Tag Archives: Rivers
SSN and STARS: Tools for Spatial Statistical Modeling on Stream Networks
By: Erin Peterson, Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Mathematics, Informatics & Statistics Jay Ver Hoef, Research Statistician, NOAA National Marine Mammal Laboratory Spatial Autocorrelation in Streams and Rivers: Tobler’s first law of geography states that, ‘‘Everything is related to everything else, … Continue reading
Arc Hydro Tools for 10.1 BETA now available!
by Caitlin Scopel, Cartographic Product Engineer, Esri
The Beta 
version of Arc Hydro tools for ArcGIS 10.1are now available. To download the tools (32MB) Continue reading
Hydro Basemap Gone GLOBAL
by Caitlin Scopel, Cartographic Product Engineer, Esri
The Hydro Basemap is now the WORLD Hydro Basemap. The World Hydro Basemap uses the same design as its predecessor, but extends the coverage to the World at scales of 1:147 million to 1:2.3 million. The World Hydro Basemap includes the map tiles from the original Hydro Basemap, providing coverage of the United States down to the 1:18,000 scale.
The World Hydro Basemap is comprised of two map service layers: the World Terrain Base, and the World Hydro Reference Overlay. The World Terrain Base provides the elevation context necessary to understand why the world’s surface water flows where it does.
The World Hydro Reference Overlay provides the streams, waterbodies, drainage areas, and cultural reference information necessary to make the World Hydro Basemap useful for scientists, professionals and researchers in the fields of Hydrology, Geography, Climate, Soils, and other natural sciences related to water.
Applying the Watershed Approach to Flood Control Activities
by Laurie Williams, Senior Planner/Watershed GIS, County of Marin, CA
The Department of Public Works of Marin County, CA (just north of San Francisco, CA) launched a watershed program to integrate flood protection, stream and wetland habitat restoration activities, fish passage, and water quality improvements. Instead of looking at flooding issues on a site by site basis, we solve flooding problems at a watershed scale, and employ solutions such as habitat restoration to reduce flood risks.
From the outset, we decided to base our stakeholder outreach, collection of scientific studies and technical reports, and dissemination of information from the Marin County Watershed Program website (http://www.marinwatersheds.org) in order to save paper resources, be more user-friendly, support community outreach and more efficiently advertise our updates than is possible with more traditional printed reports and documents.
Our website is the major repository of meeting notices, posted reports, and maps. Our website designer, Athena Design, chose a color palette to enhance and reflect the colors of nature: the blues of water, the greens of plants, and browns for earth tones; orange splashes complement the dominant blue. We use the palette extensively in producing the watershed maps, as well as for printed materials and PowerPoint presentations for a unified design.
Rapid Reconnaissance and Visualization of Time Series Hydrologic Data
by Stephen Brown, Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico
Hydrologic data analysis frequently begins with a tedious march through the gauntlet of national data repositories, downloading data gage-by-gage until you have acceptable coverage for your region. The march continues as you homogenize the gage data to match locally collected values in an attempt to identify trends or simply graph the values for comparison. A majority of research time may be spent simply conducting data discovery and management.
Incorporating a Hydrologic Information System into your workflow can save you time and increase analysis opportunities. The Consortium of Universities for Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) has developed an open source Hydrologic Information System (HIS) specifically to aid researchers with data discovery, analysis, and management.
