GIS in Water Resources

Fall 2005

 

General Course Information:

CE 394K.3 GIS in Water Resources

Tuesday- Thursday, 12:30-2PM

ETC 5.148

Unique Number: 15065

Principal Instructor:

David Maidment

Office Address: CRWR Bldg. 119 PRC

Telephone Number: (512) 471-0065

Fax Number: (512) 471-0072

E-mail:maidment @ mail.utexas.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 2-4 PM

Web Page: http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment


Cooperating Instructor:
David Tarboton

Office Address:  ENGR230, Utah State University

Telephone Number: (435) 797-3172

E-mail:dtarb@cc.usu.edu

Office Hours:  Monday 11.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 11.30 – 12.30, Thursday 1-2.

Web Page: http://www.engineering.usu.edu/dtarb/


Course Description
Application of Geographic Information Systems in Water Resources. Digital mapping of water resources information. Spatial coordinate systems. Terrain analysis using digital elevation models. River and watershed networks. Soil and and land use mapping. Flood hydrology modeling and flood plain mapping. Terrain analysis for hydrologic modeling.

Integration of time series and geospatial data.

Prerequisites
Graduate standing in engineering or a related discipline.

Course Objectives

The six course exercises are intended to enable you to be able to:

n      Plot a map of a hydrologic region including measurement sites and associate it with time series of data measured at those locations;

n      Create a base map of a study region including watersheds, streams, and aquifers by selecting features from regional maps;

n      Manually create and edit points, lines and areas, and associate attributes with those features;

n      Interpolate measured data at points to form raster surfaces over a region, and spatially average those surfaces over polygons of interest;

n      Do hydrologic calculations using map algebra on raster grids;

n      Build a geometric network for streams and rivers;

n      Apply the Arc Hydro data model to a set of streams, watersheds, water bodies, monitoring points and time series of information measured at those points;

n      Analyze a digital elevation model of land surface terrain to derive watersheds and stream networks;

n      Develop a workflow model in ArcGIS ModelBuilder;

n      Apply a workflow model of nonpoint source pollution;

Besides these six course exercises, you will learn about:

n      sources of geospatial data on the internet

n      3D representation in ArcGIS and ArcScene

n      ArcGIS Geostatistical analyst

n      Georeferencing aerial photographs on base map images

n      Using remotely sensed information in GIS

 

Course Web Sites

 

There are two web sites maintained for this course at the University of Texas.   The public web site is http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2005/giswr2005.htm which contains the course outline, powerpoint presentations and class exercises for the course.   A private web site accessible only to students registered in the course is maintained at http://utwired.engr.utexas.edu/cms/index.cfm using the Blackboard web information system.   This site contains an archive of the video of each class.   A parallel course is held at Utah State University under the direction of Dr David Tarboton, whose students receive a video presentation of the lecture presented here at UT Austin.    Dr Tarboton will present a set of lectures in this course on spatial and terrain analysis using grids in which he is an expert.  The Utah State University website for this course is http://www.engineering.usu.edu/dtarb/giswr/2005.

 

Method of Instruction
The course has six elements: lectures, assigned reading materials, homework exercises, a term paper, class interaction, and examinations. All students will have a web page where they will post their term paper proposal and final term paper. Part of the final examination will involve synthesis of the term papers presented in the class to provide an assessment of the state of knowledge in particular subject areas. The course material is divided into modules with each module having one or two lectures and a homework exercise involving extensive use of GIS software.

 

Method of Evaluation

Course grades will be based on a weighted average of results as follows:

Homework  20%

Term Project Written Report  30%

Term Project Oral Presentation  10%

Midterm Exam  20%

Final Exam  20%

 

Letter grades will be assigned as follows:

 

A = 90-100%

B = 80-90%

C = 70-80%

D = 60-70%

F < 60%

 

There will be no make-up exams or incomplete grades in this course. I reserve the right to change the date of a quiz with notice in advance.


Course/Instructor Evaluation Plan

Course/Instructor evaluation forms will be distributed during one of the final two lecture periods. A student from the class will be asked to distribute and collect the evaluation forms, and to return them to the Department of Civil Engineering office on the 4th floor of ECJ. I also encourage students to speak to me during the semester, and am open to suggestions relating to the course.

 

Students with Disabilities

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate adjustments for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, or 471-4241 TDD

 



Term Project

The purposes of the term project are:

 

1.      To enable you to explore in-depth some aspect of the subject of personal interest to you and to develop experience in the use of GIS technology to solve that problem.

2.      To provide experience in the formulation, execution and presentation of original research, including the proper documentation of a GIS project.

3.      To make an oral presentation and produce a report in html on the world wide web that will be informative to you and to your classmates.

 

The steps in carrying out the project are:

 

1.      If you don't already have a personal web page, establish one at the Civil Engineering Learning Resource Center.

2.      Prepare a 1-page proposal in html on your website by Thurs Sept 29 specifying the objective of your project and outlining how you plan to go about executing it. Notify the instructor by email that your proposal is available and you will receive a response by email containing an assessment of the scope of work that you propose. After making any revisions in your proposal that seem necessary in the light of this assessment, this proposal defines the scope of your term project.

3.      Present a report orally in class and have a progress report presented on your web page by Thurs Oct 27. You are expected to make some progress by mid-semester but the main effort on your term project in the later part of the course once you've learned more about the methods in the course.

4.      Present a final report orally in class near the end of the semester (you will have  10 -12 minutes for your presentation) and present your term paper in html on your web page by the last day of classes (Dec 9). It is critical that you post your paper by this date because your classmates may need to read your paper in order to complete their final exam.

 

If you would like to work in a group to pursue a term project, that is fine, but you must carry out a particular section of the project on which you will present your oral and written report.

 

A term paper library is available showing the reports from more than 150 term papers done by students in this course from Spring 1997 to Fall 20032004. See: http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2005/docs/termpaperlibrary.htm

See:   http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2004/docs/termpaper.htm


Course Computer Environment

This course uses the ArcGIS version 9.1 software available in the Civil Engineering Learning Resource Center. The Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions of ArcGIS will also be used in the course. These programs run under the Windows NT operating system. You may want to get a magnetic card so that you can enter the LRC in the evenings or weekends. If you have access to the software elsewhere, you can do the computer assignments at that location. If you work at the LRC, you'll be assigned a standard amount of disk space for your personal use. You should plan to back up your work on a zip drive to avoid complications from lack of disk space in your personal area.

Course Readings

The readings for this course will be taken from: "Arc Hydro: GIS for Water Resources” Ed by David R. Maidment, published by ESRI Press, 2002,  $59.95  ISBN 1-58948-034-1, see  http://gis.esri.com/esripress/display/index.cfm   A recommended reference for further information is: "Modeling Our World", by M. Zeiler, ESRI Press, 1999, ISBN 1-879102-62-5 206 pages $29.95, see http://gis.esri.com/esripress/display/index.cfm      

 

Course Outline

 

Class Number

Day and Date

Subject

1

Thurs Sep 1

Introduction to GIS in Water Resources

2

Tues Sep 6

Introduction to ArcGIS

3

Thurs Sept 8

Exercise 1: Creating a map with ArcGIS

4

Tues Sept 13

Geodesy, map projections and coordinate systems

5

Thurs Sept 15

Exercise 2: Building a base map of the Guadalupe basin

6

Tues Sept 20

Spatial analysis using grids  (David Tarboton)

7

Thurs Sept 22

Exercise 3:  Spatial analysis in hydrology (David Tarboton)

8

Tues Sept 27

GIS data sources for water resources

9

Thurs Sept 29

Network analysis and Arc Hydro framework

Term Project Proposals Posted on your Web Site

10

Tues Oct 4

Exercise 4: Working with Networks and Arc Hydro

11

Thurs Oct 6

Terrain analysis using grids (David Tarboton)

12

Tues Oct 11

Exercise 5:  Watershed and Stream Network Delineation Exercise.  (David Tarboton)

13

Thurs Oct 13

Advanced terrain analysis concepts (David Tarboton)

14

Tues Oct 18

Review

15

Thurs Oct 20

Midterm Exam

16

Tues Oct 25

Model Builder

17

Thurs Oct 27

Exercise 6:  Nonpoint source pollution modeling

18

Tues Nov 1

Reports on Progress with Term Papers

19

Thurs Nov 3

Geostatistical analysis

20

Tues Nov 8

3D Objects, ArcScene and Groundwater

21

Thurs Nov 10

Georeferencing aerial photographs on base maps

22

Tues Nov 15

Time and Space in ArcGIS

23

Thurs Nov 17

Remote Sensing

24

Tues Nov 22

Presentation of Term Papers

 

 

Thanksgiving!!

25

Tues Nov 29

Presentation of Term Papers

26

Thurs Dec 1

Presentation of Term Papers

27

Tues Dec 6

Presentation of Term Papers

28

Thurs Dec 8

Presentation of Term Papers

Course evaluation, discussion of final exam