GIS Hydro '99 - Global Hydrology

Global Hydrology Module

Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin

Introduction

Global Hydrology Module describes the development of datasets and routing methods for the characterization of water movement over the land surface, at the global scale. The modeling of the horizontal movement of water over the earth surface requires a knowledge of spatial distributed transport parameters. GIS consequently provides a valuable environment for the processing such data. In addition, the transport parameters such as travel time and flow direction are terrain dependent and can be derived from Digital Elevation Models. Procedures for deriving such parameters are described in the Data Development section.

Data Development

The development of a database of hydrologic parameters to support hydrologic modeling on the global scale is described in this section. Additional research into ways of incorporating more detailed terrain data into continental scale models is also described.

• Terrain Analysis for Global Runoff Routing by Kwabena Asante, Francisco Olivera, James Famiglietti  and David Maidment. An html document describing the delineation process, the inland catchments identified and the outputs from the process.
• Creating Coarse Resolution Flow direction Grids from Fine Resolution DEMs by Mary Lear. A term paper describing efforts to derive information from one kilometer DEMs for use in coarser resolution hydrologic models.
• The Digital Atlas of the World Water Balance: The latest version of the Atlas containing processed terrain data for hydrologic modeling.
• 5-Minute, 1/2º , and 1º Data Sets of Continental Watersheds and River Networks by Graham , S. T., J. S. Famiglietti, and D. R. Maidment. Images and description of a delineation of 19 global drainage basins for incorporation into global climate models.

Large Scale Routing

Conference presentations describing research into large scale routing. In this research, GIS is used as a medium for representing spatial variability, for performing spatial analysis and for establishing spatial relationships.

• Resolution Dependence of Cell-to-Cell Runoff Routing Models by Francisco Olivera, James Famiglietti and Marcia Branstetter. Presented at the AGU 1999 Spring Meeting, H71D: Scientific Principles in Distributed Hydrologic Process Modeling: "Is More Complexity Better?", Boston, MA, June 4, 1999.
• DTM-Based Model for Global-Scale Runoff Routing by Francisco Olivera, James Famiglietti, Kwabena Asante and David Maidment. Presented at the AGU 1998 Fall Meeting, H51C: The Role of Digital Terrain Modeling and Analysis in Hydrological Modeling. San Francisco, CA, December 6, 1998.
• GIS-Based Continental-Scale Flow Routing Algorithm for Climate System Models by Francisco Olivera, James Famiglietti, and David Maidment. Presented at the AGU 1998 Spring Meeting, U31A: Geographic Information Systems in Earth Science. Boston, MA, May 27, 1998.
• Surface Water Availability in Large Hydrologic Systems presented by Francisco Olivera at the Millennium Assessment of the State of the World's Ecosystem Ecosystem Expert Meeting sponsored by World Resources Institute (WRI), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and World Bank, Washington DC, February 10-11, 1999. 

Primary Contact

Kwabena Asante
University of Texas at Austin
Center for Research in Water Resources
Austin, Texas 78712

E-mail: kwabs@mail.utexas.edu
Online: http://www.ce.utexas.edu/stu/asanteko
Phone: (512) 471-0073
Fax: (512) 471-0072

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 1999 Center for Research in Water Resources.