Following the Lower Colorado River with the guidance of
BASINS 3.0Kristina Schneider
CE 394K.2
My Quest and its DetoursExplore the use of the new BASINS 3.0 to model water quality in Lake AustinDecided to focus on the SWAT modelModel entire Austin - Travis CUHave to cross some Mountains!
Destination: Austin – Travis CU
Listing state ID Waterbody Parameter of Concern
Priority for TMDL
development
Is the Waterbody Targeted for TMDL
development before the year April, 2000?
Potential sources of Impairment
NONPOINT SOURCE,POINT SOURCE,
NONPOINT SOURCE,POINT SOURCE,
CHLORDANEPATHOGENS
TX TX-1403-1998 LAKE AUSTIN ORGANIC ENRICHMENT/LOW
TX TX-1427-1998 ONION CREEK TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS
PATHOGENS
LOW No POINT SOURCE,
LOW No
MEDIUM No
TX TX-1429-1998 TOWN LAKE MEDIUM No
TX TX-1428-1998 COLORADO RIVER BELOW TOWN LAKE
NONPOINT SOURCE,
TX TX-1430-1998 BARTON CREEK PATHOGENS MEDIUM No NONPOINT SOURCE,
Source: 303(d) Listed Waters Website maintained by the EPA
TMDL Listed Waters for the CU
My Guide: BASINS 3.0Integrated framework using an ArcView Interface.Models:
SWATWinHSPFQUAL2EPLOAD
Amazing Collection of National Environmental DataUpdated Data Formats Automatic Watershed Delineator
Source: BASINS 3.0 User Manuel
My Planned Journey: The steps to using SWAT
Activate SWAT, Watershed Delineator, and Land Use, Soil Classification and Overlay Tool Ext. Delineate the watershedDefine Land Use and SoilsDefine HRUsDefine the weather data Apply the default input files writer Set up (requires specification of simulation period, PET calculation method, etc.) and run SWAT
My First Guide: BASINS 3.0 Beta from the Web
Available at: http://www.epa.gov/ost/ftp/basins/system/BASINS3/areadb3.htm
Use Assess and Target to get a general picture of water quality situation.Watershed Delineator works!!The Land Use and Soil Classification does not appear.
My First Guide: BASINS 3.0 Beta from the Web
NHD
Digitized Outlet
Burned-in Stream
RF1
My second Guide: BASINS 3.0 Beta from BRC
Watershed DelineationDEM from BASINS 2.0 polygon not exact enough when just convert to grid
NHD used to burn-in stream
Delineator created stream
My second Guide: Watershed Delineation
Tried to use the a NED DEM. Possible Problem Projection
My second Guide: Watershed Delineation
Success! Used BASINS DEM polygon but specified the correct grid size. Tweeked the nhd_rch file
Thanks to Vicki
Samuels !
My second Guide: Subbasin Results
Only one Subbasin has attributes?
My second Guide: Land Use and Soil Classification
My second Guide: Land Use and Soil Classification
Reclassified Land Use
Reclassified Soils
My second Guide: SWAT Input Files
The next step is to create the input files for SWAT.
This input file is where our error in the subbasin delineation matters.
My second Guide: Basin Error causes LU & Soil error
What about the other Models?HSPF
Also, requires correctly delineated watersheds.
QUAL2E
Needs Permit Compliance System Data
• This dataset is being reformatted for version 3.0.
PLOAD
Manual has no documentation and not easily deciphered.
Travel Guide: Watershed Reports
Travel Guide: Watershed Reports
DOComparision of WQ Station DO Concentrations
0.00
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
12.00
14.00
1980-1984 1985-1989 1990-1994 1995 -1997
DO
(mg/
L) Avg.
Max
Min
Com paris ion of Average Yearly WQ Station DO Concentrations
7.20
7.40
7.60
7.80
8.00
8.20
8.40
8.60
1980-1984 1985-1989 1990-1994 1995 -1997
DO
(mg/
L)
Travel Guide: Watershed Reports
Chlordane
• Interesting to note the data is not available after 1980. It is possibly not longer an issue.
Comparision of WQ Stations Chlordane Concentrations
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
1970-1974 1975-1979 1980-1984
Chl
orda
ne (u
g/L)
Average
Max
Min
Comparision of Yearly Average WQ Station Chlordane Concentrations
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
1970-1974 1975-1979 1980-1984
Chl
orda
ne (u
g/L)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Average
# of Stations
Future Travels
Use BASINS 3.0 when the final release with data is available this summer to complete my expedition.
Goal of the study with be to investigate the variation of DO with differing land uses.
If time permits study the nature of nutrient loading in the CU.
Questions?