAS Hydraulic Analysis
1. Start a New Project In HEC-RAS
a. Open HEC-RAS and save the project to the directory to which you want the
HEC-RAS data files to be saved.
b. Select Options “ ” tool | Unit system | System International(Metric
System)

2. Import the RAS GIS Import File

a. Select Edit/Enter Geometric Data “ ”

b. Select File | Import Geometry GIS Format. Navigate to the RAS GIS Import
File and press OK
c. Select Import data as | SI metric units and press Next button

d. Select Next button

e. Finally Select Finished- Import Data

f. Make sure that the flow is in the right direction and that the stations are in
decreasing order, upstream to downstream. Geo- referenced HEC-RAS
schematic generated from imported GIS data is shown in the figure below.
 g. Select Tables | Manning’s n or k values
- Choose River | (All Rivers)
- Choose n♯1, n♯2 and n♯3 and set values as the field condition as follows
- Finally, press OK

h. Select Tools | Cross Section Filters

- Choose Multiple Locations and choose River | (All rivers)

- Click “ ” and press Filter points on selected XS

- Finally press OK
 i. Select File | Save Geometry Data As and save the geometry data

3. Steady Flow Analysis

a. Select Edit/Enter Steady Flow Data” ”

b. Put the PF1(i.e. discharge) values

a. Press Reach Boundary conditions…. and select the Upstream and

Downstream as the condition of field and press OK
4. Run the Flow simulation

a. Select Perform a Steady flow Simulation” ” and press Compute

b. Finally press Close button when HEC-RAS Finished computations is seen

 5. Export the HEC-RAS Results
a. Select File | Export GIS Data menu items from the HEC-RAS window and GIS
Export dialog box will appear as (Here, tick the velocity , Shear Stress)
b. Finally, press Export Data

c. RAS Dialog box will appear where directory of file creation is seen .
d. Then press OK

G. Generate GIS Data From RAS Results

1. Import the RAS GIS Export File
a. Convert the SDF file exported from RAS to an XML format that GeoRAS can
read
Press Convert SDF to XML “ ” button on the GeoRAS toolbar.
 b. The dialog shown in figure will allow you to select the RAS GIS Export File(SDF)
and will convert it to an XML file The same file name and directory are used to
convert the new file. Finally, press OK

c. Next,select the RAS Mapping | Layer Setup menu item to access the layer
setup dialog shown in figure
- Enter a New Analysis name as Steady
- Select RASExport.xml file to read
- Select Terrain Type an TIN and choose Terrain
- Select the Output Directory
- Finally, press OK
d. Select RAS Mapping | Import RAS Data menu items and the dialog box is
appeared as follows and press OK

e. The dialog box of successfully imported the data will appear as follows and finally
press Close button
 f. As the HEC-RAS results are imported into features classed and the terrain TIN
is converted to a GRID. There will be a feature class created for cut lines,
bounding polygon information. The cut line features class (“XS Cut Lines”) will
hold the cross section locations attributed with a water surface elevation for each
cross section for each profile. The bounding polygon layer(“Bounding
polygon”) will have a bounding polygon feature for each water surface profile.
Point feature classes will be created for the Velocities(“Velocities”) and bank
point locations (“Bank points”). The layer is shown in the figure below

2. Perform the mapping analysis

a. Water surface TIN
Here, water surface TIN is constructed from the cross section and water surface
elevations.
- Select RAS Mapping | Inundation mapping | Water Surface Generation menu
items , dialog box looks like
- Select PF1(i.e. discharge) and press OK. A TIN will be created that defines the
water surface“t PF1 “

b. Floodplain Delineation
j. Inundation Mapping
Here, the water surface TIN is compared with the DEM
- Select RAs Mapping | Inundation Mapping | Floodplain Delineation Using
Rasters menu items
- The dialog shown in figure will allow you to pick the water surface profile to process.
By default, the “smooth floodplain delination” option is selected- If you want the
floodplain boundary to precisely follow the depth grid, uncheck the smoothing option.
- Choose PF1 profile then press OK
- Finally, floodplain mapping completed successfully is seen and the press OK

- This will create, among other things, a polygon of the area inundated by water for
your particular flow “b PF1” and a grid of water depth at every inundated pixel
“d PF1”.
- The water surface TIN will be converted to a GRID based on the Rasterization cell
size. It is then compared with the raster DEM to compute the elevation difference
within the bounding polygon. Water surface elevations greater than the terrain
elevation are included in the inundation depth grid. The inundation depth grid is
then converted to a vector data set defining the floodplain boundary.

- Next, use the depth grid ”d PF1” to evaluate the floodplain. Using the depth grid ”d
PF1” with a color gradient quickly allow you to identify areas flooded to greater(or
lesser) depth.
 Select Identify “ ” tool can be used to find water depths at various locations as
shown in figure

ii. Velocity Mapping

- Select RAs Mapping | Velocity Mapping menu items

- Choose PF1 profile then press OK
- Finally, velocity mapping completed successfully is seen and the press OK

- Select Identify “ ” tool can be used to find velocity at various locations as shown
in figure
 iii. Shear Stress Mapping
- Select RAs Mapping | Shear Stress Mapping menu items
- Choose PF1 profile then press OK

- Finally, shear stress mapping completed successfully is seen and the press OK

- Select Identify “ ” tool can be used to find shear stress at various locations as
shown in figure
H. Analysis of final result

1. Add “ ” the Topo Map and Check the “dPF1” and “clip_topo” layers as follows

2. “Right click” on the “dPF1” layer and click Properties then Layer properties dialog
box will appear as (Click Symbology | Classified and choose the Color Ramp)
3. Click Classify…” ” then Select
Classification : Method | Equal Interval Classes | 4
Press OK

4. Again, Layer Properties dialog box will appear as

Finally, press Apply and then OK
5. “d PF1” layer seems as follows

a. Now, We have to Rename the “d PF1” layer as “Depth”:

Select “d PF1” then press “f2” tab on the keyboard then, Type as “Depth”
b. Remove “‹VALUE›”:
c. Select “‹VALUE›” then press “f2” tab on the keyboard then press “Delete”
button on the keyboard
d. Finally, Place only two digits after decimal on the “Depth” range
e. Select Range of depths(i.e.” ”) one by one then press
“f2” tab on the keyboard and Rearrange the Range of Depths & Final layers
looks as follows
6. Press Index and type Reclassify (3d) and Reclassify dialog box will appear
Select Input raster as Depth and press OK

a. Now, uncheck the “Reclass_dp001” as follows

b. Then, right click on the “Reclass_dp001” | Open Attribute Table and dialog
box appear as follows

c. Finally, press Options | Export and following dialog box will appear

d. Give the Output table: and Press OK

Press Yes
7. a. Now, Open the Exported file in Excel Sheet as follows

b.Right click on the Depth Layer and click Properties then Layer Properties dialog
box will appear
Select Source at top of box and note the Cellsize as in the figure the press OK
( Cell Size 20,20 means area of 1 count is equal to 20*20 i.e. 400 units)
c. Then, Calculate the Area as follows

d. Then, finally find out the % Area as follows

e. Finally, % Area as follows

f. Select, % Area as follows

g. Go to Insert | Column and choose the 2-D Column
And finally, Graph as follows

h. Right click on “Series1” and press Delete button on the key board and finally
Graph looks like;

i. Now,Select the chart and Right click on the boarder and press Move Chart
And , then Select New sheet ; finally press OK
 j. Select ” ” | Save As then save the chart

k. From step 3
Mean depth = 10.69 m
From step 7(d)
Total Area =1506000 m2
Total Volume = 10.69*1506000 = 16099140 m3

I. Layouts:
a. Click Layout View “ ”

b. Then, Right click on Depth Layer | Properties | Display |

Transparency and set % as requirement
Then Layout looks like
c. Select on map and Right Click then press Properties
Then, Select Border and Color and press Apply & OK

d. Now, Select Insert “ ”

then choose Title and type as INUNDAFFTION MAP OF VERI
And the Set font size, shape by using following tool

e. Select Insert | Text and then entry the Total Volume, Total Area &
Mean depth
 And set font size, shape as (d)
f. Select Insert | North Arrow and then place on the layout
g. Select Insert | Scale Bar and then place on the layout
h. Select Insert | Legend and dialog box appear as

i. Then click on Legend Items: Clip_topo as follows

j. Then, press “ ” and Legend Wizard dialog box appear as

 k. Then, press Next | Next | Next | Next | Finish ; Place on the Layout

l. Select Insert | Object then Insert Object dialog box will appear; choose
Create from file | Browse and navigate the path to the chart was added & press
OK

Finally, place the Chart on the layout

m. Final Layout of Inundation map of Veri is shown as below

n. Finally, go to File | Export Map and choose the File name and Save as
type(i.e.JPEG) then press save to save the final inundation map