This month in AvaFrame - February 2026 edition

Posted by Felix on Sunday, March 1, 2026

Welcome to the February 2026 update:

February was a busy month with multi-layer result support landing across the code base, a new intermediate configuration system, and continued DebrisFrame development including time dependent release improvements and debris-flow topography plotting.

Multi-Layer Result Support

Two PRs brought multi-layer result support to the full analysis pipeline. PR #1236 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1236 ) added layer detection to parseSimName() and layer-aware columns (ppr_l1, ppr_l2) to makeSimFromResDF(). It also refactored com8MoTPSA postprocessing to use L1/L2 layer naming instead of the previous dfa/psa modelType workaround, and added a runoutLayer config parameter to AIMEC for explicit layer selection. This is a breaking change for com8MoTPSA - output filenames changed from the old modelType naming to layer-based naming.

PR #1242 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1242 ) then extended multi-layer awareness to ana4Stats, probAna, and downstream tools. The com8MoTPSA module was further refactored, replacing MoTGenerateConfigs with com1DFAPreprocess and adding modName for simulation filtering.

Intermediate (Expert) Configuration Override

PR #1230 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1230 ) added an intermediate configuration override system. A new Inputs/CFGs/ directory in avalanche projects takes priority over local config files. The PR also refactored cfgUtils.getModuleConfig() to use explicit fileOverride and avalancheDir arguments instead of positional parameters, and removed the deprecated rewriteLocalCfgs and _removeCfgItemsNotInOverride functions.

Windows Multiprocessing Fix

PR #1234 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1234 ) removed Windows-specific conditional imports for multiprocessing across com1DFA, com4FlowPy, com8MoTPSA, and com9MoTVoellmy. Recent Python versions no longer need this distinction on Windows, and the old code was causing simulations to run multiple processes but only on a single core. Parallel execution now works correctly on all platforms.

Documentation

PR #1233 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1233 ) updated the configuration documentation with a graph illustrating the configuration hierarchy.

Module Updates

PR #1222 (https://github.com/OpenNHM/AvaFrame/pull/1222 ) finalized the com6 Scarp module with minor changes to attribute names and meanings.

Note

We are currently working on a new release of AvaFrame, which will upgrade the major version number from 1.0 to 2.0. This will include breaking changes! We will also switch the AvaFrame QGis Connector to an OpenNHM QGis Connector, this includes, for example, the new intermediate configuration override system.

See you in March!

Felix


Summary of PRs merged in February 2026:

  1. PR #1230 - Add expert configuration override folder (merged Feb 3)
  2. PR #1234 - Fix Windows multiprocessing to use multiple cores (merged Feb 5)
  3. PR #1233 - Update configuration documentation with graph (merged Feb 9)
  4. PR #1236 - Add multi-layer result support; breaking change in com8 (merged Feb 17)
  5. PR #1239 - Include time dependent release values in simulation hash (merged Feb 18)
  6. PR #1241 - Add debris-flow topography plotting (merged Feb 18)
  7. PR #1222 - Finalize com6 Scarp module (merged Feb 19)
  8. PR #1240 - Add time dependent release info to reports (merged Feb 19)
  9. PR #1242 - Extend multi-layer support to analysis and probability tools (merged Feb 19)
  10. PR #1246 - Add timeDependentRelease configuration to com9MoTVoellmy (merged Feb 27)

Total: 10 pull requests merged