GIS application in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering - - a PDH Online Course for Engineers and Surveyors

GIS application in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering

Course Description

Course C423 is a practical GIS course with particular reference to applications in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, addressing some of the basic, yet common GIS needs in these two fields. The course describes the availability of free databases and public domain GIS software, and their use in performing common GIS processing tasks that are relevant to Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. The ability to search, download and make use of such data sets and software is presented within the context of this course.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

Use basic GIS concepts practically in Water Resources and Environmental applications;
Create shapefiles from CAD files;
Familiarize oneself with free GIS data websites;
Download GIS data from the Internet and incorporate into GIS applications;
Use ArcInfo Interchange exchange files;
Familiarize oneself with freely available GIS software;
Use GIS to map water infrastructure;
Automate watershed area delineation with GIS;
Use GIS to perform watershed quality modeling;
Classify streams based upon its defined attributes;
Produce maps showing buffers, project site boundary and other boundaries that are within the buffer;
Prepare map layouts for projects; and
Appreciate GIS as it applies to Water Resources and Environmental Engineering applications.

Intended Audience

This course is ideally intended for GIS users with some basic introductory understanding of GIS.

Benefits for Attendees

Students taking this course will have a better appreciation of how GIS can be used in the context of Environmental Engineering and Water Resources. The course explains the important processing functions that GIS users are faced with as they develop their GIS applications in the Environmental and Water Resources area of specialization. Some common data sources and GIS software which are available freely, are identified that will make the application developer’s task easier. The workflows and steps required to perform the download and conversion of the data into types that can be used in the various GIS software are presented.

Course Introduction

The introductory sections of the course present basic GIS concepts. These include common GIS data types, shapefiles, GeoMedia, ArcInfo Interchange export format (E00), Mircostation and Autocad files, etc. The common processing functionalities are discussed, including the creation of, working with, and conversion between data types.

There is currently a wide variety of free GIS data, unknown to the average GIS user that can be accessed via the Internet. It will be shown how GIS files can be downloaded from such databases, file attributes reviewed, and simple tasks performed. For example, creating a buffer around a project site, and importing various GIS data such as municipal boundaries, waterbodies, floodplains, etc., into the buffer to perform simple analyses relevant to Water Resources and Environmental Engineering.

Apart from the freely accessed data, it is also possible to access free GIS software including ArcGIS Explorer, MapWindow, BASINS, etc.. The lectures will also discuss how much can be done with free software and which types of tasks require the commercial (and expensive) GIS software such as ArcGIS. The intent is to demonstrate to the average water resources or environmental engineering professional how much can be accomplished using free GIS software and databases.

One area that has been greatly facilitated by use of GIS is environmental permitting. In this field, GIS applications that are routinely needed and will be addressed in the lectures include:

Creating a shapefile of the project site from CAD files or vice versa.
Finding municipalities or counties located within a buffer of specified radius (100ft, half mile, 1 mile, etc) of the project site boundary.
Producing a map showing the buffer around project site boundaries and the municipalities with their individual boundaries located within the buffer.
Identifying streams and water bodies located within a specified radius of the project site.
Determining the classifications of water bodies within the site based upon their attributes such as Category One, trout production or trout maintenance waters, etc.
Determining the presence of potential environmental constraints within a site vicinity such as documented habitat for threatened and endangered species, acid producing soils, etc.
Use of GIS for mapping water infrastructural features such as stormwater outfalls, storm or sanitary sewer networks, detention ponds, and other stormwater management structures.

This course assumes that the student has some basic understanding about GIS and its data models. If you are not familiar with them, it is recommended that you study the content of PDHonline Courses L153, L154 and L155 prior to taking this course.

Course Content

The course contains following five individual modules:

Lecture 1 (PDF, 0.7 MB)
Lecture 2 (PDF, 0.6 MB)
Lecture 3 (PDF, 1.3 MB)
Lecture 4 (PDF, 1.4 MB)
Lecture 5 (PDF, 1.1 MB)

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

Maps and GIS Data
U.S. Geological Survey - Water Data Program
Water Resources of the United States
Free GIS data – GIS Data Depot
Geography Network

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.