Arc Hydro: Overview of Terrain Preprocessing Workflows

Arc Hydro consists of a data model, toolset, and workflows developed over the years to support specific geographic information system (GIS) implementations in water resources. The initial implementation of Arc Hydro was in 2002 with the data model, Arc Hydro book published by Esri Press, and an initial set of about 30 tools. Since then, Arc Hydro has been used in many projects, and in the process, new tools and workflows have been developed. There are more than 300 Arc Hydro tools now, and they continue to be expanded based on work in specific implementations.

This document describes key steps for using Arc Hydro tools for preprocessing deranged, combined, and dendritic terrains. The steps are organized into workflows based on the key geomorphologic characteristic of the terrain being processed. This document describes multiple use cases and determines which tools to use to generate "proper" results. Not all Arc Hydro terrain preprocessing tools are presented here; there are other tools that can be used in specific morphologies and processing requirements. The use cases presented here are the most commonly encountered ones.

Download the technical paper below for more information on:

• Arc Hydro Terrain Preprocessing Workflows
• Use Cases
• Selected Arc Hydro Terrain Preprocessing Functions