Benefits of GIS Application in Hydrological Modeling: A Brief Summary / Fördelar med GIS i hydrologisk modellering, en kort sammanfattning
During recent years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a powerful tool have had a tremendous impact on research techniques in the realm of geography and spatial analysis. The integrative ability of GIS to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and finally present all types of geographical spatial data, has drawn many attentions to it. Water Resources Engineering as a interdisciplinary field requires modeling and analyzing data with different spatial resolutions. Therefore, GIS could definitely be utilized as a suitable tool for solving water resources problems from local to global scale. This paper tries to present the larger scheme of the benefits for the applications of GIS in water resources and hydrological modeling in particular. Certainly, within the few pages ahead only the surface is scratched and a more thorough and comprehensive review requires more time and effort. The fundamental reason for the need of integrating GIS and hydrological modeling is briefly discussed and different tools are introduced. Also, various examples of GIS application are presented to create a better understanding. Case studies such as the Wadi Madoneh Basin in Jordan, Kuronagi River in Japan and San Antonio River Basin in Central Texas, USA, are presented. The good agreement between the results from a fairly simple GIS model and observations in cases such as Kuronagi River and Wadi Madoneh is indicating a promising future for GIS application in hydrological modeling. Finally, the benefits of GIS utilization in the field are discussed and summarized.