Usage (Quick Start)

How to actually run River Architect, once Software setup is done. Three ways in, depending on what you want:

Start here

If you want

The worked example: the whole chain on the sample reach

to run the whole chain on the sample reach, module by module, with the numbers each step should produce

Quickstart

to call the modules from Python and see the API in a page

The graphical interface

to know what each tab, field and menu does

The interface can walk you through it

Help ▸ Live Guide: Example opens the same walkthrough inside the program. It sets the project directory to the sample data, and each step brings the tab it talks about to the front, so you read and click in the same window.

The order the modules go in

This is the one thing worth knowing before anything else. The modules chain, and the step people get stuck on is the first one: a condition that has not been prepared produces either an error or - worse - an empty map that looks like an answer.

  Get Started      prepare the condition          detrended DEM, water surface,
       |                                          d2w, morphological units,
       |                                          flow duration curves
       v
  Lifespan         how long does each feature     lf_<feature>.tif
       |           survive at each cell?          ds_<feature>.tif
       v
  Max Lifespan     which feature belongs here?    max_lf.tif, best_<feature>.tif
       |
       +--------> Morphology     lower the terrain where plantings
       |                         cannot reach the water table, and
       |                         quantify the earthworks
       |
       +--------> Ecohydraulics  habitat area, stranding risk,
       |                         riparian recruitment
       |
       v
  Maps             PDF map series through QGIS print layouts

The three ecohydraulic analyses are independent of one another, but all of them need the prepared condition. Habitat area additionally needs a flow duration curve, which Get Started builds from a daily flow record.

Units

Set the unit system before anything else, from the Units menu or the unit argument. It does not convert your rasters - it states what they already are. A mismatch does not raise an error anywhere in the chain; it silently applies metric thresholds to data in feet.

In this section