Term Project --- GIS in Water Resources

Delineation of Sub-watersheds and Comparison of Streamflow Data and Precipitation Data in the Big Lost River basin, ID

By Hongxing Zheng

hzheng@cc.usu.edu

Utah State University

Fall, 2001

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Table of Contents

1.      Background

2.      Objective

3.      Study area

4.      Data sources

5.      Processing

6.      Conclusion

7.      Further work

8.   Problems

9.   Acknowledgement 

 

1. Background

The Big Lost River shed is located in south-central Idaho and is about 1500 square miles.  Big lost River is the largest basin tributary to the Snake River Plain. The economy in the area is based on irrigation agriculture and stock raising. The basin is underlain by a diverse assemblage of rocks which range in age from Precambrian to Holocene. According to their characteristics, the assemblage is divided into five groups: Carbonate rocks, noncarbonated rocks, cemented alluvial deposits, unconsolidated alluvial deposits, and basalt. The principal aquifer is unconsolidated alluvial fill and the carbonate rocks are the major bedrock aquifer.

A distinctive feature of the Big Lost River basin is the large interchange of water from surface streams into the ground and from the ground into the surface stream. Large quantities of water disappear in the Chilly, Darlington, and other sinks and reappear above Mackay Narrows, above Moore Canal heading, and in other reaches.

 

2. Objective

1.      Delineate the sub watersheds in the Big Lost River Basin according to the locations of the gaging stations.

2.      Compare the precipitation data and streamflow data of adjacent weather station and gauging station, and the streamflow value of upstream and downstream gauging stations to show why Big Lost River is a losing stream.

 

3. Study Area

Figure 1 shows the location of the Big Lost River basin in Idaho state, most of the basin are located in Butte county and Custer county.

4. Data sources

·        DEM (Digital Elevation Model) :  ftp://geolibrary.uidaho.edu/Data/DEM/

·        Big Lost River basin boundary:  http://www.idwr.state.id.us/gisdata/gis.htm

·        Location of streamflow gauging stations and the streamflow data:

            http://idaho.usgs.gov/rt-cgi/gen_tbl_pg

·        Location of weather stations and the precipitation data:

            http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmid.html

·        River:  http://www.idwr.state.id.us/gisdata/gis.htm

 

5. Processing

From the USGS website, the locations of the streamflow gauging stations in the Big Lost River basin can be got as shown in table 1, and from the website of Western Regional Climate Center, the locations of the weather stations in the basin can be got as shown in table 2.

 

Table 1 Locations of gaging stations

 

GAUG_NO

NAME

LONG

LAT

13120000

NF BIG LOST RIVER AT WIL

114°06'47"

43°55'59"

13120500

BIG LOST RIVER AT HOWELL

114°01'12"

43°59'54"

13127000

BIG LOST RIVER BL MACKAY

113°40'28"

43°57'05"

13132500

BIG LOST RIVER NR ARCO I

113°16'10"

43°35'00"

13132513

INEL DIVERSION AT HEAD N

113°05'00"

43°30'50"

13132520

BIG LOST RIVER BL INEL D

113°04'52"

43°30'57"

13132535

BIG LOST R AT LINCOLN BL

112°56'33"

43°34'26"

13132565

BIG LOST RIVER AB BIG LO

112°52'20"

43°43'40"

 

Table 2 Locations of weather stations

 

STATION NAME

LONG

LAT

ARCO 3 SW

113°20'

43°36'

CHILLY BARTON FLAT

113°49'

43°59'

GROUSE

113°37'

43°42'

MACKAY RANGER STATION

113°37'

43°55'

IDAHO FALLS 46W

113°57'

43°32'

 

Steps of making the point shape files:

1.      Converting the coordinates of the stations into decimal degrees using Excel and saving the file as DBF file

            Decimal degree = degrees + minutes / 60 + seconds / 3600

2.      In ArcMap, add the DBF table created in Excel. Right click on the table and select Display XY Data…, and after some process, the table should be transferred to an Event. An event is a point or line that is displayed using coordinates, but it is not shape file or feature class.

3.      Right click on the Event layer and press Data/Export… to export the data as a shape file.

 

      Figure 2 shows the two point shape files in the same view.

 

   

Figure 2

 

Table 3 and Figure 3 show the long time average monthly streamflow at the gaging stations in the basin, and table 4 and Figure4 show the precipitation data.

 

Table 3 Long time average monthly streamflow (cfs)

 

GAUG_NO

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

13120000

24.4

21.9

22.7

62.5

280

420

202

72.7

47.6

38.8

31.8

26

13120500

82.9

78

81.6

185

770

1,217

600

221

146

126

107

87.8

13127000

123

130

148

160

483

958

680

416

230

170

107

112

13132500

61.9

64.5

86.5

99

135

260

146

50.5

72.5

82.3

89

76

13132513

13.6

4.67

9.12

14.5

8.42

109

30.2

24.6

20.2

16.1

20.3

21.6

13132520

12.7

17.7

36

50.1

64.6

136

55.1

15.5

39.6

41.2

29.6

12.9

13132535

2.09

4.5

21.4

40.6

56.3

121

50.7

10.7

32

34

24.8

6.61

13132565

0.72

6.69

49.6

58.2

94.7

240

74.8

5.63

4.09

28

47.2

9.53

 

 

 

Figure 3

 

         Table 4 Long time average precipitation (inches)

 

WEATHER STATION

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

ARCO 3 SW

0.93

0.91

0.70

0.74

1.24

1.19

0.61

0.69

0.65

0.50

0.70

0.91

CHILLY BARTON FLAT

0.37

0.28

0.45

0.63

1.31

1.34

0.94

0.85

0.76

0.53

0.42

0.39

GROUSE

1.21

1.05

1.00

0.95

1.54

1.57

0.85

0.92

0.79

0.65

0.99

1.24

MACKAY RANGER STATION

0.79

0.63

0.63

0.64

1.09

1.35

0.93

0.82

0.69

0.56

0.60

0.75

IDAHO FALLS 46W

0.71

0.63

0.61

0.79

1.28

1.27

0.52

0.50

0.69

0.51

0.68

0.72

 

 

 

Figure 4

 

 

In order to compare the streamflow and precipitation, the unit of the streamflow data should be converted from CFS to inch. To do that, the drainage area of gaging station should be known.

First, the sub watersheds taking the gaging station as outlet are delineated.

Steps delineating the sub watersheds:

1.      Using ArcInfo Workstation functions to fill the pits in the DEM data, i.e. remove the sinks.

2.      Add the Hydrology modeling toolbar to ArcMap. It looks like this

3.      Calculate the flow direction grid.

4.      Calculate the flow accumulation grid.

5.      Select Hydrology Modeling Toolbar/Hydrology/Properties....  Set the inputs flow direction as flow direction grid calculated and flow accumulation as flow accumulation grid calculated. This will enable the Watershed  and Raindrop  buttons on the Hydrology Modeling Toolbar. Now the Hydrology modeling toolbar should look like this.

6.      Click the Watershed  button and in the DEM view, click at the gaging station point, the watershed of that station should appear on the screen. Do the same thing for the other gaging stations.

 

Figure 5 shows the sub watersheds delineated. (For some unknown reason, the sub watershed for gaging station 13132535 can not be got)

 

 

Figure 5

 

Second, create a new geodatabase and then import the watersheds into a new feature dataset in that geodatabase. The areas of the sub watersheds are determined as a part of the import process, and the values are shown in table 5 in square miles.

 

After getting the drainage area of the gaging stations, the unit of the streamflow data can be converted into inch by using the following equation.

 

   

 

Table 5 Long time average streamflow (inches)

 

GAUG_NO

DRNAREA

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

13120000

114

0.25

0.20

0.23

0.61

2.83

4.11

2.04

0.74

0.47

0.39

0.31

0.26

13120500

450

0.21

0.18

0.21

0.46

1.97

3.02

1.54

0.57

0.36

0.32

0.27

0.22

13127000

803

0.18

0.17

0.21

0.22

0.69

1.33

0.98

0.60

0.32

0.24

0.15

0.16

13132500

1410

0.05

0.05

0.07

0.08

0.11

0.21

0.12

0.04

0.06

0.07

0.07

0.06

13132513

1750

0.01

0.00

0.01

0.01

0.01

0.07

0.02

0.02

0.01

0.01

0.01

0.01

13132520

1751

0.01

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.09

0.04

0.01

0.03

0.03

0.02

0.01

13132535

1925

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.07

0.03

0.01

0.02

0.02

0.01

0.00

13132565

2059

0.00

0.00

0.03

0.03

0.05

0.13

0.04

0.00

0.00

0.02

0.03

0.01

 

 

From Figure 2, the relative location of the gaging stations and weather stations, the streamflow difference between station 13120500 and 13127000 can be compared with the precipitation of weather station Chilly Barton Flat. But because station 13127000 is just below the Mackay Dam, its streamflow is completely regulated by the Mackay Reservoir; it is meaningless to compare the streamflow between it and the upstream gaging station.  The streamflow difference between gaging station 13127000 and 13132500 can be compared with the average precipitation of the 3 weather stations, Mackay Ranger Station, Grouse and Arco 3SW, because these 3 weather stations  are all located between gaging station 131270000 and 13132500. Also, the streamflow difference between 13132520 and 13132535 can be compared with the precipitation of weather station Idaho Falls 46W.

 

From Figure 6 and Figure 7, it can be seen that the downstream gaging station 13132520 and 13132535 has smaller streamflow value than that of upstream gaging station 13127000 and 13132535 respectively. But normally, if there is no flow loss or there is normal flow loss, the downstream point should have higher streamflow than upstream point. When comparing the streamflow of gaging station between 13120000 and 13120500 (Figure 8) and between 13132500 and 13132513 (Figure 9), it also shows that the downstream gaging station has smaller streamflow value.

 

 

Figure 6

 

 

 

Figure 7

 

 

Figure 8

 

 

Figure 9

 

6. Conclusion

Big Lost River is a losing stream down valley from the Howell Ranch gaging station. Large amount of its surface water infiltrated into the ground as ground water.

 

7. Further work

•        Analysis of the geohydrologic condition of the basin.

•        The interchange of surface water and ground water in the area.

 

8.    Problems

·        For some unknown reason, the sub watershed for gauging station 13132535 can not be delineated.

·        Because the river is a losing stream, downstream gaging station always has a larger discharge than that of upstream stations, the relation between precipitation and streamflow is not very clear so that the fraction of precipitation that becomes streamflow can not be determined.

 

9.    Acknowledgement

·        Dr. David Tarboton, Civil & Environmental Engineering, USU

·        Ahmed Said, Civil & Environmental Engineering, USU