Bulk Landcover Area

Section for FAQs regarding i-Tree Hydro

Moderators: i-Tree Support, i-Tree Team

Post Reply
TvanLier3
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:59 am

Bulk Landcover Area

Post by TvanLier3 »

Dear Sir/Madam,

I started trying to use i-Tree Hydro. I read the user manual and followed the steps.
Everything was clear but now I stuck on a subject in step 2 'landcover input'.

When I fill in my Bulk Landcover Area data I get an error.
In total I have filled in 100%.
I split up tree canopy (20%) in 10% pervious and 10% impervious. (Or 60% - 10% - 50%)
All of the numbers I filled in had one decimals behind the comma, I had already tried to do it with two decimals or with dots but it does not work.
Even if I try to fill in area instead of percentage it fails.


Can somebody help me?

Kind regards,

Twan Van Lier
Netherlands
rcoville
i-Tree Team
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 9:29 am
Location: Syracuse, NY

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by rcoville »

Hi Twan,

Sorry for the trouble you're running into. To help us troubleshoot, would you please clarify the kind of error you get and exactly when it appears?

For example, two errors you might get on step 2 that indicate different types of problems:
A. When you try to press next, a small red triangle with a white exclamation mark will appear next to the fields for land cover inputs, indicating the sums of certain inputs do not add up validly.
B. After you press next, the weather preprocessor begins running, and that can result in errors like "index out of range" if there's a problem with the weather data input and simulation time period.

Based on what you've shared so far, I want to point out a few things which may help:
1. Does "Total Cover" (above the section on "Directly Connected Impervious Area") = 100.0 in the % column? That is a key check that all land cover inputs are entered correctly.
2. Does "Tree Canopy" = "Pervious Under TC" + "Impervious Under TC"? It sounds like yes based on your description, but this is another area where land cover inputs have some room for confusion.
3. Are your decimal points a period, as in "41.30", or a comma, as in "41,30"? Only the first option works. To change that setting, see this FAQ: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1278&sid=72c931af0 ... 993bfe6282

You can reply here and we will try to get you up and running, or if it's easier on your end, you can email info@itreetools.org and include screenshots of what you are seeing.
A member of the i-Tree Team

Please provide feedback on our technical support services by clicking here to take our 5 minute survey
dave0268
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2021 1:45 pm

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by dave0268 »

Thanks for your reply!

I encountered the same issue. I checked all three items in your reply to make sure my areas are consistent and the number formats are correct. There is no triangle warning sign when the error message shows up.
My project uses a non-watershed study area. When I changed the sample project to a non-watershed area and kept everything else unchanged, I got the same warning saying the areas didn’t sum up.

In the first step, when I try to change end date of my project, it always changes back to 2005 when I click elsewhere. In the sample project, when I try to change the end date, it changes back to the original value (end of 2010). The start day can be changed in both projects. I’m not sure if this causes problems in following steps.

Thanks!
James.Kruegler
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:26 am

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by James.Kruegler »

Hi Dave, thanks for letting us know you're experiencing this issue too.

Could you clarify when and how the issue is occurring? As Robbie mentioned above, the critical difference will be what happens when you click "OK" or "Next" at the bottom of Step 2. Does a window that says "Processing weather data..." appear? When you get the final error message, does it say "One of the Scenarios doesn't sum to 100%!" or does it say something different?

I'm thinking this first issue you mention is related to your second issue with changing end dates. If the starting and ending dates (and times) you select in Step 1 don't exactly match the first and last entries in your weather or streamflow input data, it can cause errors like this in Step 2. I was not able to replicate your second issue with my computer and copy of Hydro. If it's not too much extra work, I would recommend you start your Hydro project over in a brand new project (File > New Project) and check if you can change the end date of the simulation. If this fixes this second issue, then double-check your input files to see if their start and end dates match what you select in Step 1.

As Robbie offered, you can either respond here or you can email info@itreetools.org and include screenshots of what you're seeing if that's easier.
A member of the i-Tree Team

Please provide feedback on our technical support services by clicking here to take our 5 minute survey
dave0268
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2021 1:45 pm

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by dave0268 »

Thanks James!
  • When I use the default time in step 1: after I click "OK" or "Next" in step 2, a window appears saying "Processing weather data...", but then another window says "One of the Scenarios doesn't sum to 100%!". There's another warning suggesting that "string can't be read as a valid DateTime" (this warning is in my system's language).
Best,
Dave
James.Kruegler
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:26 am

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by James.Kruegler »

No problem!

For your first point: Thanks for confirming how and when these error messages appear. These new details suggest your weather input file has improperly-formatted DateTime entries. When you imported weather data in Step 1, did you select a weather station from a map or import a raw NCDC weather file?

Either way, your weather file formatting should match this example (DateTime in the third column): https://www.itreetools.org/documents/94 ... xample.txt
If you're not sure that your weather input file matches this format, I can take a look if you paste a sample (maybe the first 10 rows) of your file here. If your weather file was taken from the weather station map in Step 1, you can export a copy by selecting File > Save Weather and Gage Data > Save Raw Weather Data.

This also sounds to me like there is a chance your date/time/number format settings on your computer are still different from what Hydro is expecting. When you visited the FAQ post Robbie shared (viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1278&sid=72c931af0 ... 993bfe6282), did you check your date and time formats as described in the bottom half of the post?

For your second point: I appreciate you sharing a video of what is going wrong. This is an issue I haven't seen before, and I still can't replicate it on my computer. Have you tried changing the end date using the arrows next to the date, instead of typing in the date you want? If this doesn't avoid the issue, further troubleshooting might involve trying Hydro on a different computer, or making sure you're using the latest version of the tool. Could you let me know which version of Hydro you're using? You can find this within Hydro at Help > About, in the bottom-right corner of the window that appears.
A member of the i-Tree Team

Please provide feedback on our technical support services by clicking here to take our 5 minute survey
dave0268
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2021 1:45 pm

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by dave0268 »

Thanks for your suggestions! These are very helpful.
I followed Robbie’s FAQ post to change the date/time/number format of my system, which solved all the problems (step 1 date automatically changes back to default, step 2 total area not summing to 100%, …)! I’m able to run the model after making this single adjustment.
More information about my previous post: 1) I did use the default weather station data from the map, 2) Changing the end date with arrows didn’t help, 3) I was using the latest version.
Thanks
James.Kruegler
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:26 am

Re: Bulk Landcover Area

Post by James.Kruegler »

Glad to hear changing formatting settings fixed all your issues! They are simple adjustments that are easy to miss, but improper formatting will cause problems in every step of a Hydro project. Thanks for following up to describe your other project settings as well, it's helpful background information.
A member of the i-Tree Team

Please provide feedback on our technical support services by clicking here to take our 5 minute survey
Post Reply