You are here:
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM, DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, AND URBAN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
Citation:
Heaney, J. P. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM, DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, AND URBAN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-00/027 (NTIS PB2000-104077).
Impact/Purpose:
Information
Description:
The full report reviews the application of Geographic Inforamtion System (GIS) technology to the field of urban stormwater modeling. The GIS literature is reviewed in the context of its use as a spatial database for urban stormwater modeling, integration of GIS and hydroloic time series, and integration of GIS and urban stormwater models. The available urban stormwater modeling software is reviewed and discussed with respect to their GIS integration capabilities. Decision Support Systems (DSS) are reviewed with respect to their integration with GIS, and their applicability to urban stormwater management problems. A simplified neighborhood scale DSS is presented that includes a GIS, a database, a stormwater system design template, and an optimization capability for screening alternatives. The area and soil based National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) method is used for calculating runoff from GIS information. Using economic analysis that compares the costs of controls, including the opportunity cost of land for land intensive controls, the optimal selection of Best Management Practice (BMP) controls was accomplished by use of a linear programming (LP) method. The full report provides an example of the types of problems that become possible to explore with the application of DSS and GIS technology on a small scale. This field is evolving rapidly, and warrants carefully targeted research efforts, particularly at the developing nonspecific software tools that aid in integrating existing models.