Lecture 3: Hydrologic Cycle and Watersheds
Key Questions
1. What % of the total water in Earth is fresh?
2. What is the hydrologic (or water) cycle?
3. What are the elements if the hydrologic cycle?
4. What is a watershed?
5. What defines the science of hydrology?
6. What is a WRIA?
7. What is a TMDL?
Lake Whatcom Watershed
The amount of water on Earth and in the atmosphere is constant (about 332.5 million cubic miles) If all Earth's water (liquid, ice, freshwater, saline) was put into a sphere it would be about 860 miles in diameter
The Moon diameter is 2160 miles
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterdistribution.html
The atmosphere holds less than 0.001% of the Earth’s water, which may seem surprising because water plays such an important role in weather. About 50% of the water vapor in the atmosphere is within the first mile of altitude.
All the water in the atmosphere would form a depth of about 230 feet on Washington State. The Hydrologic (or water) Cycle describes the distribution of water among the oceans, land and atmosphere. Open up this web site (double click on the figure) and read:
1) A quick summary of the water cycle
2) Global water distribution Check this site out too.
Evaporation is the transformation (phase change) of liquid water to water vapor (gas )and requires ENERGY
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Condensation is the transformation (phase change) of water vapor (gas) into liquid water which releases ENERGY
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Water vapor and liquid water move through the atmosphere by the jet streams and surface‐based circulations.
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Droplets of condensed water can coalesce and fall to the Earth’s surface as rain, snow, hail, sleet, and freezing rain.
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Runoff is the movement of water overland and in streams and rivers to the oceans.
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Infiltration is the movement of precipitation into the Earth’s surface which can be stored in the soils or as groundwater.
/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Transpiration is the transfer of water vapor to the atmosphere from vegetation (evaporation from stomata). /(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxmlhttp://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
Hydrology is the science that examines the occurrence and movement of atmospheric, surface, and groundwater. A Watershed is the area of land that drains to a single outlet and is separated from other watersheds by a topographic divide.
Also known as a catchment, river basin, or drainage basin
Hydrologists examine water in a watershed using a mass balance or water budget approach.
Inputs ‐ Outputs = Change in Storage
Nooksack River basin
outlet
outlet
Middle Fork basin of the Nooksack River
outlet
Lake Whatcom Watershed
Austin Creek basin
outlet
ArcGIS is a software tool used to manage spatial data
Topographic map of southwestern Lake Whatcom region
Digital elevation map (DEM) map of southwestern Lake Whatcom region
Hillshade map of southwestern Lake Whatcom region
Austin Creek basin (green)
Austin Creek basin (green)
Austin Creek basin (8.25 sq‐mi)
Mississippi River basin – 1,256,591 sq-mi
Columbia River Basin – 260,452 sq‐mi .
Canada
USA
Columbia River Basin
260,462 sq‐miles
.
The Puget Sound watershed covers nearly 42,800 square kilometers and consists of over ten thousand rivers and streams that drain into the Sound.
16,525 square miles
Nooksack River Basin
http://wa.water.usgs.gov/data/realtime/adr/interactive/maps/NooksackSC_basin.pdf
About 2000 square kilometers or 800 square miles
Lake Whatcom Watershed
Area is 36,270 acres (57 sq mi)
Watershed management in Washington State
Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA)
WRIAs were formalized in 1998 under Washington State Water
Management Act. Ecology was given responsibility for the
development and management of these administrative and
planning boundaries.
7. Artificial inputs can affect streamflow
Middle Fork Nooksack River Watershed
Lake Whatcom Watershed
Diversion Pipeline
(15.4 km)
Diversion Off
Diversion On (max ≈ 65 cfs)
Diversion Flow into Mirror Lake
Mirror Lake
Lake Whatcom Water Budget
inputs – outputs = change in storage
Water Budget for the 2007 water year
Inputs
Direct Precipitation
Diversion
Runoff
Volume (MG) % of total
7063
18.2
2920
7.5
28717
74.2
Outputs
Whatcom Creek
30359
Hatchery
1002
Georgia Pacific
807
City of Bellingham
4145
LW Water & Sewer District 232
Evaporation
2831
Change in Storage
‐520
77.1
2.5
2.0
10.5
0.6
7.2
intake
Looking southeast down Lake Whatcom
.
Photo by Margaret Landis
Runoff can deliver nutrients and pollutants to the lake
Silver Creek
The lake fails the state’s water quality standards (on TMDL list)
Nearly 650 water bodies in the State of Washington fail to meet water quality standards.
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/tmdl/index.html
Lake Whatcom is on the state’s TMDL list
TMDL = Total Maximum Daily Load
A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water‐quality standards.
Lake Whatcom is on the state’s TMDL list
TMDL = Total Maximum Daily Load
A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water‐quality standards.
TMDL development includes the:
•
Description of the sources of pollution in a water body
•
Strategies to reduce or eliminate the pollution sources
Lake Whatcom Water Quality Monitoring Sites
City Intake
Site 1
Site 2
Site 3
Site 4
Site 1
Site 3
August 2007
Site 2
Site 4