Index: wflow-py/Scripts/wtools_py/modelbuilder.py
===================================================================
diff -u -r1738c121cfc83b76d915b8ed55747cb1bb9a2f64 -r1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e
--- wflow-py/Scripts/wtools_py/modelbuilder.py	(.../modelbuilder.py)	(revision 1738c121cfc83b76d915b8ed55747cb1bb9a2f64)
+++ wflow-py/Scripts/wtools_py/modelbuilder.py	(.../modelbuilder.py)	(revision 1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e)
@@ -75,31 +75,6 @@
                 region_filter):
     """Prepare a simple WFlow model, anywhere, based on global datasets."""
 
-    # lists below need to stay synchronized, not sure of a better way
-    [
-        geojson_path,
-        model,
-        timestep,
-        name,
-        case_template,
-        case_path,
-        fews_config_path,
-        dem_path,
-        river_path,
-        region_filter
-    ] = [encode_utf8(p) for p in [
-        geojson_path,
-        model,
-        timestep,
-        name,
-        case_template,
-        case_path,
-        fews_config_path,
-        dem_path,
-        river_path,
-        region_filter
-    ]]
-
     # fill in the dependent defaults
     if name is None:
         name = 'wflow_{}_case'.format(model)
Index: wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py
===================================================================
diff -u -r1738c121cfc83b76d915b8ed55747cb1bb9a2f64 -r1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e
--- wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py	(.../create_grid.py)	(revision 1738c121cfc83b76d915b8ed55747cb1bb9a2f64)
+++ wflow-py/wflow/create_grid.py	(.../create_grid.py)	(revision 1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e)
@@ -221,16 +221,14 @@
     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()
+    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_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)
Index: wflow-py/wflow/static_maps.py
===================================================================
diff -u -r073214c7c3a46cfcc2fdc2b27c5a9d101685c031 -r1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e
--- wflow-py/wflow/static_maps.py	(.../static_maps.py)	(revision 073214c7c3a46cfcc2fdc2b27c5a9d101685c031)
+++ wflow-py/wflow/static_maps.py	(.../static_maps.py)	(revision 1ddc355747b9398b2d02f00e0ab985e8e644a06e)
@@ -212,7 +212,11 @@
                                     'riverorder_min', 3,
                                     datatype='int')
     try:
-        percentiles = np.array(config.get('parameters', 'statisticmaps', '0, 100').replace(' ', '').split(','), dtype='float')
+        percentiles_str = wt.configget(config, 'parameters',
+            'statisticmaps', '0, 100',
+            datatype='str')
+        percentiles_split = percentiles_str.replace(' ', '').split(',')
+        percentiles = np.array(percentiles_split, dtype='float')
     except configparser.NoOptionError:
         percentiles = [0.0, 100.0]
     # read the parameters for generating a temporary very high resolution grid