Lynn E. Johnson Geographic Information Systems in Water Resources Engineering

A meticulously researched book, the author introduces readers to geographic information systems (GIS) and their application to water hydrology, "the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water to meet the needs of human societies and the natural environment" (p. 3). A comprehensive coverage of water resource systems and the use of GIS to understand "water resources engineering, planning, and design" (p. 1), this book informs professionals and laymen on those topics. By explaining the structure and components of GIS, its databases and representative and analytical operations, and modeling capabilities, the reader examines the interface between the two. Specific areas of study include groundwater, urban water and irrigation systems, urban waste water and storm water, flood plain modeling, water quality measurement, water monitoring and forecasting, and river basin management.

Johnson listed the utilization of GIS in a river basin:

• Defining the water shed and its hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics so that models of rainfall-runoff processes can be applied to examine the impacts of land-use changes
• Mapping land-use and population demographics in support of water and wastewater demand estimation procedures
• Interpolating groundwater contaminant concentrations given sampled data at observation wells spaced throughout an aquifer, or estimating snowpack amounts at ungauged locations based on data obtained at gauged locations guided by factors of elevation and exposure
• Managing public infrastructure, such as scheduling maintenance on a sewage collection system, notifying residents of water-pipe rehabilitation work, or identifying areas of potential low pressure during fire-response planning scenarios
• Finding the coincidence of factors, such as erosion-prone areas having a certain combination of soil type, land cover, and slop
• Monitoring the occurrences and intensities of severe thunderstorms and providing tools for warning threatened populations of impending hazardous flood conditions
• Providing the logical network structure for coordinating simulation models that schedule the interactions between basin water supplies, reservoirs, diversions, and demands (p. 7)

Johnson identified the components of a decision support system as GIS databases and simulation models of waste and storm water systems. The technical aspects of a GIS application, such as ArcGIS or MicroStation, with a relational database from Oracle or Microsoft's Access, and evaluation tools. Some software firms have integrated functionality, which accommodate diverse users--gas, electric, water, and stormwater--using a single application. ArcFM, of Telvent Miner & Miner, CityWorks, of Azteca Systems, GeoMedia (r) Public Works Manager, of Intergraph, Hansen, of Hansen Information Technologies, Municipal Infrastructure Management Systems (MIMS), of Oracle Corporation, and Real-Time Infrastructure Valuation Analysis, of Bentley Systems represent some systems available.

Johnson, L. E. (2008). Geographic Information Systems in Water Resources Engineering.Atlanta, GA: CRC Press.