ENCE 635 - Geographic Information Systems for Watershed Analysis

Fall Semester 2007

Dr. Glenn E. Moglen

Preliminary Information:

The course will stress GIS concepts as they apply to hydrologic analysis. The course will entail extensive programming, primarily in the ArcView scripting language (Avenue), but also some interfacing with FORTRAN. Basic proficiency on the computer is an expected prerequisite for this course.

There is no book required textbook for this course, but there are a set of class notes that you will need to purchase from the Engineering Copy Center (or a copy is available on-line below). It is assumed you already have good references for programming in FORTRAN.

There are some similarities between this course and my undergraduate course in GIS, ENCE 301. You may wish to look there for some estimate of the content of this course. This course has some overlap in content to ENCE 301, but faster paced, stresses GIS applications in Water Resources, and involves more significant programming skill.

This course will be taught using a blend of both ArcGIS 9.x (stressing the use of the standard GIS interface)and ArcView 3.x (stressing its ease for programming purposes). The emphasis, in any case, will be on GIS concepts rather than arbitrary software conventions.

Course Materials:

Course Syllabus Fall 2007
Course Notes: based on ArcView GIS software
Homework #1: Simple Database Manipulations with Census Demographic Data - Due: September 12

Homework #2: Preliminary Hydrologic Modeling with DEMs - Due: September 19

Suggested Reading:

Chapter on DEM Analysis from Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences: focus on pages 5-8
UT Web Grid Calculator: An alternative tool for solving flow directions and flow accumulation

Relevant ArcGIS Help:

Homework #3: Hydrologic Interpretation of a DEM - Due: October 1

USGS: The National Map: Seamless Data Distribution Server - Elevation, Land Use, Ortho-imagery, and more

Homework #4: Watersheds, Flow Paths, and Scripting - Due: October 10

Suggested Reading:

Watersheds in GIS: pages 66-70
Travel Lengths, Travel Times, and Hydrographs: pages 71-74
Writing, Compiling, and Running Scripts in ArcView: pages 87-92

Scripts from October 3 lecture:

Script from October 8 lecture

Homework #5: Tables and Derived Grids - Due: October 22

andlookup.txt: Curve Number lookup table for Homework #5
kenslustpm.asc: Land Use for Homework #5
kenssoilstpm.asc: Hydrologic Soil Groups for Homework #5
Script from October 15 class
First Script from October 17 class
Second Script from October 17 class
Instructor Solution Script (using loop structure)

Homework #6: Developing a Plan for GIS-Based Low Flow Modeling - Due: October 29
Homework #7: GIS Scripts for Low-Flow Modeling in the Piedmont Subregions of Maryland - Due: November 12

Script from October 29 lecture
Scripts from October 31 lecture

Homework #8: GIS Scripts for Low-Flow Modeling in the Eastern Shore and Western Subregions of Maryland - Due: November 28
Homework #9: GIS Scripts for Low-Flow Modeling in the Southern Subregion of Maryland - Due: December 14

Shapefile of Southern Region Gages: mdsoutherngagesstpm

Scripts from December 3 lecture

Master Script (note: script is incomplete)
Calc_Angle Slave Script (note: script is incomplete)

Scripts from December 5 lecture

Calc_Angle Slave Script (note: now complete)
Calculate Polygon Centroid Coordinates Script (note: needs to be converted to slave script structure)

Scripts from December 10 lecture

Semester Question Materials:

Selected pages: "Low-flow characteristics of streams in Maryland and Delaware" (Carpenter and Hayes, 1996)
USGS Publications Warehouse entry for Carpenter and Hayes (1996): View entire report as ".DJVU" file
USGS Publication: "Preliminary Lithogeochemical Map Showing Near-Surface Rock Types in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Virginia and Maryland"
PRISM Climate Data - Mean Annual Precipitation
Relevant GIS Data:

Shapefile of Maryland Low Flow Regions: mdlowflowregions

Shapefile of Southern Region Gages: mdsoutherngagesstpm

Help Files and Sample Source Code:

Links to Other Useful Web Pages:

Useful GIS Data Links
USGS: GeoData Webpage - DEMs and other spatial data
USGS: The National Map: Seamless Data Distribution Server - Elevation, Land Use, Ortho-imagery, and more
Guide to On-line Geospatial Data - Many useful links
ESRI Web Site - Access to Information about Arc GIS products/data/support
ESRI Link to Census/TIGER data - Access to TIGER Datasets (e.g. Census Demographics, Road networks)

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Click here to E-mail your comments. by Glenn Moglen Last Modified December 10, 2007