The Johnson Creek watershed, Portland, Oregon, has undergone urbanization at an increasing rate. Excessive flooding has occurred in the lower portions of the watershed, resulting in an estimated 1.5 million dollars worth of flood losses annually. In attempts to mitigate the flooding damages millions of dollars have been spent to channelize the creek, and over 200 thousand dollars has been spent during the last 20 years on preliminary feasibility studies alone. The author saw a need to verify that there has been a change in the rainfall-runoff relationships in the upper Johnson Creek basin since 1941 and to quantify this change through the analysis of key hydrologic parameters. To accomplish this , extensive background research was conducted to gather as much extant information as possible about the climatic and physiographic characteristics that affect the basin hydrology. The watershed was found to have many distinct physiographic sub-areas comprised of different underlying geology, soils, geomorphic areas, slopes, vegetation patterns, and land use types that result in a complex interaction between the watershed input {precipitation) and the watershed output (runoff at the stream gage).

OWRT Project No. A-069-ARIZ / Agreement No. 14-34-0001-6003 / Project dates: July 1975-September 1977 / Acknowledgement: The work upon which this report is based was supported by funds provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology, as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1978. / A water resources management study for the Sonoita Creek watershed was conducted in order to develop a usable water resources management plan for the area and to resolve possible conflict among the different water demands in the basin. These water demands are classified as municipal and domestic, recreation and agriculture. Six potential water resources management alternatives are developed and compared using the standardized cost -effectiveness methodology. This approach enables thorough and efficient comparison of the alternatives with respect to both quantifiable and unquantifiable criteria. Each alternative considers developing either the ground water or the surface water resources of the watershed. Also, each alternative considers some method of treated sewage effluent disposal. The algorithm ELECTRE I is used to select the most suitable plan for the watershed. This procedure is used because of its simplicity and its proven usefulness in analyzing multiobjective decision problems. With the available information on the ground and surface water resources of the watershed, the choice of alternatives is reduced to one, namely, construction of a small reservoir at Redrock Canyon. Evaporation control measures are needed in order to reduce evaporation losses from the reservoir. The reservoir would serve as a supplemental source of water for the town of Patagonia and for the Sonoita Creek Sanctuary. v

The restoration of rivers and streams should be based on a strong conceptual framework. Streams are developing systems. As such, streams exhibit temporal behaviors that change with changing stream environments. Underlying the dynamic development of streams is potential capacity. Streams express this capacity as an array of habitats over time and across the landscape. Human land uses in the western United States have rapidly altered aquatic habitats as well as the processes that shape habitat. As a result, the diversity of native fishes and their habitats has been suppressed. Restoration is fundamentally about allowing stream systems to re-express their capacities. Four steps are provided to guide stream restoration activities. Key tasks include: identification of the historic patterns of habitat development; protection of the developmental diversity that remains; local application of specific knowledge about suppressive factors; classification of sensitive, critical or refugium habitats; release of anthropogenic suppression; and monitoring of biotic response to habitat change. Applying these concepts, I describe potential habitat refugia for aquatic organisms in the Joseph Creek basin in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. Five valley segment classes, differing in valley corridor landforms, are described. Of these, low-gradient wide alluvial valleys have been most altered by human land use. Riparian vegetation has been extensively removed or altered in alluvial valleys. Currently, stream habitats are structurally depauperate, and warm to temperatures well above thermal tolerances of native salmonids. Potential refugia for native coldwater fishes in these valleys include patches of complex habitat within stream reaches. Reaches fenced to exclude domestic livestock exhibit narrower channels, more pools, and higher frequencies of stable vegetated banks than nearby unfenced reaches. During summer low flow periods, cold groundwater seeping into and accumulating in stream channels forms "cold pools". Cold pools provide potential seasonal refuge for coldwater fish at microhabitat scales. Cold pools are associated with channel complexity, and are more frequent in reaches with vigorous riparian vegetation. Seven classes of cold pools are described. Cold pool classes differ in minimum temperature, maximum depth and volume. Distributions of cold pool classes between valley segment classes suggest that valley geomorphology in addition to local channel form may influence development of certain cold pool types. Although refugia at the microhabitat to reach scales are important, the context within which remnant or refugium habitats and associated relict populations are maintained may ultimately determine the persistence of those species and habitats. In managed landscapes, protection and restoration of habitats at many scales may be necessary if we are to best insure the persistence of native species. / Graduation date: 1995

The research was undertaken to simulate the surface transport of water and chemicals from a flat agricultural watershed at the Green Belt farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The GIS database created for the Black Rapid Creek watershed focused on attributes and data necessary to run a non-point source model for surface transport of water and chemicals called AGNPS. The GIS used in the current study was SPANS for the OS/2 warp (version 3) environment. The years of simulation for the study area were 1992 and 1993. The study was carried out on a watershed scale and flow routing from different cells to the outlet of the watershed was simulated with AGNPS under different management practices. The results of the study indicate that input variables of AGNPS model for a flat agricultural watershed, flow direction, precipitation event and topography of the land, affect the surface runoff volume at the outlet considerably. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Areas were sampled in the White Rock Creek Watershed to examine sediment bound trace metal distributions and sorption relationships. A Kruskal-Wallis AOV found significant among area differences for most metals, and SNK-like multiple comparisons were used to group these areas. Kruskal-Wallis AOVs similarly found among area differences for sediment components that bind trace metals (Fe and Mn oxides and organic carbon) and physicochemical conditions that influence metal sorption (particle size and pH). Multiple correlation found numerous relationships among trace metals, sediment components, and physicochemical conditions. Statistical relationships indicate that metal partitioning to various sorption factors is metal specific. White Rock Creek Watershed trace metal concentrations are comparable to those in many urban watersheds.

In-stream aquatic habitat depends on adequate levels of dissolved oxygen. Human alteration of the landscape has an extensive influence on the biogeochemical processes that drive oxygen cycling in streams. Historic datasets allow researchers to track trends in chemical parameters concomitant with urbanization, while land cover change analysis allows researchers to identify linkages between water quality trends and landscape change. Using the Seasonal Kendall's test, I examined water quality trends in oxygen demand variables during the mid-1990s to 2003, for twelve sites in the Rock Creek sub-watershed of the Tualatin River, northwest Oregon. Significant trends occurred in each parameter. Dissolved oxygen (DO (%sat)) increased at five sites. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) decreased at seven sites. Total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) decreased at five sites and increased at one site. Ammonium (NH3-N) decreased at one site and increased at one site. Multiple linear regression indicates that nitrogenous oxygen demand accounts for a significant amount of variance in COD at ten of the twelve sites (adjusted R2values from 0.14 to 0.73). Aerial photo interpretation revealed significant land cover change in agricultural land cover (-8% for the entire basin area) and residential land cover (+10% for the entire basin area). Correlation results between seasonal oxygen demand data and land cover values at multiple scales indicated that: (I) forest cover negatively influences COD at the full sub-basin scale and positively influences NH3-N at local scales, (2) residential land cover positively influences DO (%sat) values at local scales, (3) agricultural land cover does not influence oxygen demand at any land cover assessment scale, ( 4) local topography negatively influences TKN and NH3-N, and (5) urban runoff management infrastructure correlates positively with COD. Study results indicate that, with the exception of forested land, local scale land cover and landscape variables dominate influence on oxygen demand in the Rock Creek basin. Since DO conditions have improved in these streams, watershed management efforts should emphasize local influences in order to continue to maintain stream health.

No description available.

The conservation of freshwater resources is fundamental in supporting modern society and preserving natural habitats and ecosystems. Deterioration of water quality in urban landscapes and loss of municipal water to leaky water distribution infrastructure are two substantial challenges to water-resource sustainability. I examine the geochemistry of streamwater, municipal water, wastewater, soil, and bedrock from the Bull Creek watershed, a rapidly urbanizing watershed in Austin, Texas, to achieve a better understanding of the processes of geochemical evolution as anthropogenically-sourced water recharges natural systems. Urbanization patterns in the Bull Creek watershed have created a contiguous expanse of urban development that covers roughly two thirds of the watershed, whereas the remaining third is rural, enabling direct comparison between urban and rural streamwater from a single watershed. Results indicate that Na, Cl, K, and SO₄ in urban springs and tributaries are elevated more than two-fold in comparison with rural springs and tributaries. A comparison of Sr concentration and Sr isotopic composition for spring and tributary samples indicates that municipal water and wastewater provide a substantial contribution to the urbanized stream branches of Bull Creek. This water is reactive in the subsurface after it leaks from the municipal system, evolving via a pathway of water-rock interaction with limestone. / text

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / Wildcat Creek Watershed near Manhattan, Kansas, experiences damaging flash floods that have required evacuations in recent years (Spicer 2011). The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine the issue of flooding in the Wildcat Creek Watershed through interviewing stakeholders (those that reside, own a business, or study) using a semi – structured approach. Interview discussion examined stakeholders’ perceptions of 1) how they understand the processes that create the flooding hazard, 2) whether or not they value the implementation of mitigation efforts to reduce the negative impacts of flooding, 3) whether they feel at risk to flooding, and 4) who they consider a trusted source of information about the hydrologic characteristics of the watershed. Based on the results of this study, a spatial relationship in perceptions of flooding issues in the Wildcat Creek Watershed was found. Across the study area, stakeholders understood many of the physical causes of flooding, but did not tend to see the connections among the many physical components. Overall, stakeholders believed that mitigation strategies to curb flash flooding were valuable, although many were not supportive of paying for these efforts through potential taxation from a watershed district. Despite the increase of flooding events in the past decade (Anderson 2011), many stakeholders neither saw any changes in their personal risk of exposure to flooding nor a change in their flood vulnerability. In the context of the flooding issue in Wildcat Creek Watershed, most participants trusted their neighbors and community leaders as sources of information instead of professionals who research and/or conduct work on the watershed.

Flooding in the Assiniboine River Basin has increasingly resulted in major crop and infrastructure losses. Since the early 2000’s, flood events have occurred more frequently and with greater impact. As floodwaters travel over agricultural fields, soil particles and nutrients are carried downstream. These particles and nutrients are a major factor in water quality degradation contributing nitrogen and phosphorus to Manitoba’s rivers and lakes. This practicum aims to increase the storage capacity of existing wetlands in a prairie landscape so that a 100-year storm event can be managed on-site. A site in Broughton’s Creek Watershed was. It was determined that the quantity of runoff could be significantly reduced and the quality of water would increase. This approach could be applied to other locations within the Assiniboine River Basin to create a landscape resilient to flood events and downstream water quality degradation. / October 2016