Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
GIS: A Useful Tool in UrbanWater Management
Indranil Seth
Abstract The chapter talks about the role of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) in the development of urban water management. Use of spatial data in
electronic format has replaced the old process of studying hard copy maps and
other documents to gather information to solve urban water issues. The chapter
introduces GIS, GIS data and GIS operations to the reader and then goes on to talk
about the role of GIS in urban water management. GIS can analyze the spatial data
itself or preprocess it as input data for urban water management models. The
chapter talks about how GIS can be integrated with urban water management
models and also how other tools can play a role in this system to enhance urban
water management decisions. The integration of GIS and the urban water manage-
ment models is very productive though it has some challenges of its own.
Keywords GIS Urban water management Spatial data Model Hydrology
1.1
Introduction
Today Geographic Information Systems (GIS) draw immense interest from
researchers and engineers alike who are practicing their profession in the field of
urban water management. Though GIS has been around since the 1960s (Tsihrintzis
et al.
1996
) it is only with the emergence of personal computers in the 1970s that it
has found widespread use (Seth et al.
2006
). Sometimes GIS is referred by users as
merely a tool but there is ample historic precedent showing that a tool can stimulate
science, and provoke new ways of thinking about problems (Goodchild
1995
).
One of many areas where GIS has made significant contributions is in the field
