Arc Hydro

The book

I have "Arc Hydro, GIS for Water Resources" dated 2002 edited by David R. Maidment. It is for surface water.

Now there's a newer book "Arc Hydro for Ground Water", 2011 but I don't have that one. Aquifers, wells, and subsurface water.

Where to get the software

The book came with a CDROM but it's old. Instead of even looking at it, download the correct version of Arc Hydro for your version of ArcGIS Desktop from http://downloads.esri.com/archydro/archydro/

Do I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version? I installed 64-bit "Background Geoprocessing" so I am trying 64-bit first.

How to

• Watershed basin delineation with LiDAR
• Precipitation and runoff
• Water rights
• Linear referencing

Water budget

Some guy in 1600's did a paper that said amount of water flowing into the sea was about the same as the rainfall. (Citation needed.) How did he get the numbers? I figure it must have been a pretty rough estimate.

Can I use modern tools to do my own estimate?

Given that

1. Input: a watershed basin contains the rainfall.
2. Output: river(s) are the outflow.

Input:

1. Find the area of the watershed.
2. Find the annual rainfall for the area.

Output:

1. Find the flow rates and volumes
2. Calculate total volume

The process

1. Pick an area. I need good data. GIS + USGS stream data.
2. Build a model.
3. Run the model.
4. Look at results
5. Refine the model.
6. Go to 3

Resources

ESRI Hydrology community page http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/hydro/

Arc Hydro for Ground Water wiki: http://archydrogw.com/Main_Page

GIS For Water Resources: http://www.esri.com/industries/water_resources/