Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin
GIS Hydro 2000 introduces a new format and purpose for the GIS Hydro CD-ROM series, which has been produced annually since 1997. The previous CD-ROMs surveyed the state of knowledge in GIS hydrology based on research at the Center for Research in Water Resources of the University of Texas at Austin, and at a number of collaborating institutions. Building upon this collaborative effort, in September 1999 ESRI and CRWR together formed a GIS in Water Resources Consortium and invited other institutions and individuals to join in that effort. The Consortium's goal is the design and implementation of a GeoDatabase model for water resources using the new object modeling technology in ArcInfo version 8, and later in ArcView. This CD-ROM presents the first results of this collaborative effort, a draft ArcGIS Hydro Data Model and a draft book manuscript which describes the data model concepts and structures, and provides example datasets of its implementation. Also contained in the CD-ROM are example GeoDatabases from the book chapters which can be used to see how the concepts explained in the chapters have resulted in a completed ArcGIS Hydro database. Some of the research leading to the book relied on documents describing other data models, particularly those for stream hydrography. A number of these documents are included in the Digital Library, along with CRWR Online Reports describing the results of research projects whose insights contributed to the data model. In keeping with the tradition of previous GIS Hydro CD's, we have included a Digital Classroom with learning exercises for ArcView to help new users of GIS in hydrology get started in the field. Also included in the Digital Classroom are examples of term projects from the GIS in Water Resources course held in Fall 1999 at the University of Texas at Austin. These projects show how creative students take technology and use it to investigate subjects that interest them.
The ArcGIS Hydro Data Model is one of a series of GeoDatabase models, which the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is developing in collaboration with partners. Each GeoDatabase model is described in a book, at the back of which is a CD-ROM containing the model structure, and GeoDatabases for example applications of the model. A GeoDatabase model is a framework for capturing key geographic and descriptive information about a class of landscape features, and for attaching behaviors to the features. The GeoDatabase is accessed using ESRIs new ArcInfo version 8 software, in which objects interact through interfaces designed according to a common standard.
The ArcGIS Hydro Data Model was developed through a collaboration between ESRI and the Center for Research in Water Resources (CRWR) of the University of Texas at Austin. Together, ESRI and CRWR formed a Consortium for GIS in Water Resources to bring together industry, government and academic partners in a joint effort to build a data model for surface water hydrology and hydrography. The collaborative effort was mounted through a series of meetings, a GIS in Water Resources Conference, and substantial interaction through the internet, to arrive at the data model structure described in this book. No single individual could have conceived the whole model ― its structure is a synthesis of knowledge of the water resources area and of the capabilities of the ArcInfo software, designed to operate efficiently within those capabilities.
This manuscript and the accompanying CD-ROM were prepared for the GIS Hydro 2000 PreConference Seminar held at the ESRI User Conference in San Diego in June 2000. Both the manuscript and the data model are draft versions intended for review by the GIS in Water Resources community. Comments and suggestions as to how the manuscript and model can be improved are welcome and solicited. After the model and manuscript review are completed, and appropriate adjustments made to their content, the ArcGIS Data Model and accompanying book will be published by ESRI Press.
I wish to acknowledge the generous collaboration and support which this effort has received from the water resources community. In particular, the following organizations have financially supported research efforts of the Consortium for GIS in Water Resources: ESRI, US Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, Lower Colorado River Authority, City of Austin, Texas, Dodson and Associates, Camp, Dresser and McKee, and the DHI ─ Institute for Water and Environment. I also wish to acknowledge the contribution of the National Hydrography Dataset program of the USGS and EPA whose development of a hydrographic data model for the United States was a significant guide to this effort. Images provided by the following organizations have been reproduced in the GISHydro Data Model manuscript: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, NEXRAIN Corporation of Phoenix Arizona, and the Spatial Vision Group of British Columbia, Canada.
Individuals from several organizations contributed to the data model design and the draft book.. Nawajish Noman and Jim Nelson from Brigham Young University contributed the data model design for river channels and wrote Chapter 5 of the manuscript. Michael Blongewicz of the DHI - Institute for Water and Environment, Denmark, developed the time series data design and wrote Chapter 7 of the manuscript. Scott Morehouse, Dale Honeycutt and David Arctur at ESRI Redlands developed a great deal of the data model design, and David Arctur contributed Chapter 12 of the manuscript. I want to say a special "thank you" to the loyal Arc Hydro team at CRWR who worked very hard, especially over the past several weeks to prepare the draft data model design, its applications, and many of the book chapters. The midnight oil was burning brightly to get all this completed in time for presentation at the GIS Hydro 2000 seminar. Those researchers who contributed include: Kim Davis, Kevin Donnelly, Jordan Furnans, Francisco Olivera, Katherine Osborne, Victoria Samuels, Dan Snead, Sarah Stone, and Tim Whiteaker, with the help of CRWR staff Sharon Bernard, Marcy Betak, Ty Lehman, and Susan Swanson. In particular, I want to thank Jordan Furnans, the manager of this year's CD-ROM development. He put in countless hours helping to get the information organized on the CD-ROM.
The chapters and authors of the ArcGIS Hydro Data Model manuscript are:
BYU: Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory, Brigham
Young University, Utah
CRWR: Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin
DHI: DHI ― Institute for Water and Environment, Denmark
ESRI: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, California
The book chapters are stored on this CD-ROM as Adobe pdf documents, and in the chapters where there are accompanying GeoDatabases, the data are described in the chapter or in an html document included on this CD-ROM. Preparing all these materials has been a great challenge. I hope that you find the information enlightening and useful.
David R. Maidment
Ashley H. Priddy Centennial Professor of Engineering
Director, Center for Research in Water
Resources
The University of Texas at Austin
maidment@mail.utexas.edu
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment
These materials may be used for study, research, and education, but please credit the authors and the Center for Research in Water Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. All commercial rights reserved. Copyright 2000 Center for Research in Water Resources.