Index: wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py
===================================================================
diff -u -r58f139b2afc2424fc9f8796934878bd6e49c31de -r46c7ef5e63348942bb261b5042c57b66d7234749
--- wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py	(.../create_grid.py)	(revision 58f139b2afc2424fc9f8796934878bd6e49c31de)
+++ wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py	(.../create_grid.py)	(revision 46c7ef5e63348942bb261b5042c57b66d7234749)
@@ -266,27 +266,25 @@
     )
 
     # create grid.xml
-    root = ElementTree.Element("regular", locationId=locationid)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "rows").text = str(rows)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "columns").text = str(cols)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "geoDatum").text = geodatum
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "firstCellCenter")
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root[3], "x").text = str(xorg + 0.5 * cellsize)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root[3], "y").text = str(yorg - 0.5 * cellsize)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "xCellSize").text = str(cellsize)
-    ElementTree.SubElement(root, "yCellSize").text = str(cellsize)
-    xml_file = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(destination, "grid.xml"))
-    logger.info("Writing Delft-FEWS grid definition to {:s}".format(xml_file))
-    gridxml = open(xml_file, "w+")
-    gridxml.write(ElementTree.tostring(root))
-    gridxml.close()
+    root = ElementTree.Element('regular', locationId=locationid)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'rows').text = str(rows)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'columns').text = str(cols)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'geoDatum').text = geodatum
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'firstCellCenter')
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root[3], 'x').text = str(xorg + 0.5 * cellsize)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root[3], 'y').text = str(yorg - 0.5 * cellsize)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'xCellSize').text = str(cellsize)
+    ElementTree.SubElement(root, 'yCellSize').text = str(cellsize)
+    xml_file = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(destination, 'grid.xml'))
+    logger.info('Writing Delft-FEWS grid definition to {:s}'.format(xml_file))
+    with open(xml_file, 'w+') as f:
+        f.write(ElementTree.tostring(root, encoding='unicode'))
 
     # create shape file
     Driver = ogr.GetDriverByName("ESRI Shapefile")
-    shp_file = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(destination, "mask.shp"))
-    logger.info("Writing shape of clone to {:s}".format(shp_file))
-    # for encode see https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/53939
-    shp_att = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(shp_file))[0].encode("utf-8")
+    shp_file = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(destination, 'mask.shp'))
+    logger.info('Writing shape of clone to {:s}'.format(shp_file))
+    shp_att = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(shp_file))[0]
     shp = Driver.CreateDataSource(shp_file)
     lyr = shp.CreateLayer(shp_att, srs, geom_type=ogr.wkbPolygon)
     fieldDef = ogr.FieldDefn("ID", ogr.OFTString)