Spatial Analysis Exercise

GIS in Water Resources

Fall 2012

Prepared by David G. Tarboton and David R. Maidment

Goal
The goal of this exercise is to serve as an introduction to Spatial Analysis with ArcGIS.

Objectives
 Calculate slope from a grid digital elevation model
 Apply model builder geoprocessing capability to program a sequence of ArcGIS functions
 Use raster data and raster calculator functionality to calculate watershed attributes such as mean
elevation, mean annual precipitation and runoff ratio.
 Interpolate data values at points to create a spatial field to use in hydrologic calculations

Computer and Data Requirements

To carry out this exercise, you need to have a computer, which runs ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1. The
necessary data are provided in the accompanying zip file,
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2012/Ex3/Ex3Data.zip

Readings
Handout on "Computation of Slope" http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2012/Docs/Slope.pdf

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Part 1. Slope calculations
1.1 Hand Calculations
Given the following grid of elevations. Calculate by hand the slope and aspect (slope direction) at the grid
cell labeled A using
(i) The standard ESRI surface slope function (see lecture 7 slides 50-52 in SpatialAnalysis.pptx)
(ii) The 8 direction pour point model (see lecture 7 slides 53-54 in SpatialAnalysis.ppt)
This subject is also described in pp. 5-7 of the Slope handout
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2012/Docs/Slope.pdf

Refer to the slides (http://www.neng.usu.edu/cee/faculty/dtarb/giswr/2012/SpatialAnalysis.pptx) from

lecture 7 to obtain the necessary formulas for each of these methods. Refer also to the "Computation of
Slope" readings for a deeper understanding of slope.

Grid cell size 10m

47.5 48 47.7 50.6 48.3

45.1 45.8 46.8 A 48.6 47.6

45 46.1 46.4 B 47.9 47.4

45.4 46.1 47 48.6 47.7

Comment on the differences and indicate which you think is a better approximation of the direction of
water flow over the surface.

To turn in: Hand calculations of slope at point A using each of the two methods and comments on the
differences.

1.2 Verifying calculations using ArcGIS

Verify the calculations in (1.1) using ArcGIS Hydrology and Surface Toolbox functions.

Save the following to a text file 'elev.txt' (This file is also included in
http://www.neng.usu.edu/cee/faculty/dtarb/giswr/2012/Ex3Data.zip)
ncols 5
nrows 4
xllcorner 0
yllcorner 0
cellsize 10
NODATA_value -9999
47.5 48 47.7 50.6 48.3
45.1 45.8 46.8 48.6 47.6
45 46.1 46.4 47.9 47.4
45.4 46.1 47 48.6 47.7

This shows how raw grid data can be represented in an ASCII text format that ArcGIS can import.
Knowing how to get raw information into a form where it can be imported and analyzed using GIS is a
useful skill.

Open ArcMap and Search for Tools and find the function ASCII to Raster (Conversion)

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You can also open this tool directly from Arc Toolbox:

Specify the name of the Output raster as elev.tif and give it a disk location. (Note that the extension
specifies the grid file format, .tif for a TIFF file, .img for an ERDAS IMAGINE file, or no extension for an
ESRI GRID raster format.) Specify the Output data type as FLOAT because the given elevation data
includes decimal values.

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You can use the identify button on the grid created to verify that the numbers correspond to the values
in the table above.

Open Customize  Extensions and verify that the Spatial Analyst function is available and checked.
This is where the spatial analyst license is accessed, so if Spatial Analyst does not appear you need to
acquire the appropriate license.

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Open the tool Spatial Analyst Tools  Surface  Slope

Click on the Show Help>> and Tool Help button to

read details on this tool. Note that when you click
on each field in the dialog box the help part of the
dialog to the right explains the content of the file or
option. Select elev.tif as the input raster and specify
names for the output raster (e.g. Slope). Note that
raster file names cannot exceed 13 characters. Set
the Output measurement to PERCENT_RISE and
leave the Z factor at 1. Click OK.

The resulting Slope grid should be added to the display. Use identify to verify your hand calculation for
grid cell A and note the value of slope for grid cell B.

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Open the tool Spatial Analyst Tools  Surface  Aspect. Select elev.tif as the Input raster and specify
a name for the output raster (e.g. Aspect). Click OK.

The resulting Aspect grid should be computed and added to the display. Use identify to verify your hand
calculation for grid cell A and note the value of aspect for grid cell B.

Open the tool Spatial Analyst Tools  Hydrology  Flow Direction

Select elev.tif as the input raster and specify names

for output rasters (e.g. FlowDir and PercDrop).
Note that the help explanation that appears when
click on the output drop raster field in the dialog
box explains that the Output drop raster is really the
slope expressed as a percentage. Click OK

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Use the identify button on the FlowDir and PercDrop grids that are created to verify that the numbers
correspond to the values you calculated by hand and resolve or reconcile any differences. Record in a
table the ArcGIS calculated flow direction and hydrologic slope (Output drop) at grid cells A and B.

To turn in: Table giving slope, aspect, hydrologic slope and flow direction at grid cells A and B. Please
turn in a diagram or sketch that defines or indicates what each of these numbers means for the specific
values obtained for cells A and B.

1.3 Automating procedures using Modelbuilder.

Modelbuilder provides a convenient way to automate and combine together geoprocessing tools in
ArcToolbox. Here we will develop a Modelbuilder tool to automate the importing of the ASCII grid and
calculation of Slope, Aspect, Hydrologic Slope and Flow direction.

Right click on the whitespace within the ArcToolbox window and select Add Toolbox. Navigate to a
folder where you want to store your work (e.g. Ex3). In the opened window, click on the New Toolbox
icon and name it Ex3.tbx (or something else you might like). Select the new toolbox and click Open.

This is a little bit awkward, so if you have difficulties doing this, don’t worry, we did too! If you try it
over a couple of times, you should get it right.

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A new toolbox should now appear in the list of tools in ArcToolbox. Right-click on the new toolbox and
select new model.

The model window should open. This is a window where you can drag, drop and link tools in a visual way
much like constructing a flow chart.

In the Toolbox window browse to Conversion Tools  To Raster  ASCII to Raster. Drag this tool
onto the model window.

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Double click on the ASCII to Raster rectangle to set this tool's inputs and outputs.

Set the Input ASCII raster file to elev.txt and Output raster to elevm.tif (I used elevm.tif so as not to
conflict with elev.tif that already exists). Set the output data type to be FLOAT. Click OK to dismiss this
dialog. Note that the model elements on the ModelBuilder palette are now colored indicating that their
inputs are complete.

Locate the tool Spatial Analyst Tools  Hydrology  Flow Direction and drag it on to your window.
Your window should appear as follows.

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The output from the ASCII to raster function needs to be taken as input to the Flow Direction function. To
do this use the connection tool and draw a line from elevm.tif, the Output raster of ASCII to Raster, to
the Flow Direction tool rectangle. At the dialog that pops up select Input surface raster to indicate that
elevm.tif is to be used as the input Surface raster for the Flow Direction tool.

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Notice that the "output drop" oval is hollow. This is because this is an optional output that has not been
specified. Double click on the Flow Direction tool and specify names for both the Output flow direction
raster and optional Output drop raster.

Click OK. Alternatively you could double click on output ovals individually to specify the output rasters.
The model is now ready to run. Run the model by clicking on the run button .

The orange boxes briefly flash red as each step is executed. The Model progress box opens and the
progress bar indicates when the model completes. You can then add the outputs to the map and examine
the results.

In the model, use the layout tool to organize the layout.

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Add the Spatial Analyst  Surface  Slope tool to your model by dragging it onto the model window.
Connect the elevm.tif output to this tool, specifying that it is the Input Raster for the Slope Tool.

Add the Spatial Analyst  Surface  Aspect tool to your model connecting it to elevm.tif as an input in
a similar way. Double click on the Slope and aspect tool outputs and specify file names for the outputs.

When setting names you need to be careful that you do not use a name of a grid that already exists, or else
you will get a yellow warning sign in the display and the model will not run, as shown below:

Double click on the Slope tool and set the Output measurement to PERCENT_RISE. Your model should
appear as follows.

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You can click run and do all the processing required to import the data, compute Slope, Aspect, Flow
Direction and Hydrologic Slope at the click of a button. Pretty slick!

Right click on elev.txt and select Model Parameter.

Right click on each of the outputs FlowDirm, percdropm, Slopem and Aspectm in turn and select Model
Parameter and Add to Display.

A P now appears next to these elements in the diagram indicating that they are 'parameters' of the model
that may be adjusted at run time. Close your model and click Yes at the prompt to save it. Right click on
the model in the Toolbox window to rename it something you like (e.g. FlowDirection).

Right click on the whitespace within the ArcToolbox window and select Save Settings  To Default

This saves your toolbox settings so that your system remembers the tools you have loaded (in this case the
tool you have written in Ex3.tbx). This is useful if you want to not have to hunt for this Toolbox and load
it again if you exit from ArcGIS or if there is a crash. This applies to the specific computer you are using
so on a shared lab computer it is not really necessary and will not help if next time you work in the lab you
are at a different computer or the lab computer has been "refreshed" to its clean state.

If you go back to your model and now double click on it or Open it, you’ll see that the input files are
shown as parameters of the model just like when you execute a tool in ArcToolBox.

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Where you see warnings or a red X near one of your files, it usually either means that there is already
a file of that name in the place where you propose to put the output or there is no input file. These can be
resolved by setting the inputs and outputs correctly.

If at some point you want to go back and modify you model you should open it to Edit and make the
changes you want.

You are done creating this model. Close ArcMap.

ModelBuilder is a very powerful way of creating complex analyses, and documenting your “workflow” in
a form that is visual and can readily be described. In this way, analyses that you’ve done can be passed on
to other analysts, and you can also use the visual palette display in your term project report or thesis to

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document how you’ve done your analysis, so the visual aspect of the display helps with documenting your
work, as well as in organizing it.

To turn in: A screen capture of your final model builder model.

We will now use this model for different data. Reopen ArcMap. Locate the file demo.asc extracted from
the zip file of data for this exercise. Double click on your FlowDirection model in the Ex3 toolbox to run
it. If you omitted to save settings to default or are on a different computer you will need to add the Ex3
toolbox by right clicking within the toolbox area, selecting Add Toolbox and navigating to where your
Ex3.tbx file is on disk. The following dialog box for the tool you created should appear when you open it.

Select as input under elev.txt the file demo.asc. Specify different names for the outputs to avoid the
conflicts with existing data and remove the red crosses .

Then click OK and the model should run and add results for this new data to ArcMap. Examine the
ArcMap table of contents and record the minimum and maximum values associated with each of the
outputs. If you don’t see anything in your screen once this function is complete, right click on one of the
new layers produced and select “Zoom to Layer” and you’ll see the new information show up. This is
because the digital elevation model is in a new coordinate system. Here is the definition of this Demo.asc
grid as given in its first six rows:

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ncols 296
nrows 233
xllcorner 2438224.25
yllcorner 5855081
cellsize 30
NODATA_value -9999

To turn in: A table giving the minimum and maximum values of each of the four outputs Slope, Aspect,
Flow Direction, and Hydrologic Slope (Percentage drop), for the digital elevation model in demo.asc.

Congratulations, you have just built a Model Builder geoprocessing program and used it to repeat your
work for a different (and larger) dataset. If you would like to save this tool to take to another computer or
share with someone else you can copy the file Ex3.tbx from its location to a removable media to take with
you. If you are going to be sharing this tool more widely there are additional steps to take to clean up the
interface (to avoid red X's), label the input fields and write help documentation for it. Close ArcMap.

Part 2. San Marcos Elevation and Precipitation .

The purpose of this part of the exercise is to calculate average watershed elevation for subwatersheds of
the San Marcos basin, and to calculate average precipitation over each of these subwatersheds using
different interpolation methods.

The following data is provided in the Ex3Data.zip file.

SanMarcos.gdb file Geodatabase.

The feature classes Flowline and MonitoringPoint are from Exercise 2 as it was done in 2011, and they are
for visual reference in this exercise.. There are two additional feature classes:
- PrecipStn. PrecipStn contains mean annual precipitation data from precipitation stations in and
around the San Marcos basin downloaded from NCDC following the procedures given in
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gradhydro2005/docs/ncdcdata.doc. This data was
prepared by downloading all years of available precipitation data for the counties in and around
the San Marcos basin, then averaging over these years, retaining only those stations with 6 or more
years of annual total data reported by NCDC.
- Subwatershed. Subwatersheds delineated to the outlet of the San Marcos Basin as well as each of
the stream gages in MonitoringPoint following the procedures that will be learned in a future
exercise.
These new feature classes are in a feature dataset named BaseMapAlbers as it is more sensible to do
watershed level analysis where area is involved in a projected coordinate system.

A digital elevation model from the National Elevation dataset is provided in the folder smdem_raw.

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1. Loading the Data
Open ArcMap (blank document) and from the geodatabase SanMarcos.gdb add the contents of the
BaseMapAlbers feature dataset to the map display (the PrecipStn and SubWatershed feature classes)

And if you right click on one of these two feature classes, you’ll see that this is the NAD_83_Albers map
projection – an Albers Equal Area projection using the NAD 83 datum.

If you move the cursor around on the map, you’ll see that the coordinates are in meters in the
NAD_83_Albers projection coordinate system. The X-value is negative because the San Marcos Basin is
West of the Central Meridian of this projection. The Y-value is negative because the basin is below the
Latitude of Origin (and both the False Easting and False Northing are 0).

Add the contents of the BaseMap feature dataset:

Check the coordinate system of each feature class by right clicking, selecting Properties and examining
the information in the Source tab. These data are in geographic coordinate, using the NAD 83 datum.

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If you move the cursor around on the map, you’ll see the location given in meters as above. These two
feature classes, Flowline and MonitoringPoint are used for visual reference in this exercise and its ok that
they are in a different coordinate system, ArcMap can resolve the difference between the two systems on
the fly. However, if these datasets were to be used for spatial analysis, they should be projected into the
NAD_83_Albers coordinate system to be consistent with the other feature classes being used for analysis.

Right click on the Layers and view the the spatial reference system of the data frame layers and if
necessary set it to be the same as the BaseMapAlbers feature dataset, "NAD_1983_Albers". We will use
this specific NAD_1983_Albers projection, which is the USA Contiguous Albers Equal Area Conic
projection, for this exercise.

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Add the grid smdem_raw to ArcMap. This is a digital elevation model that was downloaded from the
USGS seamless data server http://seamless.usgs.gov. Note that seamless.usgs.gov has now been
superseded by the National Map viewer, http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/, but the data you get is the
same. Your map should look similar to the following:

The DEM grid is skewed in this display because it was obtained in geographic coordinates. Right click on
the smdem_raw layer in the table of contents and select properties. Click on the Source tab. This shows
you the Cell Size and number of columns and rows. If you scroll down in the properties you also see the
Extent and Spatial reference of this DEM. The value 0.00027777778 is a cell size in decimal degrees. It
happens that 1/3600 = 0.00027777778, which means that the cell size of these data is 1 arc-second, or
approximately 30m on the ground. Use what you learned in the lecture on Geodesy, Map Projections and
Coordinate systems to calculate the cell size in m in both the E-W and N-S directions, assuming a
spherical earth with radius 6371.0 km. Do this for a location near the center of this DEM, at the
geographic location (98°W, 30ºN).

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To turn in: The number of columns and rows, cell size in the E-W and N-S directions in m, extent (in
degrees) and spatial reference information for the San Marcos elevation dataset DEM 'smdem_raw'.

2. Projecting the DEM.

To perform slope and contributing area calculations we need to work with this DEM projected into the
Albers equal area projection (An equal area projection is most appropriate for area calculations such as we
will be performing). Open the Toolbox and open the tool Data Management Tools  Projections and
Transformations  Raster  Project Raster.

If you find this tool hard to locate, you can Search for it also:

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Set the inputs as follows:

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The output coordinate system should be specified using Select a predefined coordinate system … after
clicking on the button to the right of Output coordinate system. Then browse to the USA Contiguous
Albers Equal Area Conic projection in the Projected Coordinate Systems\Continental\North America
folder.

The cell size should be specified as 100 m and CUBIC interpolation used. I have found cubic
interpolation to be preferable to nearest neighbor interpolation for continuous datasets such as DEMs.
(This NED data is at 1 arc second spacing which is close to 30 m, so in general 30 m would be a better
choice here, but 100 m is chosen to reduce the size of the resulting grid and speed data processing and
analysis.) CUBIC refers to the cubic convolution method that determines the new cell value by fitting a
smooth curve through the surrounding points. This works best for a continuous surface like topography at
limiting artificial "striping" that can appear in a shaded relief map (we will construct a shaded relief map
below) with the other methods. Click "OK" to invoke the tool. After the process is complete, the projected
DEM, smdem, is added to ArcMap.

Examine the properties of the projected dataset.

To turn in: The number of columns and rows in the projected DEM. The minimum and maximum
elevations in the projected DEM. Explain why the minimum and maximum elevations are different from
the minimum and maximum elevations in the original DEM.

3. Exploring the DEM

The spatial information about the DEM can be found by right clicking on the smdem layer, then clicking
on PropertiesSource. Similarly, the symbology of the DEM can be changed by right clicking on the
layer, PropertiesSymbology.

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23
To explore the highest elevation areas in your DEM select Spatial Analyst Tools  Map Algebra 
Raster Calculator.

Double click on the layer smdem with the DEM for San Marcos. Click on the “>” symbol and select a
number less than the maximum elevation. This arithmetic raster operation will select all cells with values
above the defined threshold. In the example below a threshold of 600m was used.

A new layer called raster appears on your map. The majority of the map (grey color in the figure below)
has a 0 value representing false (values below the threshold), and the blue region has a value of 1
representing true (elevations higher than 600 meters).

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Zoom in to the region of highest elevations and do some sampling on the smdem grid using the identify

tool or pixel inspector to identify the grid cell of maximum elevation. Use the draw tools to
mark your point of maximum elevation and label it with the elevation value for that pixel.

To turn in: A layout showing the location of the highest elevation value in the San Marcos DEM. Include
a scale bar and north arrow in the layout.

4. Contours and Hillshade

Contours are a useful way to visualize topography. Select Spatial Analyst Tools  Surface  Contour.
Select the inputs as follows, with a 10m contour interval:

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A layer is generated with the topographic contours for San Marcos. Notice the big difference in Terrain
Relief to the west of the basin compared to the east. This results from the fact that the Balcones fault zone
runs through the middle of this basin, to the west of which lies the rolling Texas hill country and to the east
the flatter coastal plain. There is a tower located in the City of San Marcos on which you can stand and
see these differences in topography to east and west!

Another option to provide a nice visualization of topography is Hillshading.

Select Spatial Analyst Tools  Surface  Hillshade and set the factor Z to a higher value to get a
dramatic effect and leave the other parameters at their defaults (the following hillshade is produced with a
Z factor of 10). Click OK. You should see an illuminated hillshaded view of the topography.

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To turn in: A layout with a depiction of topography either with elevation, contour or hillshade in nice
colors. Include the streams from the San Marcos Basemap Flowline feature class and sub-watersheds from
the Sub-Watersheds feature class.

5. Zonal Average Calculations

In hydrology it is often necessary to obtain average properties over watersheds or subwatersheds. The
Zonal functions in Spatial Analyst are useful for this purpose.

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Select Spatial Analyst Tools  Zonal  Zonal Statistics as Table. Set the inputs as follows:

Click OK. A table with zonal statistics is evaluated.

This contains statistics of the value raster, in this case elevation from smdem over the zones defined by the
polygon feature class Subwatershed. The Value field in this zone table contains the HydroID from the
subwatershed layer and may be used to join these values with attributes of the Subwatershed feature class.

Right click on Subwatershed and select Joins and Relates  Join.

Select HydroID as the field in this layer (Subwatershed) that the join will be based on, zoneelev as the
table to join to this layer, and HydroID again as the field in the table to base the join on.

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At the prompt to build an index click Yes.

It would not really matter if you clicked No as this table is sufficiently small that the presence of indices to
speed up the data queries does not make any noticeable difference.

Open the Subwatershed attribute table. Under table options select Export and specify a dBase Table and
dbf file name for the output.

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You do not need to add the exported dbf file to the map. The exported dbf file can be opened in Excel to
examine and present the results. Determine the mean elevation and elevation range of each subwatershed
in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class.

To turn in: A table giving the HydroID, Name, mean elevation, and elevation range for each
subwatershed in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest mean
elevation? Which subwatershed has the largest elevation range?

6. Calculation of Area Average Precipitation using Thiessen Polygons

Now to do something really useful. We will calculate the area average mean annual precipitation over the
watershed using Thiessen polygons. Thiessen polygons associate each point in a watershed with the
nearest raingage. Select the tool Analysis Tools  Proximity  Create Thiessen Polygons

Specify PrecipStn as the Input Features. Set the output feature class to be ThiessenP (saving it in the
BaseMapAlbers feature dataset) and indicate that ALL fields should be output. By saving to the
BaseMapAlbers feature dataset you ensure that the Thiessen polygon feature class inherits the spatial

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reference information from this feature dataset, keeping all your work in a consistent spatial reference.
Click OK. Its really important that you select “All” here to carry the attributes of the Precipitation stations
to the polygons associated with them.

The result is a Thiessen polygon feature class. This tessellates the landscape into regions that are closer to
a particular gage than to any other.

Here is what your attribute table should look like for ThiessenP. If it doesn’t have all these attributes at the
right hand end, delete the result you just computed and do it over with the ALL option selected to make
sure you transfer all the attributes from the gages to the polygons.

To average precipitation values in these polygons over the subwatersheds we need to intersect the thiessen
polygons with the subwatersheds and compute area weighted averages for each subwatershed. The
following calculations achieve this.

Use the search window to locate the Intersect (Analysis) tool and set the inputs as follows

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Following is the result:

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If you open the ThiessenSubIntersect attributed table you will see that from the 9 subwatersheds there are
now 35 polygons, each contributing to part of a subwatershed and associated with a single rain gage. Let
Pk denote the precipitation associated with each rain gage and Aik the area of intersected polygon
associated with rain gage k and subwatershed i. Then the area weighted precipitation associated with each
subwatershed is

∑
∑

Open the attribute table for ThiessenSubIntersect by right clicking on the Table of Contents for it

Add a new field to the table (named APProd)

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Right click in the header of APProd to invoke the Field Calculator

Click OK to the warning about calculating outside an edit session.

Create the expression [AnnPrecip_in] * [Shape_Area] and click OK.

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The result is a new field with the numerator terms for the equation above. Now locate the column
HYDROID. These are unique identifiers for each Subwatershed. Right click on the header and select
Sumarize

Carefully select the summary statistics you need. I selected the following

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Subwatershed_Name

Shape_Area Sum

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APProd Sum

The resulting table gives the numerator and denominator in the equation above for each subwatershed

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Add a field SubW_Precip_in to this table

And use the field calculator to evaluate this as [Sum_APProd] / [Sum_Shape_Area]

The result is the precipitation in inches for each subwatershed.

To turn in: A table giving the HydroID, Name, and mean precipitation by the Thiessen method for each
subwatershed in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest mean
precipitation? What is the mean annual precipitation over the entire watershed by the Thiessen method?

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7. Estimate basin average mean annual precipitation using Spatial Interpolation/Surface
fitting.
Thiessen polygons were effectively a way of defining a field based on discrete data, by associating with
each point the precipitation at the nearest gage. This is probably the simplest and least sophisticated form
of spatial interpolation. ArcGIS provides other spatial interpolation capabilities in the Interpolation
toolbox in Spatial Analyst Tools.

We will not, in this exercise, concern ourselves too much with the theory behind each of these methods.
You should however be aware that there is a lot of statistical theory on the subject of interpolation, which
is an active area of research. This theory should be considered before practical use of these methods.

Select Spatial Analyst Tools  Interpolation  Spline. Use the input points from "PrecipStn" and Z
value field as " AnnPrecip_in", and set the spline type as Tension with parameters as follows:

The result is illustrated:

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Select Spatial Analyst Tools  Zonal  Zonal Statistics as Table. Set the inputs as follows:

Click OK. A table with zonal statistics is created. This contains statistics of the value raster, in this case
mean annual precipitation from Spline over the zones defined by the polygon feature class Subwatershed.
The HydroID in this table may be used to join it to the attribute table for the Subwatershed feature class.
As for the elevations above this joined table can be exported and examined and presented in Excel.

To turn in: A table giving the HydroID, Name, and mean precipitation by the Tension Spline method for
each subwatershed in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest
mean precipitation using a Tension Spline interpolation?

Experiment with some (at least one) of the other methods available (Natural Neighbor, Kriging, Inverse
distance weighting) to see if you like them.

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To turn in. A layout giving a nicely colored map of the interpolated mean annual precipitation surface
over the San Marcos Basin for one of the methods used and a table showing the mean annual precipitation
for the same method in each Subwatershed. Report what method you used.

8. Runoff Coefficients.
Runoff ratio, defined as the fraction of precipitation that becomes streamflow at a subbasin outlet is a
useful measure in quantifying the hydrology of a watershed. Mathematically runoff ratio is defined as

w = Q/P

where Q is streamflow, and P is precipitation. In this formula, P and Q need to be in consistent units such
as depth per unit area or volume. The flow field in the Monitoring point feature class gives the average
streamflow at eight monitoring points in the San Marcos watershed in ft3/s. To convert these to volume
units (say ft3) they should be multiplied by the number of seconds in a year (60 x 60 x 24 x 365.25). In the
current exercise mean annual precipitation has been evaluated for each subwatershed, in inches. To
convert these to volume units (say ft3) these quantities should be multiplied by 1/12 ft in-1 and multiplied
by the subwatershed area in ft2. The subwatershed feature class includes subwatershed area, in the units of
the spatial reference frame being used, which are m2. (Remember, 1 ft = 0.3048 m). The necessary
calculations are most easily performed in Excel. Use the Options/Export function to export the
subwatershed featureclass attribute table that includes your Thiessen basin average subwatershed
precipitation results to dbf format that can be read by Excel, as was done above. Similarly export the
Monitoring Point featureclass attribute table that includes mean annual streamflow at each monitoring
point. In Excel multiply gage streamflow by 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.25 to obtain streamflow volume, Q, in ft3.
Multiply subwatershed average precipitation (in inches) by subwatershed area (in m2)/(12 x 0.30482) to
obtain subwatershed precipitation volume, P, in ft3. On the maps you have that show subwatersheds and
streams identify the subwatersheds upstream of each gauge. Do this visually by looking at the Flowlines.
Add up the precipitation volumes over these subwatersheds then divide Q/P to obtain an estimate of runoff
ratio for the watershed upstream of each stream gage.

To turn in. A table giving runoff ratio for the watershed upstream of each stream gage.

Summary of Items to turn in:

1. Hand calculations of slope at point A using each of the two methods and comments on the differences.

2. Table giving slope, aspect, hydrologic slope and flow direction at grid cells A and B. Please turn in a
diagram or sketch that defines or indicates what each of these numbers means for the specific values
obtained for cells A and B.

3. A screen capture of your final model builder model.

4. A table giving the minimum and maximum values of each of the four outputs Slope, Aspect, Flow
Direction, and Hydrologic Slope (Percentage drop), for the digital elevation model in demo.asc.

5. The number of columns and rows, cell size in the E-W and N-S directions in m, extent (in degrees) and
spatial reference information for the San Marcos elevation dataset DEM 'smdem_raw'.

6. The number of columns and rows in the projected DEM. The minimum and maximum elevations in the
projected DEM. Explain why the minimum and maximum elevations are different from the minimum and
maximum elevations in the original DEM.

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7. A layout showing the location of the highest elevation value in the San Marcos DEM. Include a scale
bar and north arrow in the layout.

8. A layout with a depiction of topography either with elevation, contour or hillshade in nice colors.
Include the streams from the San Marcos Basemap Flowline feature class and sub-watersheds from the
Sub-Watersheds feature class.

9. A table giving the HydroID, Name, mean elevation, and elevation range for each subwatershed in the
SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest mean elevation? Which
subwatershed has the largest elevation range?

10. A table giving the HydroID, Name, and mean precipitation by the Thiessen method for each
subwatershed in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest mean
precipitation? What is the mean annual precipitation over the entire watershed by the Thiessen method?

11. A table giving the HydroID, Name, and mean precipitation by the Tension Spline method for each
subwatershed in the SanMarcos Subwatershed feature class. Which subwatershed has the highest mean
precipitation using a Tension Spline interpolation?

12. A layout giving a nicely colored map of the interpolated mean annual precipitation surface over the
San Marcos Basin for one of the methods used and a table showing the mean annual precipitation for the
same method in each Subwatershed. Report what method you used.

13. A table giving runoff ratio for the watershed upstream of each stream gage.

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