Create A Watershed Profile

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Dinah Corey Walsh
5 years ago
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1 Name Date Follow the steps below with Chesapeake Bay FieldScope to create a watershed profile for your location. Part 1. Take a trip down your tributaries. Create A Watershed Profile 1. Find your field study site location in FieldScope. Select the Search tab or zoom in/out to navigate to your location. Select the Topo base map. Record the latitude and longitude, shown in the top right corner of the browser window. Name/location of field study site: Latitude: Longitude: Zoom in to find the nearest stream, river, or creek. What is the name of the creek or waterway that is closest to your location? 1

2 2. Find the shortest distance to the Chesapeake Bay. Use the Measure tool to measure the shortest straight-line distance in both miles and kilometers from your location to the Chesapeake Bay. (Hint: Click the arrow on the right side of the tool to change the units.) Select the tool and then draw a straight line to the nearest point on the shore of the bay. Be sure to include units. Distance to the bay (shortest straight-line): 3. Find how water flows to the Chesapeake Bay. First, zoom in close to your location. Select the Compute Flow Path tool. Next, click near your location, where the flow path begins. When the computation is complete, your flow path line will appear. Record the distance to the bay, found on the chart on the left side of the FieldScope window. Distance to the bay (tributary flow path): 4. From your location in the watershed, follow the flow path line to the Chesapeake Bay. Zoom in close enough so you can see features such as parks or buildings. Explore using each of these base maps as you move along streams and rivers to the bay: Satellite Imagery, Street Map, Topographic Map, and Boundaries and Places. Which streams and rivers connect your location to the Chesapeake Bay? Zoom in along your flow path to make sure you find as many connected streams and rivers as you can. (Hint: The topographic base map labels hydrologic feature names.) 5. Find your principal tributary. The Chesapeake Bay has more than 15 rivers that drain directly into it. These rivers are the principal tributaries of the bay. What is the name of the principal tributary downstream from you that flows into the Chesapeake Bay? 2

3 6. Identify five places of interest, physical or human-made, between your study site and the bay. Include two sentences for each: first, write a sentence that describes why you found that feature interesting. Then write one sentence about how it connects to the stream or river nearby. How might these places affect the environment along the stream or river, and the water also? Part 2. Look upstream and downstream to find your watersheds. You live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Did you know that it s made up of 506 small watersheds, grouped into 58 medium watersheds? These medium watersheds are grouped into four large watersheds, or sub-regions. More than 100,000 rivers and streams flow through the Chesapeake Bay watershed. You ve seen the flow path from your location to the bay, or downstream. Let s look at the area of land where water flows to your location, from upstream. The water flow over an area of land both upstream and downstream from your site make up your watershed. 3

1. Name your watersheds. Turn on the watershed boundaries layer. Use the Query Point tool near your location. What is the name of your local (small) watershed?

4 1. Name your watersheds. Turn on the watershed boundaries layer. Use the Query Point tool near your location. What is the name of your local (small) watershed? In what sub-basin (medium watershed) is it located? In what sub-region (large watershed) is it located? 2. Find how watershed size changes as you move downstream. To do this, find the stream or river that is closest to your location. Then map the flow path again from this point using the Flow Path tool. Next, use the Compute Watershed tool and click on the flowpath near your location to find the area of watershed upstream from this point. Fill in the lat/long and area sections of the chart below. Also, use the Drawing Tools to draw a polygon around your small watershed, and label it. (See example below) 4

Next, zoom out so you can see both the Chesapeake Bay and your location. Move halfway downstream and use the Compute Watershed tool at a point along the tributary network. See example below.

5 Next, zoom out so you can see both the Chesapeake Bay and your location. Move halfway downstream and use the Compute Watershed tool at a point along the tributary network. See example below. Compute the watershed again, and fill in the first two columns with information from the Watershed tab. Now choose a point at the mouth of the major tributary that connects your location to the Chesapeake Bay. Use the Watershed tool to calculate the upstream watershed from this point. Compute the watershed, and fill in the first two columns in the chart. 5

6 3. Explore elevation in your watershed. Turn on the Elevation layer. Use the Query Point tool to find the elevation at the three locations you listed in the chart below. Area of Watershed Elevation at this location Watershed for this point by my location lat: long: Watershed for this point along tributary network lat: long: Watershed for this point at mouth of tributary lat: long: How do both watershed area and elevation change as you travel along your tributaries to the bay? How do you think land use upstream might affect your location? Part 3. Create your Watershed Profile Map. Use the Compute Watershed tool, Compute Flowpath tool, the drawing tools, and other features of FieldScope to create a map that represents your field study site and its place in the watershed. Save your map and print. 6

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