About – What's New

Detailed culvert information in DynamicFlood

Feb 17, 2025

You can now get detailed information about the flow through culverts in your DynamicFlood simulations.  Using the new select tool now available in DynamicFlood modelspaces, you can select a culvert to access information about flow rates, water depths, culvert dimensions, and more. 

For more information, please read the accompanying blog post and the DynamicFlood documentation.

A culvert has been selected and information about the flow through this culvert is available in the sidebar.

As part of this release, Modelspaces created by DynamicFlood simulations are now enriched with information about the edits, objects and buildings involved in the computation, copied from the workspace at the time the computation starts. This helps you understand exactly what input your computation was based on.

The culvert information is available for all DynamicFlood computations made after January 9, 2025.

No more Lantmäteriet fees for Swedish data

Feb 4, 2025

As of February 3 2025, the Swedish Geodata agency Lantmäteriet has stopped charging fees for many of their products, including the elevation model and the other key Scalgo Live input data in Sweden. We have already updated Scalgo Live accordingly. Now all Scalgo Live users can enjoy less administration, no additional fees, and easier access to important geographic data. For more information, please see the accompanying blog post.

This implies that the users (typically consultants), who previously had to specify whether their client was a member of Geodatasamverkan, no longer have to worry about this - no data fees to Lantmäteriet will be incurred. We have therefore removed this option from the Scalgo Live user interface.

Depth-dependent surface roughness (Manning) in DynamicFlood

Feb 4, 2025

In DynamicFlood computations, the surface roughness of each land cover class influences how fast the water moves. For certain surface types it can be warranted to choose a higher roughness for shallow flows than for channel flows, as the flow speed can vary significantly depending on the water depth. Today, we added the option to set depth-dependent Manning numbers in DynamicFlood, and in Germany we have updated the default Manning parameters to reflect the industry standards in the country.

New Manning values used by default in Scalgo Live Germany. Shallow vegetation, Dense vegetation and Field use depth-dependent Manning numbers.

The new default Manning numbers in Scalgo Live Germany are used in all new workspaces. If you are unsure whether your workspace has the new default roughness settings with depth-dependent Manning numbers, click the Eye icon on the Default Manning scenario when you start your hydrodynamic simulation. For more information, please read the accompanying blog post (in German).

To try out this new features in the other countries where DynamicFlood is available, create a custom Manning scenario before you start your computation. Each land cover class can be configured with depth-dependent Manning numbers through the cogwheels next to the individual Manning numbers in the scenario.

This change was also recorded in the DynamicFlood changelog.

How does this release affect your computations?

The new numbers will be applied to all new workspaces in Scalgo Live Germany, created after the update. Workspaces created before the update will retain the previous numbers. Workspaces in countries other than Germany are not affected.

If you need to create a new workspace that uses the same numbers as an old workspace, you can import the Manning numbers from the old workspace (using the "+" icon under Select Manning in the Run hydrodynamic engine dialog).

Likewise, if you would like to update an old workspace to use the new numbers, you can import the numbers from a new workspace.

Detailed land cover map for all of Great Britain

Dec 11, 2024

Using advanced AI methods and high-resolution imagery Scalgo has produced a detailed land cover map for all of Great Britain. The map is now available for all Scalgo Live users. For more details about how this map was produced and how to use it, we refer to the accompanying blog post.

A detailed landcover map is now available for England, Wales and Scotland.

The Scalgo Land Cover map distinguishes between 11 classes in 25 cm resolution. To produce nationwide maps, we rely on high-quality aerial imagery. In Great Britain, we partner with Bluesky International, to get access to the 12,5 cm imagery available via the Geospatial Commission's Aerial Photography of Great Britain (APGB) contract. 

Alongside the detailed land cover map available in Scalgo Live, you’ll also gain access to the high-quality imagery available via APGB inside Scalgo Live. Before diving into this exciting new data, we want to ensure you’re informed about data access and any potential fees, please see the accompanying blog post for details.

National French high-resolution land cover map

Dec 2, 2024

We have released a nationwide land cover map for France in 25 centimeter horizontal resolution, and with 11 distinct land cover classes. This is the most recent step in our ambitious mapping of land cover in all the countries that Scalgo Live covers.

The map is produced using advanced AI techniques and a powerful computation infrastructure. As input data to the automated mapping process we have used the aerial image BD Ortho, BD Topo and Registre Parcellaire Graphique (RPG) from the Institut National de l'Information Géographique et Forestière (IGN). You can read more about how the map was produced in the release announcement.

The new land cover map has national high-resolution coverage.

How to use the new map

The new map is available as a standalone layer in the "Land Cover" category in the library. It is also fully integrated into Scalgo Live and is, for instance, used to show aggregate land cover information for watershed queries. You can try it out inside Scalgo Live today.

With the new map it is now also possible to refine the Flash Flood Map in Scalgo Live in France by assigning runoff functions to each of the land cover classes or to groups of classes using the infiltration module. Check out this getting started video for a detailed description on how to include infiltration to Scalgo Live.

Work with multiple features simultaneously in the canvas

Nov 20, 2024

When editing a canvas it is often desirable to edit many attributes at once, for instance you may want to change text sizes or colors of many objects at the same time. This has been an oft-requested feature from many of our canvas users. This is now possible. You can select multiple objects directly on the map, or through the sidebar like shown in the video below.

Here we select some objects in the right sidebar and group them together. We also manipulate their position and styling on the map.

When multiple objects are selected, most of the options relevant for the individual objects are available from the selection bar and when changing such an option (e.g. the fill color) all the objects for which this is relevant are updated immediately.

This also makes it easier to organize your canvas objects, as they can be easily moved into and out of groups in the right sidebar. You can also select many features and hide them all at once.

How does it work?

In the right sidebar you can use CTRL to toggle the selection of singular features in the list of canvas objects. You can SHIFT-click to select consecutive  features.

On the map itself CTRL-clicking toggles selection and CTRL-dragging makes a box that selects an entire region.

Spill points on flash flood map and depression map

Nov 1, 2024

When a depression overflows, the water leaves the depression through a spill point. The Flash Flood Map and depression map can now show you the location of these spill points. This makes it easier to understand how flow paths connect with depressions, and how overflows affect the surrounding areas. The spill points can be added to both the depression map and the Flash Flood Map.

(left) A depression map illustrates depressions that have a volume exceeding 30m³ and an area greater than 50m², along with their corresponding spill points.

(right) The Flash Flood Map illustrates two distinct types of depressions: The blue Depressions are full and have overflowed. The cyan depressions are not yet filled to capacity and therefore do not have any associated spill points.

To activate the spill points In the depression map, enable the "Spill Points" under the depressions layer in the dock. For the Flash Flood Map, use the "Highlight Active Depression" option, accessible through the gear icon. When highlighting active depressions, the spill points of all inactive depressions (that is, the full depressions) will be displayed.

Naturally, the spill points are also available in workspaces. For older workspaces, please recompute the analysis in your workspace for the feature to be available.

New surface roughness (Manning) parameters for DynamicFlood

Oct 25, 2024

DynamicFlood computations need information about the surface roughness for each of the land cover classes available in the Scalgo Live land cover map.  We use so-called Manning numbers to parameterize this. Today, we updated the Manning numbers for all countries where DynamicFlood is available, except Sweden which was recently updated independently. The new values reflect a generally more conservative approach to surface roughness.

The Mannings numbers can be seen in the surface roughness section of the documentation, but for your convenience we have replicated them below:

Land cover classManning's M
Natural:
Unpaved road40
Bare land30
Shallow vegetation20
Dense vegetation5
Field20
Bare rock30
Snow/ice50
Railroad20
Artificial:
Building50 (not used)
Paved road70
Other paved40
Water50

The values were chosen based on an evaluation and synthesis of relevant literature (Arcement, 1989, Papaioannou et al, 2018, HEC-RAS 2D User's Manual, N-V240 Vannhåndtering, MSB2260).

This change was also recorded in the DynamicFlood changelog.

How does this release affect your computations?

The new numbers will be applied to all new workspaces, created after the update. Workspaces created before the update will retain the previous numbers.

If you need to create a new workspace that uses the same numbers as an old workspace, you can import the Manning numbers from the old workspace (using the "+" icon under Select Manning in the Run hydrodynamic engine dialog).

Likewise, if you would like to update an old workspace to use the new numbers, you can import the numbers from a new workspace.

Workspace and Modelspace sharing updates

Oct 17, 2024

It is now possible to share your Workspaces and Modelspaces in a view-only mode where the spaces you share can not be modified by the people you share it with.  

We're introducing this change alongside a new user interface for sharing. Instead of going to your account dashboard,  you can now share your Workspaces and Modelspaces directly inside Scalgo Live. This new user interface also makes it easier to share Workspaces and Modelspaces with many people at the same time by simply inserting a list of email addresses.

Sharing a Workspace with two users, one view only, and one with full access. This is the same user interface that is used for sharing a Canvas.

A user with view-only access to a Workspace or Modelspace, has the following restrictions:

  • Can not share the space with additional users.
  • Can not duplicate the space.
  • Workspaces: 
    • Can not create terrain edits or alter properties of existing edits.
    • Can not change runoff functions in the Flash Flood Map.
  • Modelspaces: 
    • Can not change any event settings or add/remove layers to the Modelspace.

For more information about Workspace permission levels, please consult the relevant page in the documentation.

Regionally varying rain in DynamicFlood Sweden

Oct 2, 2024

We have changed some important things around Core+ DynamicFlood in Sweden:

  • Rain events now differ based on the region they are in. 
  • We have updated the surface roughness parameters to match MSB recommendations.
  • We updated the default maximum infiltration rate in sewered areas from 36 mm/hr to 21 mm/hr to align with sewer dimensioning practice in Sweden.

These changes only affect new workspaces, so you must create a new workspace for these changes to take effect. Your old workspaces remain unchanged.

For more information, please read the accompanying blog post (in Swedish) or check the Core+ DynamicFlood changelog.

Sweden has been divided into four different regions for the purpose of defining the correct rain event.