GIS in Water Resources

Hydrologic cycle
Land and water interaction
Example use of GIS

Hydrologic Cycle
Land and Water Interaction
Land
Characterization
(Land use,
Soils,
Climate,
Terrain)
Water Characterization
(water yield, flooding, groundwater, pollution, sediment)
Why Use a GIS ?
GIS is a powerful tool because users can
quickly:
search
display
analyze
model
spatial information.
What is a GIS ?
A GIS can be defined as:
An organized collection of
computer hardware
software
geographic data
personnel
Can Be Defined As
Designed to efficiently
capture
store
manipulate
analyze
display
All forms of geographically referenced
information
Why Use a Geographical
Information System ?
A good GIS system should be able to
answer the following questions:
location What is at....?
A location can be described in many ways such
as a place name, zip code, or a geographic
reference.
10 km
N
Indian Pine Soil Series

condition Where is it ?
Instead of identifying what exists at a given
location,
you want to find a location where certain
conditions are satisfied.
For example
If you are looking for an unforested section of land
at least 2,000 square meters in size, within 100
meters of a road, and with soils suitable for
supporting building.
trends What has changed since ?
A combination of the first two questions but
also seeks to find the differences within an area
over time.
Land Use Change in LEC Watershed
Change in Runoff and NPS Pollution
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Runoff Nitrogen Phosphorus Lead Copper Zinc
1984-1991
1973-1984
patterns What spatial patterns exist ?
You may ask this question to determine
whether cancer is a major cause of death among
residents next to a nuclear power plant.
modeling what if ...?
These types of questions are posed to determine
what happens, for example, if a toxic substance
seeps into the local groundwater supply.
BOD
High areas:
urban
suburban
Low areas:
forest, crops
on B soils,
and pasture
Adapt Land to the Water System
Land
Characterization
(Land use,
Soils,
Climate,
Terrain)
Water Characterization
(water yield, flooding, groundwater, pollution, sediment)
CRWR-PrePro
(GIS Preprocessor
for HEC-HMS flood
hydrograph simulation)
Building a Regional Hydrologic Model
Watershed and Stream Network
Streams
from EPA
River Reach File 1
Watersheds
USGS gage at outlet
Boundary delineated
using a 500m DEM
261 watersheds in
basin
CRWR-Prepro Schematic Network
Inlets
Mississippi River
Missouri River
Outlet (Mississippi R.
at Thebes, Ill)
HEC-Hydrologic Modeling System
HMS
Basin
file
CRWR-PrePro HEC-HMS Model Schematic
Adapt Water to the Land System
Land
Characterization
(Land use,
Soils,
Climate,
Terrain)
Water Characterization
(water yield, flooding, groundwater, pollution, sediment)
Non Point Source Pollution
(mean annual flows
and pollutant loads)
Land-Water
Connection
Transform
Coefficient
Water yield Runoff coefficient, C
Flood runoff SCS Curve Number, CN
Groundwater Recharge rate (mm/yr)
Water quality Expected Mean Concentration
(mg/l)
Sediment yield Erosion rate (tons/ha-yr)
Possible Land-Water
Transform Coefficients
Water
Land
Map-Based Surface Water Runoff
Runoff, Q
(mm/yr)
Precipitation, P
(mm/yr)
Accumulated Runoff
(cfs)
P
Q
Runoff Coefficient
C = Q/P
Water Quality: Pollution Loading Module
DEM
Precip. Runoff
LandUse
EMC Table
Concentration
Load
Accumulated
Load
Load [Mass/Time] =Runoff [Vol/Time] x Concentration [Mass/Vol]
Expected Mean Concentration
Constituent Resident. Comm. Indust. Transp. Agric. Range Undevel
Total Nitrogen (mg/l) 1.82 1.34 1.26 1.86 4.40 0.70 1.50
Total Phosphorus (mg/l) 0.57 0.32 0.28 0.22 1.30 <0.01 0.12
Oil and Grease (mg/l) 1.7 9.0 3.0 0.4
Copper (ug/l) 15.0 14.5 15.0 11.0 1.5 <10
Chromium (ug/l) 2.1 10.0 7.0 3.0 <10 7.5
Zinc (ug/l) 80 180 245 60 141 16 6
Land Use
EMC
Table derived from USGS
water quality monitoring sites
Total Constituent
Loads
Input for Water
Quality Model
Water Quality: Land Surface -Water Body Connection
Bay
Water
Quality
Geospatial Database
Levels of Analysis: Relational Database
Relational Linkages
Spatial Attributes
Descriptive Attributes
Water Right
Locations
Levels of Analysis: Stream Database
Digital Stream Network
Connects Control Point Locations
Levels of Analysis: Watershed Database
Delineate Drainage Areas Using a Digital Elevation Model
Spatial Data: Vector format
Point - a pair of x and y coordinates

(x
1
,y
1
)
Line - a sequence of points
Polygon - a closed set of lines
Node
vertex
Vector data are defined spatially:
Raster and Vector Data
Point
Line
Polygon
Vector Raster
Raster data are described by a cell grid, one value per cell
Zone of cells
Raster-Vector Data Model
Raster
Vector
Real World
Summary Concepts
Hydrologic cycle land-water interaction
Adapt land to water system export data
from GIS to external model (time varying
calculations on vector data structures)
Adapt water to land system mean annual
flow and pollutant loads on raster grids
Both approaches built on a raster-vector data
model of the landscape