Rainfall and Runoff Files

The rainfall and runoff interface files are binary files created internally by GeoSWMM that can be saved and reused from one analysis to the next. The rainfall interface file collates a series of separate rain gage files into a single rainfall data file. Normally, a temporary file of this type is created for every GeoSWMM analysis that uses external rainfall data files and is then deleted after the analysis is completed. However, if the same rainfall data are being used with many different analyses, requesting GeoSWMM to save the rainfall interface file after the first run and then reusing this file in subsequent runs can save computation time.

The rainfall interface file should not be confused with a rainfall data file. The latter is an external text file that provides rainfall time series data for a single rain gage. The former is a binary file created internally by GeoSWMM that processes all of the rainfall data files used by a project.

The runoff interface file can be used to save the runoff results generated from a simulation run. If runoff is not affected in future runs, the user can request that GeoSWMM use this interface file to supply runoff results without having to repeat the runoff calculations again.