Buck Creek Educational Corridor http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/buckcreek.php

of this fact sheet is to intro-

duce the instruments and

the types of data being col-

lected, provide instructions

for accessing and download-

ing data from the website,

and illustrate potential uses

of the data in the classroom

or for science projects.

The Buck Creek Education-

al Corridor, part of Witten-

berg’s Center for Civic and

Urban Engagement and its

“Renewing the Core and the

Creek” initiative, is an in-

strumented five-mile reach

of Buck Creek and its tribu-

tary Beaver Creek. Current

instrumentation includes a

weather station, four water

quality stations, and two

stream gaging stations. The

instruments measure

weather and stream condi-

tions every 15 minutes, and

the data are uploaded to the

web each hour. The data

are available for public use

on-line or by download and

can be used for a variety of

investigations. The purpose

Instrumentation

The Weather Station is a

Vaisala Weather Transmit-

ter WXT520 located on top

of the Barbara Deer Kuss

Science Center on Witten-

berg’s campus, adjacent to

Buck

Creek. It

provides

wind speed,

wind direc-

tion, baro-

metric pressure, relative

humidity, liquid precipita-

tion, and air temperature.

Four Water Quality Stations

are located on Buck Creek

and Beaver Creek. Water

quality is dependent on the

physical, chemical and bio-

logical characteristics of

water. There are diurnal

and seasonal fluctations in

water quality, for example,

as a function of changes in

weather conditions like

daily or seasonal changes in

temperature. Other chang-

es in water quality are event

Instrumentation and Data Access in the

Buck Creek Educational Corridor

W A T E R S H E D F A C T S

Total watershed

area 140 mi2

Average annual rain-

fall 38 in

Average annual tem-

perature 58 F

Elevation

Max 1321 ft

Min 899 ft

C. J. Brown

Reservoir controls

flow from 83 mi2 of

the Buck Creek wa-

tershed

53 combined sewer

overflows contribute

flow to Buck Creek

during runoff events

Tributary of the Mad

River which drains

into the Great Miami

and Ohio Rivers

Located in Clark and

Champaign Coun-

ties, Ohio

Population

Springfield 62,400

County 144,700

L A N D U S E A N D

C O V E R

Agriculture 70 %

Open Space 11 %

Urban 9 %

Forest 8 %

Other 2 %

Location of lowhead dams and instrumentation along Buck Creek in Springfield, Ohio.

Weather station.

Water quality sonde and its housing in Buck Creek.

Fact Sheet 4 Buck Creek Educational Corridor

Buck Creek Educational Corridor http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/buckcreek.php

-based, driven by rainfall and stormwater runoff,

snowfall and snowmelt, and water releases from C.J.

Brown Reservoir. The water quality data include

temperature, pH, conductivity, oxidation-reduction

potential (ORP), dissolved oxygen, and turbidity.

Temperature - rates of biological and chemical pro-

cesses depend on temperature. Temperature affects

oxygen content of the water; photosynthesis by

aquatic plants; metabolic rates of aquatic organisms;

and sensitivity of organisms to toxic wastes, para-

sites, and diseases. Optimal temperatures for fish

depend on the species.

pH – a measure of the acidity or basicity of water.

Different stream organisms flourish within different

ranges of pH, but the largest variety of aquatic spe-

cies prefer a pH range of 6.5-8.0.

Conductivity - a measure of the ability of water to

conduct an electrical current. It is affected by the

presence of inorganic dissolved solids and is a useful

measure of stream water quality. Significant changes

in conductivity could then be an indicator that a dis-

charge or some other source of pollution has entered

a stream.

ORP - oxidation-reduction potential is a measure of

the electrical potential of water in millivolts and de-

pends on whether the stream water is oxiding or re-

ducing. Tap water is generally between +200 to

+600mv and is oxidizing; streams with higher ORP

values have higher water quality.

Dissolved Oxygen - a relative measure of the

amount of oxygen dissolved in stream water. Run-

ning water, because of turbulence, dissolves more

oxygen than still water. Respiration by aquatic ani-

mals, decomposition, and various chemical reactions

consume oxygen. If more oxygen is consumed than is

produced, dissolved oxygen levels decline and sensi-

tive species may move away, weaken, or die. Dis-

solved oxygen varies with temperature.

Turbidity - a measure of water clarity dependent on

the passage of light through the water. Suspended

sediment, from erosion, waste discharge, and urban

runoff, increase turbidity. Turbidity is associated

with higher stream temperature and lower dissolved

oxygen and is harmful to aquatic species.

The Stream Gaging Stations are located on Buck

Creek, west of the Plum Street bridge, and on Beaver

Creek, upstream of its con-

fluence with Buck

Creek. The gaging stations

provide data on the level, or

relative depth, of stream-

flow as measured by a pres-

sure transducer. Changes

in the streamflow are driven

primarily by rainfall or wa-

ter releases by the U.S. Ar-

my Corps of Engineers from

C.J. Brown Reservoir.

Streamflow level, which is

essentially depth, can be

converted to discharge, a

measure of the volume per

unit time.

Viewing Data

Weather, streamflow, and water quality data are

available at

http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/buckcreek.php

The site provides a number of viewing options to ex-

amine current and historic data and statistics. The-

se viewing options allow for exploratory analysis of

data. More comprehensive analysis of the data might

be facilitated by downloading data for a specific time

period or for a specific set of variables and using it in

another application like a graphing program or a sta-

tistics program. An example of downloading data for

use in a spreadsheet is included below.

OVERVIEW – provides a narrative overview of the

Buck Creek Educational Corridor.

MAP – provides locations of the different monitoring

stations in the Buck Creek Educational Corridor.

The sites are active. The sites are identified and a

summary of the most recent data for each site is pro-

vided by moving the cursor over the green dots.

DATA – provides current data for any of the sites and

Plum Street gaging station.

Web interface for accessing, viewing, and downloading data.

Buck Creek Educational Corridor http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/buckcreek.php

parameters that have been selected. Parameters can

be turned on or off by expanding the sites to the left

of the display and checking the boxes for parameters

of interest. To expand a site, click on the plus sign

in front of one or more of the sites. Once parameters

are selected, click on the GO button to update the

illustration.

GRAPH – provides a graphical display of the data for

a specified period time for any of the sites and pa-

rameters that have been selected. By default, the

data are shown for the current day, but data for the

past week, month, or year can also be shown by first

selecting the data to be graphed and clicking on the

GO button, then selecting the timespan of interest.

For a specific time interval, the calendar dates can be

entered directly. To use this option, after the dates

are entered, the illustration is updated by clicking on

the calendar icon to the right of the date.

STATS – provides statistics for the sites and parame-

ters that have been selected over the selected time

interval. The statistics reported include the number

of samples and values for the average, maximum,

minimum, and standard deviation for each parame-

ter.

PANEL – provides a graphical display of current data

for any of the sites and parameters that have been

selected. Data values are portrayed as gages.

Downloading Data from the Buck Creek Educational Corridor

More comprehensive analysis of the data might be

facilitated by downloading data for a specific time

period or for a specific set of variables and using it in

another application like a graphing program or a sta-

tistics program. The example presented below illus-

trates the steps necessary to download and analyze

data related to diurnal, or daily, variation in pH and

the impact streamflow has on this variation.

1. Go to the Buck Creek Educational Corridor

homepage. In this example, you will examine chang-

es in pH from June 25, 2010 to June 29, 2010

from the “Downstream” and “Upstream” water

quality sondes. Begin by locating these stations

on the MAP view and viewing the current data.

Moving the curser over the green dots will provide

station information and current data. Streamflow

data will also be used from the “Plum Street

Gauge.”

2. In the panel to the left of the map, you will see

a list of the different instruments. Expand the

Science Building site, which is a weather station,

and uncheck the selected parameters. Expand

the Plum Street Gauge, and select

Level. Click on the GRAPH tab, and

the data will be plotted for the cur-

rent day.

3. The duration of time over which

the data is graphed can be changed

using the tab and calendar dates in

the lower panel to the left of the

graphs. Enter a starting date of

6/25/2010 and an ending date of

6/29/2010 and click on the calendar

icon to the right of either one of the

dates. The graphs are updated to

include only data over that duration

of time.

4. Download data by clicking on the

Download button. From the Data

Download page you can further mod-

ify the parameters to be downloaded

and the time period for which they

are downloaded. Date and time are

included by default.

5. Click on Download once you are

satisfied with the parameters and

timeframe to be downloaded. This

will automatically open a window

giving you the option to open the file.

Depending on your computer profile

Download

button

Critical components of the web interface for downloading data.

Buck Creek Educational Corridor http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/buckcreek.php

and the availability of Microsoft Office products, it

will generally open as an Excel spreadsheet. The

file can also be saved. The file will be downloaded

in the comma-separated values (.cvs) format, a com-

mon format that can be opened in most programs

spreadsheet, graphing, or statistics programs.

6.The data can be analyzed in any spreadsheet, gra-

phing, or statistics program. The figures below were

generated in Microsoft Excel to illustrate the diurnal

variation in pH and the impact of rainfall and

stormwater runoff on that relationship.

Using Buck Creek Data

There are many different ways to incorporate data

from the Buck Creek Educational Corridor into your

classroom or project. The data can obviously be

applied to a variety of environmental problems,

such as assessing changes in water chemistry asso-

ciated with rainfall and runoff, but its concurrent

use in other disciplines that deal simply with data

can also be effective. For example, in a course in

mathematics or statistics, the data could be used to

demonstrate summary statistics. Daily mean, max-

imum, and minimum temperatures could be calcu-

lated and compared seasonally or between similar

Screen images encountered during the download process.

seasons of different years. Used in conjunction with a

course in environmental science, the data and statis-

tics can be used to study the relationship between dif-

ferent parameters or the impact of some change in the

system on one or more parameters over time.

For example, the pH data downloaded above can be

used to examine diurnal variations in pH. Photosyn-

thesis consumes hydrogen molecules, which causes

the concentration of hydrogen ions to decrease and the

pH to increase during daylight hours. Downstream

change due to urban influences and the impact of rain-

fall on pH can also be evaluated. Diurnal, urban, and rainfall impacts on the pH of Buck Creek as it flows through Springfield.

Need Additional Information?

John B. Ritter

Department of Geology

Wittenberg University

P.O. Box 720

Springfield, OH 45501

Phone: 937-327-7332

Fax: 937-327-6489

E-mail: jritter@wittenberg.edu

Objectives of the

Buck Creek Educational Corridor

assess the environmental impact of in-stream and watershed

changes on water quality over time;

provide problem-based learning opportunities related to

stream environments for area K-16 students; and

provide current weather and water information to recreation-

ists taking advantage of recreational amenities along the creek

corridor.

The Buck Creek Educational Corridor Web-Interface for Real-Time Data is hosted by NEXSENS Technology, Inc. ©