Arc Hydro in Florida: Core Principles and Collaboration Meeting Notes
November 4, 2004, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Organized by Wendy Graham, Alan Foley and David Maidment
Sponsored by
Progress Energy (through the UF Water Institute) and
Jones Edmunds and Associates
Morning Presentations
“Overview of Arc Hydro Concepts”
Dean Djokic, ESRI
 Culmination of a three year process led by D.R. Maidment through GIS in
Water Resources Consortium
 ArcHydro is simply a starting point for enterprise hydrologic geodatabases
 It integrates data inventory and a water behavioral model
 The ArcHydro geodatabases can capture drainage, flow network,
hydrography, channel descriptions and time series data.
 HydroID is the internal unique ID (never touch it); HydroCode is the public
identifier.
 The tools of ArcHydro can delineate watersheds based on DEM, generate
a hydro network, do network tracing, and summarize.
 ArcHydro is free if you have ArcGIS; at www.crwr.utexas.edu/giswr/hydro
 New tool in latest release – Terrain Morphology
 ArcHydro II will include groundwater, time series improvements, updated
“Blue Book” and a new training course “Advanced ArcHydro”
 Training course to be available in Feb; other training sessions will be
planned for 2006.
 Can be added to a data models user group list, and sent notifications
about webcasts, training, publications: http:/support.esri.com/datamodels
 See the hydro data models information
http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.dataModels.filteredGatew
ay&dmid=15
“Arc Hydro in Florida: SFWMD Arc Hydro Developments”
Lakin Flowers and Jim Cameron, SFWMD
 MAJOR IT initiative to implement ArcHydro, with full-blown project
management.
 Processes must be put around an ArcHydro enterprise implementation.
 Major involvement by consultant.
 Created ArcHydro Enhanced Database (AHED)
o Multiple inflows/outflows to a given water feature
o Added structures (weirs) and canal segments
 Prototype-to-Pilot-to-Production methodology
 Project currently in the pilot phase
 Use Project Management Institute (PMI) principles
 ArcHydro Implementation = 4 interdependent work streams
o Implementation of Pilot (Jan – Dec ’05)
o Data preparation (Jun ’05 – Apr ’07)
o Maintain alignment with Project Level Tasks
o Enterprise Implementation ( Jan ’06 – Aug ’07)
 Over two year timeline to achieve production “go live”
 Work intake process (prioritizes work requested from IT group)
 Form Arc Hydro governance teams:
o AHED Steering Committee,
o AHED Assessment Team
“SJRWMD Arc Hydro: Developments and Applications”
Sandra Fox, SJRWMD, Surface Water Quality Monitoring program
 Delineated all “watersheds” for entire District – for 73 Surface Water
Quality Monitoring (SWQM) sites (Catchments, sinks, edges, junctions,
monitoring points, outlets, waterbodies, tidal null points)
 Created “Spatial Data Summary Tool”
o Handy summary tool to create “Watershed Fact Pages” suitable for
public dissemination (water quality, land use etc)
o Summaries will be on public web site Spring 2006
o 1.5 year initial implementation timeline
o 100K NHDinArc as initial source data, replacing with 24K NHD
 ArcHydro is an ITERATIVE PROCESS; Aug ’03 to May ’05 to develop
current SWQM version.
 Currently doing QA/QC and editing on 24K NHDinGEO
 Working on groundwater model
 Other custom tools developed
o OneRain - NexRad Data Access Tool
o Environmental Data Access Tool
 Currently used by Surfac Water Quality Monitoring – but “If you build it,
they will come” - hoping to get more users from other disciplines.
“Arc Hydro for the Watershed Management Program at the Southwest
Florida Water Management District”
Diana Burdick, SWFWMD
 Guidelines and Specifications for the establishment of standardized
procedures for the Watershed Management Program and GIS database
for storing/maintaining data.
 Timeline
o Sept 02-Mar 03 Internal requirements analysis
o Feb 05 Began testing on small watersheds
o Current: identification of workflow, revise database design
 Critical tools:
o Manage HydroID
o GeoRAS import/export
o Import of ONERAIN data (15 min data since 1993)
o Internally drained connectivity
Gordon McClung, SWFWMD
 Coordinating with ESRI for terrain data in geodatabases (LiDAR – 0.5 to
1.5 M points per sq. mile)
 Currently terrain is coverage and TIN (5 ft cell grids)
 Cooperative funding program to work with local governments
 Watershed/Water resources
o flooding
o WQ
o natural systems
o water supply (mini water wars)
“ArcHydro: Review in Florida”
David Maidment, UT, “Father of ArcHydro”
 SJRWMD – Sandra Fox – The only WMD with entire area already in
ArcHydro. Focused on vector hydrography.
 SWFWMD – Diana Burdick – Standards for data acquisition; created a
formal manual for GIS data acquisition and linking to hydro models. Tools
for raster terrain analysis and for dealing with watersheds draining into
sinks. (nondendritic). FEMA floodplains. Raster.
 SFWMD – Not just layers, but interconnected systems. High quality lines
(lines are in centers of canals, junctions in right places, waterbodies
reshaped). They have clean and comprehensive data so now can build
systems. 1400 flow and stage gages to cover South Florida; entire USA
only has 7,000 total!
 Q: What are the requirements for a Florida-specific Toolbox?
o User requirements.
 Q: Can a state-wide ArcHydro model be created?
o Gave example of Rio Grande basin (larger area than Florida) in
Texas and Mexico which was successfully done. Largest ArcHydro
database that exists. 5M water data points.
o We can do a Florida Arc Hydro. Need to integrate federal, district,
county and city efforts.
 ArcHydro II
o 3D groundwater and river channel components integrated (Gil
Strassberg)
o Improved space-time integration.
o River channel morphology (Venkatesh Merewade)
 CUAHSI
o hydrol. data access tools. Common data access window (webenabled) to serve data from NWIS, STORET and NASA as if data
is on your own PC. NWIS is working now.
o Proposed CUAHSI data model much more detailed than ArcHydro
(see Ch. 6 of HIS update at
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/CUAHSI/HISStatusSept15
.pdf
 How should UF and collaborators build a hydrologic observatory for the
Suwannee River Basin?
o http://suwanneeho.ifas.ufl.edu/
 Other links:
o http://www.crwr.utexas.edu/giswr/
o http://www.cuahsi.org/
-----------------------------------------LUNCH--------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon breakout discussion sessions for “geek” and “nongeek” tracks.
Geek Discussion Group Notes (Appendix A)
Non-geek Discussion Group Notes (Appendix B)
Some Key Questions/Issues Mentioned at the beginning of the discussions:
1. How can academia help industry and management agencies through
better preparation of students?
2. How can districts support local government issues
3. how to design geodatabases for urban areas?
4. How to assist counties and cities with finer scale data; hydrology/hydralics
5. Tools and geodatabases design for Florida-wide system
6. Game Plan for Coordination
7. User requirements
Conclusions
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The group identified both management and technical issues that were
needed to enhance the usability of ArcHydro in Florida.
Both ESRI and Dr. Maidment's group will work to improve communications
with users.
The UF Water Institute was identified as a potential facilitator for building a
strong local user community.
The ArcHydro implementations shared were typically multi-year projects
with consultants heavily involved.
The group identified the need to establish a project charter
SJRWMD agreed to host a website with meeting results: presentations,
attendee list, and subsequent followup items.
Project Charter Coordination
that enables the following mission:
“Define the rules and standards to enable Florida government agencies to
establish a seamless environment for hydrologic and hydrographic data
that facilitates cross-agency inter-operations and convenient public access
to information.”
Candidate team members for the charter definition Specific team members would
comprise the Florida Inter-Agency Water Information Systems Coordination
Group:
Academia
Kathleen McKee
Wendy Graham
University of Florida
University of Florida
kamckee@ifas.ufl.edu
wgraham@ufl.edu
Jones Edmunds and
Ass.
PBS&J Consulting
afoley@jonesedmunds.com
Northwest Florida
WMD
St. John’s River WMD
St. John’s River WMD
St. John’s River WMD
South Florida WMD
South Florida WMD
Southwest Florida
WMD
Southwest Florida
WMD
Suwannee River WMD
john.crowe@nwfwmd.state.fl.us
Local Government
Diane Gijselaers
Gail Mowry
Shane Williams
Alachua County
Marion County
Marion County
dgijselaers@alachua.fl.us
gail.mowry@marioncountyfl.org
evan.williams@marioncountyfl.or
g
Cross-Florida Government
Paul Rooney
Mark Dietrich
FEMA
Florida DEP
Private Industry
Alan Foley
Jack Hampson
Water management Districts
John Crowe
Christine Mundy
Sandra Fox
Aisa Ceric
Jim Cameron
Lakin Flowers
Diana Burdick
Gordon McClung
Tom Mirti
jchampson@pbsj.com
cmundy@sjrwmd.com
sfox@sjrwmd.com
aceric@sjrwmd.com
jcameron@sfwmd.gov
lflowers@sfwmd.gov
diana.burdick@swfwmd.state.fl.u
s
gordon.mcclung@swfwmd.state.fl
.us
mirti_t@srwmd.state.fl.us
mark.dietrich@dep.state.fl.us
Next Steps
Each potential member of the charter development team needs to get approval
from their managers / organizations to participate on the effort. It is estimated
that charter development would require approximately 16 hours of effort (1/2 day
a week for 1 month), with the goal of completing a project charter by the end of
calendar year 2005. The project charter describes the scope of the project effort,
project goals and objectives (both quantitative and qualitative, key deliverables,
high-level resource and budget needs, and key assumptions and constraints.
Kathleen McKee (kamckee@ifas.ufl.edu) will serve as the information hub.
Chris Mundy (cmundy@sjrwmd.com) will serve information electronically.
Lakin Flowers (lflowers@sfwmd.gov) will act as an interim project coordinator.
Here are the short-term milestones identified by the group.
Item
Task
1. Distribute example project charter to coordination team.
2. Determine availability to participate on coordination
project team. Confirmation should be sent to Kathleen
McKee.
3. Create a listserv
4. Review example project charter
5. Establish 1st conference call for coordination group to
review project charter and determine next steps.
6. Determine availability of funding sources to acquire a
project facilitator.
7. Send meeting notes, documents to Chris Mundy
8. Investigate possibility of using the map Modernization
Facilitator
9. Post meeting notes, documents and listserv instructions
at
http://open.sjrwmd.com/archydro/index_opensource.html
Appendix A. Geek Discussion Group Notes

Variable fill threshold based on physiography/landuse polygons.
Assigned to
Lakin
Flowers
Candidate
coordination
team
members
Justin
Saarinen
Coordination
team
members
Lakin
Flowers
Gordon
McClung
Kathleen
McKee
Gordon
McClung
Chris Mundy
Due
Date
11.7.05
11.14.05
11.14.05
11.17.05
11.18.05
11.18.05
11.18.05
11.30.05
11.30.05
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Mask out known sinks – don’t fill.
ArcGIS 9.2 Terrain data structure will allow on-the-fly TIN pyramiding. This could be a
technique to help with LiDAR DEM noise smoothing. Dean indicated that their testing
had shown that using as little as 1% of LiDAR mass points still generates valid
catchments...
Tool for aggregating atomic catchments.
ArcHydro NextDownID tracing won’t work in “split flow” conditions. You CAN use a
geometric network to deal with this. (Set flow direction based on an attribute.)
Other users reported the same size limitations we ran into – where large grids had to be
subdivided, filled, then mosaiced back together. They recommended to then fill the
mosaiced DEM.
ESRI FTP site with most up-to-date ArcHydro documents and data:
o ftp.esri.com
o Username: RiverHydraulics
o Password: river.1114
Discussed generalization of stair stepping in final catchments.
o Consensus was this COULD be done with existing ArcGIS tools.
o Dean cautioned against using the generalized dataset for ANY further analysis.
All quantitative analysis should be against the unsmoothed polygons. A second
smoothed version could be produced strictly for presentation purposes.
Improved communication between users and developers and within the Florida user
community was given a high priority. List-serve to be set up.
Establishing mechanisms to deal with large data sets and data set integration was
identified as a priority. Example: how to combine two separately developed ArcHydro
databases so that HydroIDs stay unique.
Appendix B. Non-geek Discussion Group Notes
Page 1
Problems

Bottom up technically driven, need Top Down goal setting

Critical mass hasn’t gone critical

Good tool builders; “Build it and they will come”

Disconnect with decision makers at top. How does CEO see it?

Decision makers need different types of info. Management decision support system.
Page 2
IT/GIS origin vs. Engineering/Science origin
It’s in the strategic plan but needs funding
Marketing and education – focused on market
Use technology to do what is now being done better
Leverage FEMA map modernization
US/Mexico…
Repeat of GIS entry in the fire place (?)
- Pretty maps created buy-in
Paper-based vs. digitally based.
Page 3
Need for information to make decisions drives
Vision for Flroida – across districts, city, county
Strategic plan for FL needed.
No WMD collaborations on ArcHydro yet.
These issues don’t exist at SWFWMD
It needs at St. John’s driven by business units
DEP
Need a business model – how it meets needs
WQ needs, TMDL needs
Form a group to see what major parts
Managers go to national AWRA meeting
Page 4
Come Together quarterly as for Map Mod.
There are many organizations with different goals
Share lessons learned across Districts
3 different OneRain applications
Marion County (St. Johns & SWRMD)
We are here because…
WMDs are a hammer
Recognize need for this tools
Meeting of map modernization
- cohesion of databases
Page 5/6
Drivers
TMDL
FEMA
Permitting
Water supply
Flood Forecast
Land Development
GIS Workflow and Standards
SJRWMD Env. Sciences
Permitting get permit faster
Don’t need change what you are doing now at districts
Fact pages impress division director potential to communicate with public
Permitting eng – GIS not known
Permit is a dot on a map and don’t understand effect on resource
A few inches of H2O can have big impact on resource assessment
ERP rules vary from one district to another.
Lakin Flowers SFWMD
Assign a person from each WMD
Tangible reasons why this should be done
Don’t just walk away
GIS/Engineer
Page 7
NWFWMD
GIS and H&H
Ardaman and Assoc
Work for stakeholders
80/20 thing is complicated for us
Funding is “bottom up”
They have their own enhanced ArcHydro
Lots of enhancements
Protocols for ‘enhancement’
Marion County
TMDL, Eric Livingston
Gordon McClung
What ifs based on better science
Page 8
Suwannee
We want it to keep ‘lifestyle’
SWFWMD
Maint. Of data
Cooperative funding with local gov’t.
Jones Edmunds
Collaboration is discrimination
Work being done at all levels is leveraged
St. Johns/SWFWMD
Marion County
Ocala City
Mature to point of being stationary
Ardaman and Assoc
Greater effort since WMDs are not on same page
Page 9
DEP
24K is done
Monitoring sites indexed to reach codes
Leverageing GIS to increase productivity
Need supply of people from academia
PSB&J
Unique opportunity – 3 districts separate, time series
SRWMD
Work involvement by count and city gov’t.
Need for a coordinating group. Representatives, charact??
Water Management Information System “mimble??
Page 10
It’s all a matter of management
What is XML?
Understanding at different levels
Have a common language
Data flow – Can we get this generic thing consistently?
Time Series results
Hydroperiod
Event-based modeling
Page 11
Difficult to det down into needs everywhere
Low hanging fruit (common tools)
FEM map mod.
Nexrad OneRain
TMDL
Eat the elephant one bite at a time
Start working on something
Common, well defined ?? to link into tools.