GIS Programs

GIS Programs

Geographic Information System (GIS) programs combine a mapping facility with a data base of information on the spatial position of components, such as drainage pits and pipes, and on their other attributes, such as pipe diameter.

Objects can be displayed in different ways, according to some of their attributes. Maps can be produced on paper or can be inspected electronically.

The most common products used in Australia are the Arcprograms (produced by ESRI (www.esri.com) and MapInfo (produced by MapInfo Corporation (www.mapinfo.com), but other products are used, such as Global Mapper (www.bluemarblegeo.com) and QGIS (https://qgis.org).

DRAINS provides transfers in the form of ESRI shapefiles and Mapinfo MID/MIF files, the most commonly-used GIS formats. These can be imported and exported by nearly all GIS programs.

For authorities managing drainage systems, the connection of DRAINS with their GIS systems allows results of DRAINS analyses, such as flowrates and hydraulic grade line levels, to be included in the GIS. DRAINS results can then be mapped and displayed in various ways. The linkage also allows DRAINS models to be created from a GIS.

GIS file structures can be complex.  In Arcview, to fully specify an object such as a pipe, it is necessary to establish three files, with the suffixes: SHP, SHX and DBF.  The transfer from DRAINS provides shapefiles for six objects - pits, sub-catchments, pipes, overflow routes, survey data on ground levels along pipe routes and positions of other services, so that it generates 18 files. The SHP file containing x-y coordinate information is binary, and cannot be viewed in text editors.

In MapInfo, two file types, with suffixes MID and MIF, are required, so that 12 files are generated in a transfer from DRAINS. Both of these are ASCII files, and coordinate information can be viewed on a text editor.

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