Then, the 
, volumes 
>s statistics 
W. 
ation 
ction 
geographic 
veloped last 
e selection. 
been made 
ay analysis, 
n are basic 
[S. 
S were 
at certain 
S 30 cross 
{very Cross 
‘in order to 
ally they fit 
| to examine 
y. 
alculation 
o for every 
alculated by 
of cutting 
provided 
3.3 Top View of a Dam after 
Construction 
Top view of a dam has to be 
drawn to see it really looks like after 
its construction. This is a process to 
link intersections of ground profile and 
every dam cross section. 
3.4 Computer Programming 
It was more than four months 
man power that has been consumed to 
write the whole programs for an 
automatic dam design process for a 
given dam type. It requires a very 
sophisticate computer programmer to 
do this kind of job. Usually, some 
engineering background is essential. It 
is worthwhile to make some more 
effort on different types of dam cross 
sections in the near future. 
3.5 Overall Performance 
The overall performance of an 
automatic dam design process is good 
enough for the process of planning and 
decision making on a given dam site 
selection. Usually, it takes only 30 
minutes to perform an automatic dam 
design process. Now, an engineer is 
possible to design as many dams as 
possible at a give site. With a little 
modification, this module can review 
different dam height as well. It is now 
possible to obtain an optimal dam site 
selection when an automatic dam 
design process works together with a 
GIS. 
57 
4. CONCLUSION 
Dam site selection at Taiwan 
Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau 
was a process of labor intensive and 
time consuming. A geographic 
information system was developed to 
answer so many what ifs in the whole 
process. A GIS is not suitable for a 
dam design at the planning stage. An 
automatic dam design process was 
created that an engineer can design a 
given type of dam at a certain place 
within 30 minutes. As many dams as 
he or she likes can be designed in a 
very short period of time. A reservoir 
capacity module was implemented to 
automatically calculate height, area, 
and volume. The optimal dam site 
selection is now possible to obtain in a 
short period time. By no means, the 
quality of a dam site selection based 
on the automatic dam design process 
is better than a traditional approach. 
S. REFERENCES 
Burger, P, D Gillies, 1989. 
Interactive Computer — Graphics. 
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 
New York, U. S. A. 504 pages. 
Foley, JL D, A van Dam, S. K. 
Feiner, J. F. Hughes, 1987. Computer 
Graphics: Principles and Practice. 
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 
New York, U. S. A. 1174 pages.