GIS in Water Resources Review for Midterm Exam Fall 2011

The material is classified according to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

Level Title Meaning

1 Knowledge Definitions, facts, formulas

2 Comprehension Explanation of definitions, formulas, problem solving procedures

3 Application Know how to use a formula or procedure to solve simple problems

4 Analysis Break down a complex problem and solve by steps

5 Synthesis Derivation of basic formulas, design of new systems

6 Evaluation Advantages and limitations of alternative approaches

Session Topic Level

1 Introduction to GIS in Water Resources 2

2 Introduction to ArcGIS software 2

3 Exercise 1: Introduction to ArcGIS 3

4 Data sources for GIS in water resources 2

5 Exercise 2: Building a Base Map for the San Marcos Basin 3

6 Geodesy, Map Projections and Coordinate Systems 4

7 Spatial analysis using grids 4

8 Exercise 3: Spatial analysis 5

9 DEM’s, watershed and stream network delineation 4

10 Exercise 4: Watershed and stream network delineation 5

11 Ex4 Continued, Hydro Networks 2

12 Hydro Networks and their applications 2

Expected Skills

· Convert degree, minute, second coordinates to decimal degrees, and vice versa

• Determine the length of a line along a meridian, parallel or great circle on a spherical earth.
• Determine the length of a line when using projected coordinates.
• Sketch on a map the standard parallels, central meridian, and latitude of origin for a given projection (the coordinates of origin, what earth datum, what projection)
• Determine the statistics (e.g. average value or sum) of an attribute of a selected set of features satisfying a logical query
• Be able to take the parameters of a map projection and interpret what they mean (focus on geographic, UTM, Albers and State Plane projections)
• Know the common national data sources for GIS in Water Resources and their GIS data formats (vector, raster, point, line, polygon etc.)
• Be able to perform raster calculations for spatial analysis and understand the concepts involved with raster calculation
• Be able to calculate slope on a DEM by point to point methods and by finite difference methods
• Take a small grid of elevation cells and calculate the flow direction and flow accumulation grids
• Define the watershed of a cell in a DEM grid
• Derive Geomorphologic and Watershed attributes from a DEM derived drainage network. These include, channel length, drainage area, and drainage density.
• Be able to use interpolation tools to obtain spatial fields from point data and explain the function and interpret the output of these tools.
• Be able to use zonal statistics tools to obtain averages of spatial fields such as precipitation and slope over watersheds and catchments. Explain the function and interpret the output from these tools.
• Be able to analyze spatial aspects of the water balance (precipitation, streamflow, and runoff ratios) to develop a spatial understanding of the hydrologic flows in a river basin

Readings from ArcGIS Desktop Help for Version 10

(1) Georeferencing and Coordinate Systems (Level 3) http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00v20000000q000000.htm

(2) Map Projections http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/What_are_map_projections/003r00000001000000/ ) (Level 4)

(3) Geographic information Elements: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/00v2/00v200000003000000.htm up to "Example: Representing surfaces" (Level 2)

(4) Raster Data http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/009t/009t00000002000000.htm Raster and Images, starting from "What is raster data" to end of "Raster dataset attribute tables" in "Fundamentals of raster data" (Level 3)

(5) Slope http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2011/docs/Slope.pdf . (Level 4)

(6) Hydrology tools (Level 5) http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/009z/009z0000004w000000.htm to end of Hydrologic analysis sample applications in the Hydrology toolset concepts

(7) Geometric Networks (Level 2) http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/What_are_geometric_networks/002r00000001000000/

(8) Linear Referencing (Level 2) http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/What_is_linear_referencing/003900000001000000/