The Sediment Bed Viewing Opt provides access to the cohesive and non-cohesive sediment transport bed properties. The suspended sediment plotting and analysis capabilities are available in the Water Column Viewing Opt. Figure 1 shows the ViewPlan with Sediment Bed Viewing Opt selected. The cell edit form also shown in Figure 1 is a typical view when editing sediment mass (this model used KB=10). The Sediment Bed option is always available, even if sediment transport is not being simulated. This option is always available because the bed shear stress is always computed and available to post-process.

When viewing sediment data, the first option to set is the Layer Settings. EFDC uses a sediment bed layering scheme where the sediment-water column interface layer number can vary from cell to cell. The maximum number of layers (i.e. KB) is set in the Sediment parameter form (Sediments Tab). The user has three options for viewing sediment data: Total (i.e. sum of all the layers), a specified layer or the Top Layer. The layer number that is in contact with the water column can vary so the Top Layer option provides an easy way to view the sediment layer that is in contact with the water column.

Figure 1  ViewPlan: Sediment Bed with Cell Editing.

The sediments can be viewed a single class at a time or all together as total sediment. The user needs to specify either the Total Seds checkbox to select all classes. If only one class is desired, uncheck the Total Seds option and specify the class in the Sed Class field.

The Delta function displays the differences in bottom elevation between the initial condition elevation and the bottom elevation at the current time. The computation is BotEl_cur-BotEl_IC therefore, delta's < 0 indicate scour and delta's > 0 indicate deposition. In order for the Delta option to function the bed morphology option needs to be set to 1 (Bed Morphology Options in Bed & Consol tab of the Sediments form), which allows the bottom elevations to change with sediment transport.

Sediment Bed Initialization Tools

To facilitate rapid building of sediment bed models EE implements a powerful sediment core initialization bed tools within ViewPlan. If the model is configured for sediments then Ctrl+T toggles on and off the sediment bed tool. RMC and selecting Load Cores allows the user to the bring in the sediment core file (.DAT file) (See Figure 2). This produces a list of all the cores, number of cores and sets the sediment bed. The user is then prompted to plot the cores labeled with d50's or the label with core ID (See Figure 3). The top layer of the sediment cores is then plotted in ViewPlan.

RMC on an existing sediment core provides several options (See Figure 4) including defining the core as "Current", deleting the core, and editing the core. Defining the core as "current" allows the user to then RMC in another location and copy the "current" core to that location by RMC and selecting Add a new [core no.]. This will add a new core to end of the file, and duplicates the core number.

RMC on a existing sediment core and selecting Edit Core, the Sediment Core Editing tool as shown in Figure 5. This tool allows add, delete sediment core layers, set sediment core layers ordering by using Up and Dn (Down) buttons, sample interval data and sediment core layer's properties to be edited.

RMC anywhere else in the viewing area allows the user to define a new core at that point as well as load and save the sediment core data. (See Figure 6)

After loading the sediment core data file, the user can change cores symbols and labels by RMC on the legend then select Annotations tab, click Symbol and Font buttons for editing. (See Figure 7)

Note that if the editing window is closed that editing is switched off, but data is not saved until the user RMCs and selects Save Cores.

Figure 2 ViewPlan: Load sediment cores data file.

Figure 3 ViewPlan: Options for displaying d50's or core ID labels.

Figure 4 ViewPlan: Options for Editing a sediment core.

Figure 5 ViewPlan: Sediment core editing tool.

Figure 6 ViewPlan: Other RMC options.

Figure 7 ViewPlan: Edit cores symbols and labels.