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A Geotemporal Framework for Hydrologic Analysis
by Jonathan Lee Goodall, B.S.; M.S. and David R. Maidment, PhD.
ABSTRACT
The wealth of publicly available hydrologic data from observation
networks, satellite-based sensors, global-scale modeling efforts, and digitized
paper maps provide an excellent base-line of information for understanding
hydrologic systems. It is difficult, however, to fuse this information into a holistic
picture because there are many different formats and data models for storing,
analyzing, and sharing such information. To address this problem, this research
presents a prototype system for assembling local and remote data sources of
various formats into a common geospatial-temporal (or simply geotemporal)
framework for hydrologic analysis.
Starting from the basic concept of geographic information science that
space consists of entities and fields, new concepts are derived for representing
hydrologic space: geospatial time series and hydrologic flux coupler. A class
library named HydroObjects is created that uses these new concepts to extend GIS
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software for geotemporal visualization and processing of hydrologic data. The
HydroObjects library provides interoperability between hydrology data because
the attributes of an object can be populated from a variety of sources, formats, and
data models.
As a case study, geotemporal visualization and processing extensions
developed through this research are used to perform and visualize a water budget
for subwatersheds of the Neuse River Basin, North Carolina. The water budget
calculations are performed with data directly ingested from remote hydrologic
data bases through the internet and then processed locally to align in space and
time. The case study is an example of how hydrologists can gain access to remote
information, fuse these data sources into a single picture of the geotemporal
watershed environment, and use the information to formulate and test hypotheses
regarding the hydrologic cycle.
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but please credit the authors and the Center for Research in Water
Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. All commercial rights
reserved. Copyright 2002 Center for Research in Water Resources.
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