Geoscience Reference
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tight coupling (McKinney and Cai
2002
). According to Shamsi (
1998
), three forms
of information exchange can occur between ArcView and the Storm Water and
Wastewater Management Model (SWMM): interchange, interface, and integration
(listed in their order of complexity). GIS and the environmental models can be
integrated in the following three basic approaches (Fedra
1993
; Correia et al.
1999
).
In the first approach, the environmental models are built into GIS and the user has
an interactive access to the coupled system. In the second approach, there is a
common interface of the models and GIS with the user. Finally, in the third
approach there are two separate systems, the GIS and the model, that may inter-
change files.
Let us look at some of the literature that is available on the development of
the use of GIS in urban water models. Bellal et al. (
1996
), coupled GIS comprising
of DEMs and land use data to a hydrologic model to study partly urbanized basins.
Wong et al. (
1997
) showed how a landuse runoff model can be developed using
a GIS coupled with an empirical runoff model. The integration of GIS and
a nonpoint source (NPS) model allows managers to evaluate impacts of various
Best Management Practices (BMPs) with given hypothetical conditions (Wong
et al.
1997
). GIS can be used to study the effective scenarios of the BMPs depending
on each characteristic, e.g., water quality, water quantity, runoff pattern, piping
network, percentage of soil imperviousness of the drainage area etc. (Seth et al.
2006
). Xue et al. (
1996
) and Xue and Bechtel (
1997
) described the development
of a BMP model called the Best Management Practices Assessment Model
(BMPAM), which was linked with Arc View to create an integrated management
tool to evaluate the effectiveness of BMPs. Bhaduri et al. (
2000
), showed how a
model focused on long-term runoff and NPS pollution impacts can be developed in
a GIS framework and applied to an urbanizing watershed. Xu et al. (
2001
), showed
that the integration of GIS and a physically based distributed model may success-
fully and efficiently implement the watershed-based water resources management.
Apart from the conventional coupling of GIS with urban water models GIS-water
models can be used in conjunction with other tools or GIS can be coupled with tools
other than the water model. Kim et al. (
1998
), showed that a Planning Support
System (PSS) comprising of a GIS, an economic evaluation model, and a sewer
simulation model can enhance the ability to generate satisfying sewer design
alternatives depending on land use and development. The role of GIS in the PSS
was of storm-water and wastewater quantity estimation, sewer networks manipula-
tion, and display of generated sewer design alternatives. Correia et al. (
1999
),
showed the possibility of using GIS and complementary multimedia interactive
devices, as tools for the comprehensive evaluation of floodplain management
policies. Weng (
2001
), showed that an integration of remote sensing and GIS can
be applied to relate urban growth studies to distributed hydrological modeling
where impacts of urban growth on surface runoff and rainfall-runoff relation-
ship can be examined. Hatzopoulos (
2002
), used the integration of data modeling
together with advances in GIS using Universal Model language (UML) program-
ming for urban water management.
Integration of GIS and water management models in specific applications poses
many challenges and one of them is adapting the models to the GIS environment
