Western Colorado vs.

Eastern Colorado

Where does your water go?

Constance L. Danner29 November 2005

Outline

• Objectives• Background• Data Sources• Map Creation• Analysis• Future Work• Questions

Objectives

• Become familiar with Arc Hydro by plotting the Colorado Headwaters and Big Thompson Watersheds.

• Evaluate the precipitation, stream flow and snow depth in regards to the Continental Divide.

The West vs. The East

South Platte River Basin http://co.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/splt

Colorado River Basin http://waterknowledge.colostate.edu/colo_map.htm

How are they connected?

Map of Colorado-Big Thompson Project http://www.ncwcd.org/project_features/location_map.asp

Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT)

Project by the Numbers30  The number of cities and towns served by the C-BT Project

693,000  The number of acres irrigated by C-BT water in northeastern Colorado

12  The number of reservoirs in the system

35  The miles of tunnels in the system

95  The miles of canals in the C-BT system

700 The miles of transmission lines

310,000  The number of acre foot units of water in the C-BT Project

213,000  The approximate number of acre feet delivered annually through the system

1.6 million The number of acres in the Project's service area

1 The number of acre feet of water that an average urban family of five requires annually

13.1  The length in miles of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel

9.9 The circumference in feet of the tunnel

12 The number of people appointed to serve on the NCWCD Board of Directors

$1.50 The original cost, per acre-foot unit, for C-BT water when applications were first accepted in 1937-38

$1,254.30 The amount paid in 1943 to have a movie, "Green Fields," made about C-BT construction

1/16th of an inch The difference between the center line from the west and the one from the east when the Adams Tunnel was holed through

http://www.ncwcd.org/project_features/cbt_by_the_numbers.asp

Data Sources

• Hydrologic Unit Maps (HUC)– http://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getspatial?huc250k

• National Atlas of the United States– http://www.nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html

• DEM Data from EPA Water Science Websites– http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/ftp/basins/gis_data/

huc/10190006/ – http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/ftp/basins/gis_data/

huc/14010001/ • National Resources Conservation Services for

Colorado– http://www.co.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/

• NNDC Climate Data Online– http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/pls/plclimprod/

somdmain.subquery1

Area of Interest

DEM Processing

LegendWatershedPtswithStreamGages

DrainageLine

NHDFlowline_ProjectWatershed

<all other values>

HydroID620

622

624

626

628

630

632

634

636

638

640

642

644

646

648

650

652

654

656

658

660

662

664

666

Subbasin

Watershed Processing for Colorado Headwaters and Big Thompson

WatershedsPrepared by Constance L. Danner ·

0 70,000 140,00035,000 Meters

Step 8: The final watershed delineation for each batchpoint. The batchpoints were

joined with the USGS Stream Gages. Thiscreated a total of 24 Watersheds.

LegendBT_USGS_Stream_Gage

BatchPoint

BT_NHDFlowine_P

DrainageLine

BT_Subbasin_P

Watershed

0 25,000 50,00012,500 Meters

·

Watershed Processing for the Big Thompson WatershedPrepared by Constance L. Danner

Note: Adjoint Catchment does not fill the entire Big Thompson Subasin Outline. Also, there is no break in the drainage lines unlike the

Colorado Headwaters delineation shown previously.

Note: AgreeDEM for Big Thompson demonstrates

the large change in elevation from

4349 m to 1405 m.

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#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

Colorado Headwaters and Big Thompson Watersheds - Rainfall Gages, USGS Stream Gages, and SNOTEL Sites

Prepared by Constance L. Danner

·

93,000 0 93,00046,500 Meters

Legend# SNOTEL_Site_Locations

ÔÕ Rainfall_Gages_Proj

Stream_Gages

Continental_Div

RF_BT_COHW

BT_COHW_Lakes

COHW_BT_DEM_Proj

ValueHigh : 4349.135254

Low : 1421.549438

What Time Frame to Choose?

Missouri Basin Drought Data http://www.drought.unl.edu/whatis/palmer/missouri.gif

Upper Colorado Drought Data http://www.drought.unl.edu/whatis/palmer/upco.gif

Average Annual Stream Flow

Average Stream Flow from 2000 to 2003

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

0674

1510

0901

0500

0902

4000

0902

6500

0903

2000

0903

3100

0903

3300

0903

4250

0903

4900

0903

5700

0903

5900

0903

6000

0903

7500

0903

8500

0904

1090

0904

1400

0905

8000

0905

9500

0907

0500

USGS Gage Number

Str

ea

m F

low

(c

fs)

Average Annual SNOTEL Data

Average Annual SNOTEL Data from 2000 to 2003

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

16.00

05J12S 06K12S 06J06S 05J04S 06J05S 05K06S 05K21S 05J39S 05K14S 06J08S 05J10S

SNOTEL Site ID

Ave

rag

e A

nn

ual

Dep

th (

in)

Average Annual Precipitation Data

Average Annual Precipitation Data from 2000 to 2004

0.00

200.00

400.00

600.00

800.00

1000.00

1200.00

1400.00

1600.00

1800.00

5106

0

5276

1

5293

4

5311

6

5335

9

5350

0

5405

4

5413

5

5466

4

5523

6

5761

8

5883

9

5909

6

5917

5

Rainfall Gage # (COOPID)

Ave

rage

An

nual

Pre

cip

itatio

n (

inch

es)

Precipitation vs. Elevation

Average Annual Precipitation vs. Elevation

0.00

200.00

400.00

600.00

800.00

1000.00

1200.00

1400.00

1600.00

1800.00

5040.026 5229.987 5503.937 5750 5930.118 7399.935 7459.974 7649.935 7759.843 7785.105 8288.058 8560.04 9103.019 9520.013

Elevation (ft)

Pre

cip

ita

tio

n (i

n)

Future Work

• Final Paper and Analysis