HR: 0800h
AN: H21A-0176    [Abstracts]
TI: Characterizing Storm Event Dynamics of a Forested Watershed in the Lower Atlantic Coastal Plain, South Carolina USA
AU: * LaTorre Torres, I B
EM: bagna526@yahoo.com
AF: Master of Science in Environmental Studies, College of Charleston 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424, United States
AU: Amatya, D M
EM: damatya@fs.fed.us
AF: USDA-Forest Service, Center for Forested Wetlands Research 2731 Savannah Hwy, Charleston, SC 29414, United States
AU: Callahan, T J
EM: callahant@cofc.edu
AF: Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, College of Charleston 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424, United States
AU: Levine, N S
EM: levinen@cofc.edu
AF: Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, College of Charleston 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424, United States
AB: Hydrology research in the Southeast U.S. has primarily focused on upland mountainous areas; however, much less is known about hydrological processes in Lower Coastal Plain (LCP) watersheds. Such watersheds are difficult to characterize due to shallow water table conditions, low topographic gradient, complex surface- subsurface water interaction, and lack of detailed soil information. Although opportunities to conduct long term monitoring in relatively undeveloped watersheds are often limited, stream flow and rainfall in the Turkey Creek watershed (third-order watershed, about 7200 ha in the Francis Marion National Forest near Charleston, SC) have been monitored since 1964. In this study, event runoff-rainfall ratios have been determined for 51 storm events using historical data from 1964-1973. One of our objectives was to characterize relationships between seasonal event rainfall and storm outflow in this watershed. To this end, observed storm event data were compared with values predicted by established hydrological methods such as the Soil Conservation Service runoff curve number (SCS-CN) and the rational method integrated within a Geographical Information System (GIS), to estimate total event runoff and peak discharge, respectively. Available 1:15000 scale aerial images were digitized to obtain land uses, which were used with the SCS soil hydrologic groups to obtain the runoff coefficients (C) for the rational method and the CN values for the SCS-CN method. These methods are being tested with historical storm event responses in the Turkey Creek watershed scale, and then will be used to predict event runoff in Quinby Creek, an ungauged third-order watershed (8700 ha) adjacent to Turkey Creek. Successful testing with refinement of parameters in the rational method and SCS-CN method, both designed for small urban and agricultural dominated watersheds, may allow widespread application of these methods for studying the event rainfall-runoff dynamics for similar watersheds in the Lower Coastal Plain of the Southeast U.S.
DE: 1846 Model calibration (3333)
DE: 1860 Streamflow
DE: 1874 Ungaged basins
DE: 1879 Watershed
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting