Acknowledgments¶
CLB Engineering Corporation¶
RAS Commander is a free and open-source project of CLB Engineering Corporation. Within two years, CLB built the most robust and feature-complete HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS automation solution on the open internet using LLM Forward approaches -- proving that licensed professional engineers working alongside Large Language Models can create extraordinary value in compressed timeframes.
For agencies and organizations seeking to modernize H&H workflows, CLB Engineering brings unmatched expertise in HEC-RAS automation. Contact CLB to partner with the early LLM pioneers who are redefining what's possible in hydraulic engineering.
LLM Forward Development Framework¶
RAS Commander was developed using the LLM Forward approach, a framework for responsible adoption of large language models in professional engineering practice.
Framework Origin: CLB Engineering Corporation
Formalization: The LLM Forward philosophy was formalized by William Katzenmeyer, P.E., C.F.M., Owner & Vice President of CLB Engineering Corporation, as a response to the transformative potential of LLMs in engineering workflows while maintaining professional responsibility and public safety standards.
Core Tenets:
- Focus specifically on Large Language Models (not general AI/ML)
- Professional responsibility first - public safety, ethics, licensure remain paramount
- LLMs positioned forward to accelerate insight without eroding accountability
- Human-in-the-loop with licensed professionals reviewing and approving implementations
- Verifiability and interpretability as centerpiece of adoption strategy
- HEC-RAS projects with descriptive plan titles; models openable in GUI for traditional review
- Visual outputs (plots/figures) at each calculation step for domain expert review
- Code audit trails with @log_call decorators and comprehensive logging
Learn More: LLM Forward Engineering
Repository Author¶
William Katzenmeyer, P.E., C.F.M. Owner & Vice President CLB Engineering Corporation Email: info@clbengineering.com Website: clbengineering.com/llm-forward
RAS Commander represents a practical demonstration of LLM Forward principles applied to hydraulic & hydrologic modeling automation. The library was built through iterative prompt-code-test cycles with multiple LLMs (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, Cursor IDE) over a 4-month development period.
Technical Contributors¶
HDF Data Access & Structure Analysis¶
Sean Micek, P.E. Hydraulic Engineer HEC-RAS Reservoir Engineering
Sean's blog posts documenting HEC-RAS HDF file structure were instrumental in understanding the organization of HDF datasets for 2D mesh results, boundary conditions, and structure data. His detailed breakdowns of HDF paths and dataset hierarchies enabled rapid development of the HdfResults* classes.
Key Contributions: - HDF structure documentation for 2D unsteady results - Boundary condition dataset mappings - Structure data organization (bridges, culverts, lateral structures)
Terrain Modification and Cell Size Optimization¶
Xiaofeng (Frank) Liu, Ph.D. Associate Professor, University of Texas at Arlington DualSPHysics: Learn by Example Hydraulic Modeling Studio YouTube Channel
Dr. Liu's YouTube tutorials on HEC-RAS terrain modifications and pilot channel creation inspired the terrain optimization workflows and cell size analysis features. His practical demonstrations of fixing LIDAR-defined flat-bottom channels informed the geometric analysis capabilities.
Key Contributions: - Terrain modification profile generation concepts - Pilot channel design principles for LIDAR channels - Cell size and Courant number relationships
HEC-RAS Example Projects¶
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC)
The publicly available HEC-RAS example projects provided the foundation for Test Driven Development and reproducible demonstrations. Projects like "Muncie," "Bald Eagle Creek," "Dam Breaching," and others enabled validation testing with real hydraulic & hydrologic scenarios.
Purpose: Example projects allow: - Functional testing without synthetic data - Reproducible demonstrations for all users - Version compatibility validation across HEC-RAS releases
Fluvial-Pluvial Modeling Approaches¶
FEMA Flood Forecasting & Risk Dynamics (FFRD) Team
Conversations with FEMA FFRD researchers informed the fluvial-pluvial boundary condition calculation methods, particularly the approaches for combining river boundary flows with local precipitation to avoid double-counting in hydrodynamic models.
Concepts Implemented: - Fluvial-pluvial boundary adjustments - Precipitation-flow integration strategies - HUC-based hydrologic regionalization
HECRASController Documentation¶
Chris Goodell, P.E., D.WRE Author: "Breaking the HEC-RAS Code" (2014) The RAS Solution YouTube Channel
Chris's book remains the definitive reference for COM-based automation of HEC-RAS 3.x-5.x versions. The RasControl class implementation follows patterns documented in his work, adapted to modern Python with type hints and pandas DataFrames.
Legacy Integration: - COM interface patterns (HECRASController API) - Steady state profile extraction methods - Version compatibility guidance across HEC-RAS 3.x-6.x
Community Testing & Feedback¶
Early Adopters & Testers¶
The following individuals and organizations provided valuable testing feedback during beta releases:
- Practitioners testing parallel execution workflows on HUC-8 scale models
- Engineers validating HDF extraction against RAS Mapper and HEC-DSSVue
- Developers integrating ras-commander into Arc Hydro Tools workflows
If you contributed feedback during development, please submit a pull request to add your name.
Open Source Contributions¶
Third-Party Libraries¶
RAS Commander builds on exceptional open-source Python libraries:
| Library | Purpose | Maintainers |
|---|---|---|
| h5py | HDF5 file access | HDF Group / Andrew Collette |
| pandas | Structured data analysis | NumFOCUS |
| geopandas | Geospatial data operations | GeoPandas Developers |
| matplotlib | Visualization | Matplotlib Development Team |
| pathlib | Cross-platform path handling | Python Software Foundation |
| dataretrieval | USGS NWIS data access | USGS |
Inspiration & Context¶
AI-Driven Engineering Transformation¶
The rapid development of RAS Commander (4 months from concept to v0.80.0) was enabled by:
- Claude Sonnet 3.5 - Iterative code generation and debugging
- GPT-4o - API design exploration and docstring generation
- Gemini Pro - Alternative implementation approaches and validation
- Cursor IDE - Real-time code completion with codebase context
This demonstrates the LLM Forward approach in practice: engineers bring domain expertise (hydraulics, HEC-RAS file formats, workflow requirements), while LLMs translate that knowledge into working Python implementations.
Contributing Acknowledgments¶
If you contributed code, documentation, bug reports, or testing feedback, thank you! To add your name to this list, please submit a pull request with:
- Your name and affiliation
- Brief description of your contribution
- Optional: Links to your GitHub profile, website, or blog
License¶
RAS Commander is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
The MIT License permits commercial and non-commercial use, modification, and distribution with proper attribution. This aligns with the project's goal of accelerating H&H automation across the engineering community.
Last Updated: 2025-12-11