Updated 04/03/08
Please contact Ami Arthur if you have questions or need assistance with this procedure (Ami.Arthur@noaa.gov or 405-325-6457).
NOTE: It is recommended that you process the shapefiles on your most powerful CPU computer and use the local drive (if possible).
If you are using ArcGIS 9.2, please download the FFMPA Toolbox and save and unzip it in your toolbox folder (this should be something similar to C:\ProgramFiles\ArcGIS\ArcToolbox\Toolboxes). Click here to see the version information for this toolbox. Please access the toolbox documentation for information about the tools in this toolbox.
NOTE: The FFMPA Toolbox is only compatible with ArcGIS 9.2 (not 9.0 and 9.1).
If you do not already have a CWA shapefile in geographic coordinates, please download it from http://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/cwa.htm.
Note: Geoprocessing tools look in the Current Workspace for input files and will write output files to the Current Workspace if it is set. Your downloaded FFMPA shapefiles should be in the folder you specify for the Current Workspace.
After setting the workspaces, click OK, and click OK again.
To add the FFMPA Toolbox, click the Show/Hide ArcToolbox Window (red toolbox button) to open the ArcToolbox window (if it is not already open). In the ArcToolbox window, right-click in any part of the white space and select Add Toolbox. Browse to the location of the FFMPA Toolbox that was downloaded from the link in the first section at the top of this page. Select the toolbox and click Open. Expand the toolbox to view the toolsets and scripts contained in it.
Click the Show/Hide Command Line Window button (to the right of the red toolbox button) to open the Command Line Window. Important information will be output to this window when the FFMPA Toolbox tools are executed.
Click the Add Data button and add all of the downloaded basinsxxxxx_poly, derivedstr_line, and CWA shapefiles to the Data Frame.
To set the Data Frame coordinate system, right-click the "New Data Frame" title in the layer list and select Properties. Click the Coordinate System tab and expand the Layers folder. Click derivedstr_line. You should see "GCS_North_American_1983" listed as the coordinate system. Click on "GCS_North_American_1983" and then click OK.
From the File menu, select Save As and enter a name for your Map Document (.mxd) file.
NOTE: If you have only one basinsXXXXX_poly shapefile (central, east, or west) in your downloaded shapefiles, you can skip steps 2-4 below. In steps 5 and 6, be sure to use your basinsXXXXX_poly any time "basins_poly" is mentioned.
If you have more than one basinsXXXXX_poly shapefile covering your area, they must be merged into one shapefile. After merging these shapefiles, the basins and streams that are within the buffered CWAs of interest will be extracted. To accomplish this, please do the following:
Display only the CWA shapefile. Use the Select Features tool and the shift key to select your CWAs of interest.
Expand the Data Management Tools toolbox in ArcMap.
Expand the General toolset under Data Management Tools.
Double-click the Merge tool. In the parameters window that appears, do the following:
From the ArcMap Selection menu, choose Select By Location. Specify the following:
Make sure "Use selected features" is checked, and check the box next to "Apply a buffer to the features in (CWA layer)". Specify 25 km for the buffer size. Click OK.
This will select all features in basins_poly that intersect the selected buffered CWAs.
Right-click the basins_poly layer and select Data, Export Data. Do the following:
To process the stream shapefile, repeat Steps 5 and 6 only, replacing "basins_poly" with "derivedstr_line" and specifying "derivedstr_all.shp" for the output shapefile name.
After merging and extracting the basins and streams, the hydrologic-connectivity attributes must be updated.
Double-click the Update Links in New Files script in the FFMPA Toolbox. Use the pull-down list to select the basins_all layer (again, use the pull-down list to select the layer rather than browsing to the shapefile location on disk). Enter a name (outside_flow.shp) in the Output Feature Class section. (The outside_flow shapefile includes basins along the boundary of the domain that receive flow from outside the domain. This shapefile should be saved for possible use during the optional Tier III edits to initialize flow accumulation values.) Click OK. This script takes about 10-15 minutes.
When the Update Links in New Files script has completed, you can run Validate Links to verify that the links were updated. Double-click the Validate Basins script in the FFMPA Toolbox. From the pull-down list, select the basins_all layer. Specify an output folder and filename for logging any errors. This script takes about 10-15 minutes.
To update links in the stream shapefile, double-click the Update Links in New Files script in the FFMPA Toolbox. Use the pull-down list to select the derivedstr_all layer (again, use the pull-down list). Enter a name (outside_flow_str.shp) in the Output Feature Class section. Click OK. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
When the Update Links in New Files script has completed, you can run Validate Links to verify that the links in the stream shapefile were updated. Double-click the Validate Basins script in the FFMPA Toolbox. From the pull-down list, select the derivedstr_all layer. Specify an output folder and filename for logging any errors. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
If you do not receive any errors, you can proceed to one of the two options below.
There are two options for proceeding with shapefile dataset processing for FFMPA. Please choose the option that best suites your needs and follow the link to continue with the instructions.
This option is the easiest to implement. You will simply use the basin and stream shapefiles that were downloaded and prepare them for AWIPS localization. This option should be chosen if:
a) you have not done any customization to your previous FFMP shapefiles that you would like to preserve,
or
b) you have only made stream name modifications in your previous FFMP shapefiles and would like to transfer those to the newly downloaded shapefiles. PLEASE NOTE: If you modified stream names in the aggregated version of the previous FFMP shapefiles, there will not be a direct one-to-one transfer to the new FFMPA shapefiles (which are in the native, unaggregated format). This is because there is not a one-to-one relationship between the basins that have been aggregated and the native basins. Past transfers of stream names from aggregated to native basins indicate that about 15% of the transferred names require post-transfer checking to make sure the transferred name is the desired name for that basin (the names that should be checked will be flagged during the transfer procedure).
Proceed to Option A InstructionsThis option should be used if you have done any customization (other than modification of stream/basin names) to your previous FFMP shapefiles that you would like to preserve. The basic approach is to first select the customized areas in your previous FFMP shapefiles, then select the areas surrounding these in the downloaded FFMP shapefiles and merge them together.
This option is complicated, and a reasonable level of familiarity with GIS and the FFMP basin/stream dataset is required for anyone who chooses this route. Please contact Ami Arthur before beginning this option to discuss your specific case (Ami.Arthur@noaa.gov or 405-325-6457).
Proceed to Option B Instructions