INTEGRATED GIS-BASED WATER RESOURCES INFORMATION AND
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
Yi Zhang1, Wei Zeng2 and Menghong Wen3
1,3
AUTHOR: Principal Environmental Engineer, 2 Unit Manager, Hydrology Unit, Environmental Protection Division, Georgia Department of
Natural Resources, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE, Suite 1058 East Floyd Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30334.
REFERENCE: Proceedings of 2009 Georgia Water Resources Conference, held April 27–29, 2009, at The University of Georgia
Abstract. This article presents a framework of an
integrated GIS-based water resources information and
assessment system and its partial implementation. This
tool uses ArcGIS as the platform, and Arc Hydro as a
database which will hold basin hydrologic data, reservoir
information, water withdrawal and return data, and
meteorological data. The tool will integrate a basin water
use and assessment screening tool to identify current and
future water resources stressed areas, and their extent
using various indices. A river basin analysis model is
integrated into the system to assess water availability, and
its reliability under current and future water consumptive
use within sub-basins; and analyze various alternatives to
meet current and future water consumptive uses as a
planning purpose.
INTRODUCTION
A multi-year record drought in southeast of US during
last two years has caused continuous and intensive
concern on water resources availability for consumptive
use, and environmental and ecological requirements
among the states of Florida, Alabama and Georgia. As a
result, this historical record drought has also forced US
Corps of Engineers to implement Exceptional Drought
Operation (EDO) for federal reservoirs in Apalachicola-
Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) basin and Apalachicola-Coosa-
Flint (ACF) basins. It has also triggered level 4 (highest)
drought management plan of Georgia, and the equivalent
in other states.
The situation has pushed Georgia to re-evaluate its
water resources availability, and called for a
Comprehensive State-wide Water Management Plan,
which was passed by state legislation in January, 2008.
The purpose of this plan is to guide Georgia in managing
water resources in a sustainable manner to support the
state’s economy, to protect public health and natural
systems, and to enhance the quality of life for all citizens.
To complete this water plan, we need to assess the
availability of Georgia’s water resources given current and
future consumptive uses, i.e., determining the amount of
water that can be consumed from the state’s major rivers
and lakes without causing unacceptable negative impacts.
This analysis is called consumptive use assessment
(CUA).
When conducting CUA, water managers need to
decide 1) what is the natural flow regime for rivers
without the impact of human-induced influencing factors
such as operational features of flow control structures,
water withdrawals and returns, and others; 2) what
minimum flows are required to meet basin-wide
environmental and ecological flow need; 3) can current
water resources meet the current and future consumptive
usage as well as the environmental and ecological flow
requirement at each sub-basin without impacting the share
of other sub-basins and, if not, 4) what sub-basin and
basin-wide development and management practices are
needed to meet the current or future consumptive uses, as
well as the environmental and ecological flow
requirements.
It is not an easy task to answer all above questions.
Actually, to find right answers to those questions needs a
state-of-the-art approach, and comprehensive tool.
THE STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
First, to develop a state-of-the-art system for solving
Georgia’s water problems, we need a complete and
uniform data base system, including all water resources
information. In our current system, barriers to maintain
water information are as follows: 1) water information are
often contained in many different systems, such as access
data base and Excel spreadsheet; 2) there is often conflict
information about the same water information, third, some
water information is never formally recorded; 3) there is
no consensus on data quality.
The impact of these problems may include: 1)
maintaining conflicting information in multiple places; 2)
difficulty accessing and sharing information; 3)
uninformed decision-making; 3) hard-to meet regulatory
requirements and 4) increased costs-labor, systems, and
workflows.
Second, it is ideal to integrate information system and
analysis tools into one uniform system in an industrial
standard format. Therefore, it is more convenient for
information deliver and analysis.
 Finally, since water resources systems have spatial and
time-series characteristics, a developed system should
have capability to analyze and display both spatial and
time-series information. While there are some tools that
can handle some aspects of above functions, few can meet
all functionality.

PROPOSED WATER RESOURCES INFORMATION

AND ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

GIS has been known for its powerful spatial analysis,

and map display capability combined with smart geo-
reference database. By integrating ArcHydro database into
ArcGIS, it can also conveniently handle time-series data
of water resources, which is a characteristic of water data.
Using a GIS platform and approach, one can have a
comprehensive system integrating water resources
information, spatial and time-series analysis, water
resources assessment, and planning functionality; as well
as straightforward results and map display. Although the
system is comprehensive, it is also easy to use due to its
powerful functionality and good design. Through this
process, we can ensure data integrity and accuracy. It can
also integrate with other water resources systems within
standard workflow. With intelligent database and simple
workflows, one can access to many data sources and share
information with other systems. It is a system that is
interoperable using industry standards and workflow-
driven, such as standardizing process, incorporating GIS
and non-GIS activities, introducing best practices, and
built-in QA/QC procedures.
In sum, we have a complete solution for managing our
water information, eliminating duplicate efforts, ensuring
accurate information, and enabling coordinated decision
making within your workflows.
Schematic of the Proposed System
A complete schematic diagram of the integrated GIS-
based water resources information and assessment system
is shown as Fig. 1. The system consists of following
components: (1) ArcHydro database as the core of water
information system which holds water resources datasets
including observed flows at USGS gage stations,
unimpaired flows, water withdrawal and return,
meterological data, reservoir related data and geographic
data; (2) consumptive use stress analysis and screening
tool; (3) water resources statistic analysis tool; (4)
consumptive use and water planning tool; and (5) ArcGIS
platform and interface.
Figure 1. Schematic of Integrated GIS-based Water
Resources Information and Assessment System
Detailed Description of the System
(1) Arc Hydro database: it is specially designed
database model by ESRI for Water Resources and has
focused on surface water. Specifically, the Arc Hydro
Data Model can be defined as a geographic database
containing GIS representation of a Hydrological
Information System under a case-specific database design
which is extensible, flexible, and adaptable to the user
requirements. It takes advantage of the next generation of
spatial data in Relational Database Management Systems
(An RDBMS-based GIS System), the geodatabase model.
Conceptually, it is a combination of GIS objects enhanced
with the capabilities of a relational database to allow for
relationships, topologies, and geometric networks.[1 ]
Since water resources data is often time-series data,
Arc Hydro was also designed to handle this type of data.
By directly connecting to USGS server, it can access real-
time water data and update gage flow information on real-
time basis. Databases can also hold historical
consumptive use, withdrawal and return data, as well as
future withdrawal and return prediction in sub-basin and
river reaches. It also includes agriculture use data such as
irrigation acreage and application rate, etc. Unimpaired
flow will also input into database as the basis for analysis
and calculation. Database also includes reservoir data
such as historical inflow, outflow, elevation, elevation-
storage elevation, and evaporation. Meterological data
may also be included for hydrological modeling purpose.
Database may also include some other geographic (1) how much water is available for consumptive use at
information. an individual sub-basin without impacting the ability to
meet downstream environmental and ecological flow
(2) Consumptive use stress analysis and screening reserve requirements? And (2) what sub-basin and basin
tool: a water manager often want to know what are the wide development options and management practices
stressed areas or sub-basins based on the current or future can be potentially used to meet future consumptive
consumptive water use and available flow in the river; uses? The planning approach such as one developed by
how the situation will change if withdrawal and return GWRI can be integrated to this system for this
change; and what is impact of this change to other sub- purpose.[2]
basins? This tool will answer these questions. By doing
this analysis, a water manager can have a whole picture of
basin-wide consumptive use assessment, and identify the
most stressed sub-basins.
Various specific values can be used as indices for this
analysis for each sub-basin. These values may be
minimum flow, 7Q10 (Seven-day, consecutive low flow
with a ten year return frequency) at outlet of sub-basin,
withdrawal, return, consumptive water use, and ratio of
min flow (or 7Q10) to consumptive use, etc. for each sub-
basin. Then, based on these index values, one can display
results and range on the map using different colors.
Figure 2 shows values of Municipal and industrial
(M&I) withdrawal in upper Ocmulgee basin using circles
in different colors for each sub-basin. Blue color
represents the smallest range of M&I withdrawal, and red
color represents the largest M&I withdrawal. From this
figure, we can see that there is less M&I withdrawal in the
upper basin and more withdrawal in the lower basin.
Figure 3 shows the ratio of M&I withdrawal to minimum
flow. This ratio considers both water use and water
availability. Larger ratio means relative larger withdrawal
but smaller flow in a sub-basin, therefore more stressed
water use area. Similarly, blue color represents the
smallest range of ratio and red color represents the largest
ratio in the figure. This figure and index also show water
use and availability stressed area in lower basin with un-
stressed area in the upper basin.

(3) Water resources statistic analysis tool: this tool Figure 2. Upper Ocmulgee M&I withdrawal
will calculate statistics of flow regime in rivers, which
may include, but not limited to, minimum, maximum, and
average value of observed and unimpaired flow, 7Q10 (5) ArcGIS platform and interface: The system uses
flow, and other percentage of flows etc. This allow a ArcGIS as platform and interface with customized
water manager to have an idea about flow characteristics functions. It combines Arc Hydro database, geo-reference
and potential water availability in a river or stream. These database, its spatial analysis functions and above analysis
statistics are also the input for consumptive use stress tools together. Customized interface retrieves data from
analysis, screening tool, consumptive use assessment and Arc Hydro database for use of spatial analysis functions
planning tool. and developed analysis tools. The results are saved back to
database for post-analysis and display.
(4) Consumptive use and water planning tool: This
tool will evaluate water availability for consumptive use
while protecting environmental and ecological required
flow under current and future consumptive use condition
for each sub-basin, and evaluate different development
and management options. In particular, it will determine:

Figure 3. Upper Ocmulgee M&I withdrawal and
Minimum flow ratio.
SUMMARY
This paper proposed an approach which uses GIS as a
platform, and Arc Hydro as database combined with water
resources assessment and analysis tools for a complete
solution of integrated water information, water use
assessment and basin-wide planning. Using this approach,
we can have one comprehensive system integrating water
resources information, spatial and time-series analysis,
water resources assessment and planning functionality, as
well as straightforward result and map display. Through
this process, we can ensure data integrity and accuracy,
integrating with other water resources systems within
standard workflow. With intelligent database, one can
access to many data sources and share information with
other systems.
In sum, through proposed approach, one can obtain a
complete solution for managing water resources systems
by eliminating duplicate efforts, ensuring accurate
information, integrating consumptive use assessment and
planning tools, and enabling coordinated decision-making
within the same workflows, therefore, providing a
powerful and efficient decision support tool for decision
makers.
LITERATURE CITED
Maidment, David R 2002, Arc Hydro: GIS for Water
Resources, 2002.
Kistenmacher, M. Yu, K., Yao, H. Georgakakos, 2008,
River Basin Planning Tool.