Dinamica EGO and Python Coupling

Dinamica EGO can run arbitrary Python code as part of a model through the Calculate Python Expression functor. This lesson walks through a complete example; for the full reference — including the dinamica.inputs/dinamica.outputs mechanism, all available utilities, and how to retrieve the results back into the model — see Calculate Python Expression.

The example below installs numpy and uses it to compute area statistics for a table of land cover patches, then returns both summary values and a table of outlier patches — something considerably more convenient with numpy than with plain Python loops.

The input, t1, is a table of land cover patches with columns PatchId* and Area. Inside the CalculatePythonExpression container, t1 must be provided by a Number Table hook connected to the actual table functor — this is what makes the table available to the expression as dinamica.inputs[“t1”]. See Expression inputs for the full hook mechanism.

Install numpy and load the Area column into an array, skipping the header row:

dinamica.package("numpy")

areas = numpy.array([row[1] for row in dinamica.inputs["t1"][1:]])

Compute the mean and standard deviation of patch area:

meanArea = float(numpy.mean(areas))
stdArea = float(numpy.std(areas))

Flag patches whose area lies more than two standard deviations from the mean, using numpy's vectorized comparison instead of a manual loop:

isOutlier = numpy.abs(areas - meanArea) > 2 * stdArea

Return the two summary statistics as scalar outputs:

dinamica.outputs["meanArea"] = meanArea
dinamica.outputs["stdArea"] = stdArea

Build and return a table containing only the outlier patches:

header = dinamica.inputs["t1"][0]
outlierRows = [row for row, flagged in zip(dinamica.inputs["t1"][1:], isOutlier) if flagged]
outlierTable = [header] + outlierRows

dinamica.outputs["outlierPatches"] = dinamica.prepareTable(outlierTable, 1)

The complete expression:

dinamica.package("numpy")

areas = numpy.array([row[1] for row in dinamica.inputs["t1"][1:]])

meanArea = float(numpy.mean(areas))
stdArea = float(numpy.std(areas))

isOutlier = numpy.abs(areas - meanArea) > 2 * stdArea

dinamica.outputs["meanArea"] = meanArea
dinamica.outputs["stdArea"] = stdArea

header = dinamica.inputs["t1"][0]
outlierRows = [row for row, flagged in zip(dinamica.inputs["t1"][1:], isOutlier) if flagged]
outlierTable = [header] + outlierRows

dinamica.outputs["outlierPatches"] = dinamica.prepareTable(outlierTable, 1)

Back in the model, meanArea, stdArea, and outlierPatches are retrieved from the returned Struct using the ExtractStruct* family of functors — see Retrieving outputs for details.

The full set of Python utilities available inside the expression — dinamica.package(), dinamica.prepareTable(), dinamica.prepareLookupTable(), and dinamica.toTable() — along with their parameters and additional examples of installing packages with specific versions or from custom sources, is documented on the Calculate Python Expression page.

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