Skip to content

Web Interface

The EEMT Web Interface provides a modern, user-friendly way to submit and monitor EEMT and solar radiation workflows through a browser-based application with full Docker integration.

Overview

The web interface is built with FastAPI and provides:

  • 🌐 Browser-based Job Submission: Upload DEM files and configure parameters
  • 📊 Real-time Monitoring: Track progress with live updates
  • 🐳 Containerized Execution: Full Docker integration with workflow containers
  • 💾 Results Management: Download processed data as ZIP archives
  • 🏗️ Scalable Deployment: Single-node or distributed multi-container architecture

Quick Start with Docker Compose

The easiest way to deploy EEMT is using Docker Compose, which handles all dependencies and container orchestration:

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/tyson-swetnam/eemt.git
cd eemt

# Start local mode (web interface + single worker)
docker-compose up

# Access web interface at http://localhost:5000

Deployment Modes

1. Local Mode (Default)

Single-container deployment for development and small jobs:

# Start local web interface
docker-compose up eemt-web

# Or build and run manually
docker build -t eemt-web -f docker/web-interface/Dockerfile .
docker run -p 5000:5000 -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data eemt-web

2. Distributed Mode

Multi-container deployment with master and worker nodes:

# Start distributed cluster
docker-compose --profile distributed up

# Scale workers
docker-compose --profile distributed --profile scale up --scale eemt-worker-2=2 --scale eemt-worker-3=3

3. Documentation Server

# Start documentation alongside web interface
docker-compose --profile docs up eemt-docs

# Access docs at http://localhost:8000

Docker Environment Variables

Configure deployment through environment variables:

# Local mode configuration
EEMT_MODE=local
EEMT_HOST=0.0.0.0
EEMT_PORT=5000

# Distributed mode configuration
EEMT_MODE=master
WORK_QUEUE_PORT=9123
WORK_QUEUE_PROJECT=EEMT-Production
MAX_WORKERS=50

# Worker configuration
MASTER_HOST=eemt-master
MASTER_PORT=9123
WORKER_CORES=8
WORKER_MEMORY=16G
WORKER_DISK=100G

Manual Installation

For development or custom deployments:

1. Build Base Container

# Build EEMT base container with all dependencies
cd docker/ubuntu/24.04/
./build.sh

# Verify image
docker images | grep eemt

2. Build Web Interface Container

# Build web interface container
docker build -t eemt-web -f docker/web-interface/Dockerfile .

# Or use pre-built image (if available)
docker pull eemt/web-interface:latest

3. Run Web Interface

# Create data directories
mkdir -p data/{uploads,results,temp,cache,shared}

# Run web interface container
docker run -d \
  --name eemt-web \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  eemt-web

4. Access Interface

Features

Job Submission Interface

Job Submission Interface

  • Workflow Selection: Choose between Solar Radiation and Full EEMT workflows
  • DEM Upload: Drag-and-drop or select GeoTIFF files
  • Parameter Configuration:
    • Time step (3-15 minutes)
    • Atmospheric turbidity (Linke value)
    • Surface albedo
    • CPU threads
    • Climate data range (EEMT only)

Real-time Monitoring

Job Monitor

  • Summary Dashboard: Overview of pending, running, completed, and failed jobs
  • Job Table: Detailed status with progress bars
  • Auto-refresh: Updates every 5 seconds
  • Job Details: Click for detailed information and logs

System Status

The interface automatically checks:

  • ✅ Docker daemon availability
  • ✅ Container image presence
  • ✅ Resource availability
  • ⚠️ Setup warnings and instructions

Workflow Types

Solar Radiation Modeling

Purpose: Calculate daily solar irradiation for topographic analysis

Process: 1. Processes DEM through GRASS GIS r.sun 2. Calculates 365 daily solar radiation maps
3. Generates monthly aggregated products 4. Outputs global and direct solar radiation

Typical Runtime: 5-30 minutes depending on DEM resolution

Outputs: - global/daily/total_sun_day_*.tif - Daily solar radiation (365 files) - global/monthly/total_sun_*_sum.tif - Monthly aggregates (12 files) - insol/daily/hours_sun_day_*.tif - Daily sunshine hours (365 files)

Full EEMT Analysis

Purpose: Complete energy-mass transfer calculation with climate integration

Process: 1. Performs solar radiation calculations 2. Downloads DAYMET climate data 3. Calculates topographic indices (slope, aspect, TWI) 4. Computes EEMT values combining solar and climate data 5. Generates multi-year energy transfer maps

Typical Runtime: 1-4 hours depending on time period and resolution

Outputs: - All solar radiation products (above) - eemt/EEMT_Topo_*_*.tif - Topographic EEMT values - eemt/EEMT_Trad_*_*.tif - Traditional EEMT values - daymet/ - Downloaded climate data

Container Architecture

Execution Flow

graph TB
    subgraph "Docker Host"
        subgraph "Web Interface Container"
            WI[FastAPI Web App]
            WM[Workflow Manager]
            DB[SQLite Database]
        end

        subgraph "Workflow Containers"
            WC1[EEMT Worker 1]
            WC2[EEMT Worker 2]
            WC3[EEMT Worker N]
        end

        subgraph "Data Volumes"
            UP[Uploads Volume]
            RES[Results Volume]
            TMP[Temp Volume]
            CACHE[Cache Volume]
        end
    end

    subgraph "External"
        USER[User Browser]
        DOCKER[Docker Daemon]
    end

    USER --> WI
    WI --> WM
    WM --> DOCKER
    DOCKER --> WC1
    DOCKER --> WC2
    DOCKER --> WC3

    WC1 --> UP
    WC1 --> RES
    WC2 --> TMP
    WC3 --> CACHE

Container Images

Base Container (eemt:ubuntu24.04)

Contains all scientific computing dependencies: - GRASS GIS 8.4+: With r.sun extensions for solar modeling - CCTools 7.8.2: Makeflow + Work Queue for distributed processing - Python 3.11: Complete geospatial environment with scientific libraries - GDAL 3.11: Modern geospatial data access and format support - Workflow Scripts: Container entry points and scientific computing utilities

Web Interface Container (eemt-web)

Extends base container with web application: - FastAPI Application: Web interface and REST API - Workflow Manager: Docker orchestration and job management - Monitoring Tools: Real-time progress tracking and log aggregation - Docker Integration: Direct container management capabilities

Volume Management

Docker Compose automatically creates and manages data volumes:

# Volume mounts in docker-compose.yml
volumes:
  - ./data/uploads:/app/uploads      # DEM file uploads
  - ./data/results:/app/results      # Workflow outputs
  - ./data/temp:/app/temp            # Temporary processing data
  - ./data/cache:/app/cache          # Workflow caching
  - ./data/shared:/app/shared        # Shared data (distributed mode)

Container Networking

# Docker network configuration
networks:
  eemt-network:
    driver: bridge

This allows containers to communicate using service names (e.g., eemt-master, eemt-worker).

REST API

The web interface exposes a REST API for programmatic access:

Submit Job

POST /api/submit-job
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Parameters:
- workflow_type: "sol" or "eemt"
- dem_file: GeoTIFF file upload
- step: float (time step in minutes)
- linke_value: float (atmospheric turbidity)
- albedo_value: float (surface reflectance)
- num_threads: int (CPU threads)
- start_year: int (EEMT only)
- end_year: int (EEMT only)

Monitor Jobs

# List all jobs
GET /api/jobs

# Get specific job details
GET /api/jobs/{job_id}

# Download results
GET /api/jobs/{job_id}/results

System Status

GET /api/system/status

Returns: 

{
  "docker_available": true,
  "container_stats": {
    "total_containers": 2,
    "running_jobs": ["job-123"],
    "system_stats": {
      "cpus": 8,
      "memory": 16777216000
    }
  },
  "image_name": "eemt:ubuntu24.04"
}

Configuration

Environment Variables

# Host and port configuration
EEMT_HOST="127.0.0.1"        # Bind address
EEMT_PORT="5000"             # Service port

# Directory configuration
EEMT_UPLOAD_DIR="./uploads"  # DEM upload directory
EEMT_RESULTS_DIR="./results" # Job output directory
EEMT_TEMP_DIR="./temp"       # Temporary processing
EEMT_CACHE_DIR="./cache"     # Workflow cache

# Container configuration  
DOCKER_IMAGE="eemt:ubuntu24.04"  # Container image name
CONTAINER_CPU_LIMIT="4"          # Default CPU limit
CONTAINER_MEMORY_LIMIT="8G"      # Default memory limit

Database Configuration

The interface uses SQLite for job tracking:

  • Location: ./jobs.db (auto-created)
  • Schema: Automatically initialized on first run
  • Backup: Standard SQLite tools (sqlite3 .backup)

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. "Docker not available" 

    # Check Docker daemon
docker info

# Ensure Docker service is running
sudo systemctl start docker

  2. "Container image not found" 

    # Build the container
cd docker/ubuntu/24.04/
./build.sh

# Verify image exists
docker images | grep eemt

  3. "Job execution failed"

  4. Check job details in monitor for container logs
  5. Verify DEM is valid GeoTIFF with proper projection

  6. Ensure adequate disk space and memory

  7. "Web interface not accessible" 

    # Check if port is available
netstat -an | grep 5000

# Try alternative port
uvicorn app:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080

Performance Optimization

  • Large DEMs: Consider processing smaller tiles
  • Concurrent Jobs: Limit based on available CPU/memory
  • Container Resources: Adjust limits in workflow_manager.py
  • Disk Space: Monitor usage in uploads/, results/, temp/

Logging

Application logs are available:

# Start with debug logging
uvicorn app:app --log-level debug

# Container execution logs  
docker logs <container_id>

# Job-specific logs in web interface monitor

Development

API Development

The FastAPI application supports:

  • Auto-documentation: Available at /docs
  • Interactive testing: Try API endpoints in browser
  • OpenAPI schema: Available at /openapi.json

Frontend Development

The HTML interface uses:

  • Bootstrap 5: Responsive CSS framework
  • Vanilla JavaScript: No heavy frontend dependencies
  • WebSocket: For real-time progress updates (planned)

Container Development

To modify container workflows:

  1. Edit scripts in docker/ubuntu/24.04/container-scripts/
  2. Rebuild container: ./build.sh
  3. Test with web interface

Integration

Distributed Mode

The web interface can be integrated with distributed computing environments:

  • Multi-host execution: Deploy master node with web interface, connect remote workers
  • Load balancing: Work Queue automatically distributes tasks across available workers
  • Fault tolerance: Automatic retry and worker replacement mechanisms
  • HPC Integration: Connect to SLURM, PBS, LSF batch schedulers

See Distributed Deployment for complete setup guide.

Master Node Configuration

To run the web interface as a master node:

from containers.workflow_manager import DistributedWorkflowManager, NodeType, MasterConfig

# Configure master with web interface
master_config = MasterConfig(
    port=9123,
    max_workers=100,
    work_queue_project="EEMT-Cluster"
)

# Initialize master workflow manager  
master = DistributedWorkflowManager(
    base_dir=Path("/data/eemt-master"),
    node_type=NodeType.MASTER,
    master_config=master_config
)

# Start master node
master.start_master_node()

Workers can then connect from remote machines:

# Start worker on remote machine
python scripts/start-worker.py \
    --master-host your-master-ip \
    --master-port 9123 \
    --cores 8 --memory 16G

Cloud Deployment

Cloud integration examples:

  • Kubernetes: Container orchestration with persistent volumes
  • AWS/GCP/Azure: VM clusters with shared storage