Understanding and improving the state of the nation's levees has become a national priority following the devastating events surrounding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Federal legislation passed in 2007 created a new national Committee on Levee Safety and spurred the development of the National Levee Database, a central repository of information relating to the location and state of levees across the United States (Water Resources Development Act, 2007). One of the major goals in developing such a database is to improve the safety of America's levees. The National Levee Database, however, does not include features for storing seepage and slope stability data related to numerical analyses of levees. These data are critical in analyzing current levee conditions and predicting future failure scenarios, thus providing a path for further improving the safety of levees. The Levee Analyst is a new GIS data model and set of geoprocessing tools that make it possible to store and manipulate model data associated with seepage and slope stability analyses. The data model provides a concise structure for storing large amounts of levee seepage and slope stability data and also provides a structure that is expandable and compatible with the National Levee Database. The Levee Analyst combines the capabilities of various software systems in providing a data model and suite of tools that assists in further understanding and analyzing the state of America's levees.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Eric A. Bernard / This study is an integration of GIS, the Arc Hydro data model and tools, and hydrologic models to solve land use planning issues in the Little Kitten Creek watershed, Riley County, Kansas. Every day designers plan and design in watersheds. These designs alter the land use cover and change the hydrologic regime. Generally the design and development process does not consider upstream/downstream impacts on water quality and quantity. As a result development often increases flooding and water pollution. With the advent of the geodatabase, and the Arc Hydro geodatabase data model, designers have a flexible new tool for rapid simulation of a watershed. Arc Hydro allows the incorporation of traditional hydrologic data into linked modeling software together enabling users a “one-stop” approach for assimilating and modeling water resource systems. Once hydrologic data is in the Arc Hydro format it can be incorporated into assessment models, such as the Map to Map model. This case study assessed the floodplain analysis capabilities of the Map to Map model in the Little Kitten Creek (HUC 14) watershed. Steps to accomplish this goal were: data collection (digital and field surveys) and processing, geodatabase construction, linking the geodatabase with hydrologic modeling programs and, analysis of land uses within the watershed using the Map to Map model with the intent to produce flood maps based on land use changes.

A presente pesquisa concentra-se no estudo hidrológico utilizando o potencial das geotecnologias na modelagem do escoamento na bacia do rio Bengalas, cujo rio principal de mesmo nome, corta o município de Nova Friburgo, RJ, no sentido Sul-Norte. Esse município, um dos mais importantes da região serrana, sofre frequentemente com inundações e deslizamentos, onde, dados históricos e acontecimentos recentes mostram que a ocupação inadequada de encostas e calhas dos rios são as áreas destacada e negativamente afetadas. A metodologia tem suporte no uso de um SIG, extraindo informações, que por sua vez, serão entrada de dados na fase de modelagem, e reforçando a apresentação dos resultados das simulações através de mapas. Ela está divida basicamente em três etapas: "SIG", "Modelagem" e "Suporte à Tomada de Decisão/Simulação". Esse primeiro estudo permitiu compor um banco de dados geográfico com as características fisiográficas da bacia; a seleção criteriosa de uma modelagem matemática e encadeamento de seus parâmetros com os componentes do ciclo hidrológico; realizar a calibração do modelo de transformação chuva-vazão, Soil Conservation Service (CN); e simular a passagem dos volumes gerados pela precipitação efetiva na calha do rio Bengalas, com o objetivo de identificar e analisar as áreas suscetíveis a inundações na porção central da cidade de Nova Friburgo. Modelagem dessa natureza vem sendo empregada, principalmente, no gerenciamento de recursos hídricos, onde a tomada de decisões embasada nos resultados de simulações computacionais, contribuem para evitar prejuízos materiais e financeiros, e ainda, perdas de vidas humanas em áreas de risco, neste caso, aquelas suscetíveis a inundações. Analisando os resultados encontrados temos que a área suscetível à inundação para uma chuva com tempo de recorrência de 50 anos, o mais crítico estudado, seja de aproximadamente 1,0 km, distribuídos nos seus 8,5km na região central de Nova Friburgo-RJ, sendo está, ora delimitada, prioritariamente edificada. / This research focuses on the hydrological study using the potential of geotechnology into runoff modeling of the Bengalas Basin, whose main river, with same name, crosses the city of Nova Friburgo - RJ, in a south-north orientation. This city, one of the most important in "Região Serrana", suffers often with floods and landslides, which, historical data and recent events show that the inappropriate occupation of hillsides and margins of rivers are the highlighted and negatively affected areas. The methodology has basis in a GIS application, extracting information, which in turn, are input in the modeling phase, and enhancing the presentation of simulation results through maps. It is basically divided into three stages: "SIG", "Modelagem" and "Suporte à Tomada de Decisão/Simulação." This first study allowed to compose a geographic database with the physiographic features of the basin; the careful selection of a chain of mathematical modeling and its parameters with the hydrological cycle components, perform the calibration of the rainfall-runoff transformation model, Soil Conservation Service (CN) and simulate the transition of volumes generated by an effective precipitation in the Bengalas river, in order to identify and analyze the susceptible flooding areas in the central part of Nova Friburgo. A kind of this modeling has been used, mainly, in the water resource management, in which decision-making are based on results of computer simulations, helps to avoid a range of losses, such as material, financial and, especially, humans, that in this case, people who lives in areas susceptible to flooding. Analyzing the results, it was found that an area susceptible to flooding by a rainfall with a recurrence time of 50 years, the most critical studied, results in approximately 1.0 km, distributed in its 8.5km (central part of Nova Friburgo - RJ) which this bounded area has a great part with buildings.

A presente pesquisa concentra-se no estudo hidrológico utilizando o potencial das geotecnologias na modelagem do escoamento na bacia do rio Bengalas, cujo rio principal de mesmo nome, corta o município de Nova Friburgo, RJ, no sentido Sul-Norte. Esse município, um dos mais importantes da região serrana, sofre frequentemente com inundações e deslizamentos, onde, dados históricos e acontecimentos recentes mostram que a ocupação inadequada de encostas e calhas dos rios são as áreas destacada e negativamente afetadas. A metodologia tem suporte no uso de um SIG, extraindo informações, que por sua vez, serão entrada de dados na fase de modelagem, e reforçando a apresentação dos resultados das simulações através de mapas. Ela está divida basicamente em três etapas: "SIG", "Modelagem" e "Suporte à Tomada de Decisão/Simulação". Esse primeiro estudo permitiu compor um banco de dados geográfico com as características fisiográficas da bacia; a seleção criteriosa de uma modelagem matemática e encadeamento de seus parâmetros com os componentes do ciclo hidrológico; realizar a calibração do modelo de transformação chuva-vazão, Soil Conservation Service (CN); e simular a passagem dos volumes gerados pela precipitação efetiva na calha do rio Bengalas, com o objetivo de identificar e analisar as áreas suscetíveis a inundações na porção central da cidade de Nova Friburgo. Modelagem dessa natureza vem sendo empregada, principalmente, no gerenciamento de recursos hídricos, onde a tomada de decisões embasada nos resultados de simulações computacionais, contribuem para evitar prejuízos materiais e financeiros, e ainda, perdas de vidas humanas em áreas de risco, neste caso, aquelas suscetíveis a inundações. Analisando os resultados encontrados temos que a área suscetível à inundação para uma chuva com tempo de recorrência de 50 anos, o mais crítico estudado, seja de aproximadamente 1,0 km, distribuídos nos seus 8,5km na região central de Nova Friburgo-RJ, sendo está, ora delimitada, prioritariamente edificada. / This research focuses on the hydrological study using the potential of geotechnology into runoff modeling of the Bengalas Basin, whose main river, with same name, crosses the city of Nova Friburgo - RJ, in a south-north orientation. This city, one of the most important in "Região Serrana", suffers often with floods and landslides, which, historical data and recent events show that the inappropriate occupation of hillsides and margins of rivers are the highlighted and negatively affected areas. The methodology has basis in a GIS application, extracting information, which in turn, are input in the modeling phase, and enhancing the presentation of simulation results through maps. It is basically divided into three stages: "SIG", "Modelagem" and "Suporte à Tomada de Decisão/Simulação." This first study allowed to compose a geographic database with the physiographic features of the basin; the careful selection of a chain of mathematical modeling and its parameters with the hydrological cycle components, perform the calibration of the rainfall-runoff transformation model, Soil Conservation Service (CN) and simulate the transition of volumes generated by an effective precipitation in the Bengalas river, in order to identify and analyze the susceptible flooding areas in the central part of Nova Friburgo. A kind of this modeling has been used, mainly, in the water resource management, in which decision-making are based on results of computer simulations, helps to avoid a range of losses, such as material, financial and, especially, humans, that in this case, people who lives in areas susceptible to flooding. Analyzing the results, it was found that an area susceptible to flooding by a rainfall with a recurrence time of 50 years, the most critical studied, results in approximately 1.0 km, distributed in its 8.5km (central part of Nova Friburgo - RJ) which this bounded area has a great part with buildings.