About Confinement Projects

While the confinement tool can be used on any GIS data, a preferred workflow is to use a Confinement Project. A confinement project is simply a managed folder structure with an accompanying XML file. The confinement tools are structured to use this XML file to find data and keep a record of all outputs and analysis for a particular set of confinement data.

A confinement project is also structured to work with the Riverscapes Analyst Toolbar and Data Warehouse. If data is to be included in this system, then it must be processed as a Confinement Project.

Confinement Projects will copy input data into the project itself. All data within a project uses the Shapefile format.

Confinement Projects must be set up at the start of processing. There are currently no tools to convert previous results into a confinement project.

To get started, proceed to Step 1 - Creating a Confinement Project.

Confinement Project Outline

• Project
  • Project MetaData
    • Operator
    • Region
    • Watershed
    • DateCreated
  • Inputs
    • Definition List of all Inputs used throughought the history of the Project, including
      • Stream Networks
      • Channel Polygons
      • Valley Bottoms
  • Realizations
    • Definition A realization is the first step in the Confinement Process, and consists of generating the Raw Confining State and Confining Margins for a set of inputs.
    • Outputs
      • Raw Confining State
      • ConfiningMargins
    • Analyses
      • Definition An Analysis is the processing of the results of a realization. An anaysis is tied to the realization, and there can be any number of analyses of any type for any one realization.
      • Types:
        • Moving Window
        • Fixed Segments
        • Custom Segments