The standardized template Arc Hydro is the culmination of three years of work by Esri and Dr. David Maidment, director of the Center for Research in Water Resources at the University of Texas, Austin. Built on the multiformat, intelligent database scheme, Arc Hydro establishes the relationships between features (such as drainage basins, streams, hydraulic model cross sections, structures, and sources and sinks for both water quantity and quality features) by tracing and connecting elements along the path of water movement. To store the required information for modeling, agencies must develop extended Arc Hydro-compliant data models. Thus, water resources agencies are implementing the latest in fully integrated GIS and hydraulic/hydrologic modeling technology to more effectively and efficiently address some of the industry's most complex water resources challenges.

Houston's Emerging Watershed Plan

The Harris County, Texas, Flood Control District (HCFCD) is using Arc Hydro as the framework for its current watershed planning initiative. Starting in late 2003, a team of nine consultants working for HCFCD began a Watershed Master Planning (WMP) effort on the district's 22 watersheds to assess the current floodplain conditions and evaluate future floodplain management controls. The WMP effort includes gathering and processing digital data for all 22 watersheds and populating one consistent geodatabase. Working with other consultant team members, PBS&J (see main article above) helped develop a geodatabase called HCHydro, a customized version of Arc Hydro.

South Florida Forges Ahead

In South Florida, the need to correct the growing problem of data fragmentation convinced the South Florida Water Management District to fast-track development of an enterprise GIS. Responsible for the water quality, flood control, natural systems, and water supply for its customers in South Florida, the district is currently managing numerous major projects, each requiring data to interrelate drainage basins, monitoring stations, canals, channels, control structures, cross sections, and more. The four key projects of flood management, natural system restoration, operations decision support, and regional modeling are providing real-world use cases for a prototype enterprise database built on the Arc Hydro framework.