Markus,

Thank you very much! I have not tested it yet, but after I do I'll write you with my impressions. I think this could be a very valuable contribution.

Regards,
Tom

Markus Metz wrote:
Hello list,

I'm not sure if this list is the right place or rather the developer list. For the A * Search algorithm in r.watershed (memory version without -m flag set, r.watershed.ram), I implemented a binary min-heap instead of a linear array to store points in ascending order relative to elevation. This improves the speed of <SECTION 2: A * Search> considerably, the larger the map, the larger the speed improvement. A region with about 1,800,000 cells is processed about 37 times faster than with the original routine. A region with about 11,000,000 cells is processed about 170 times faster than with the original routine (46.7sec vs. 2h12m9sec on my system). <SECTION 4: Watershed Determination> takes now the longest.

Several tests (different region sizes, different DEMs) showed that the results of the binary heap version are very similar but not 100% identical to the original r.watershed, because of a slightly different treatment of cells with equal elevation in a binary min-heap compared to a linear array. Differences are found in difficult areas (equal elevation of several neighbouring cells) where there are several possible solutions for how water could flow. Still, compared with other hydrology analysis methods, e.g. r.terraflow, the results can be regarded as identical.

The original code was only altered where necessary, only the sorting method is new, everything else is unchanged. Memory usage increases a bit, because a binary heap needs its own index for each analysed point (in addition to the other indices already needed by r.watershed.ram).

My question is if there is interest in this faster version of r.watershed and if someone wants to test it. The source code is available on http://markus.metz.giswork.googlepages.com/

Regards,

Markus

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Thomas E Adams
National Weather Service
Ohio River Forecast Center
1901 South State Route 134
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