Integrated Geospatial Data Management for Hydrologic Model Development: A Case Study from Chicago's Combined Sewer System

The increased availability of detailed, accurate geospatial data of variables influencing basin hydrology has contributed to increasing accuracy and confidence in hydrologic model parameters. As the quantity of data for hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) model data development grows, so does the need for an integrated data management approach to track, process, and summarize available data. Despite the widespread use of GIS technologies, the engineering community does not always take full advantage of the power of some data management technologies, such as ESRI‘models’and the relational database functionalities inherent in the ESRI geodatabase. Failure to capitalize on these tools may result in decreased efficiency of model data development, suboptimal documentation of the assumptions and data sources used to develop data, and a greater likelihood of error in model parameters. This paper describes ESRI based tools created to support the development of hydrologic and hydraulic models of the City of Chicago's Combined Sewer System (CSS).