What is a Watershed?

A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into
the same place. John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best when he said that a
watershed is:
"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably
linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that
they become part of a community."
WATERSHEDS IN THE PHILIPPINES:
1. THE SIBALOM-BAGUINGIN WATERSHED
The Sibalom Watershed is located in the municipalities of Alimodian, Leon, Tigbauan and
Tubungan. The size of the catchment , is 117 square Kilometers. Two upland barangays are
clustered within the watershed with a total of 120 households scattered around the 5,500
hectares of timberland area. These barangays are Barangay Danao and Sitio Tabionan,
Barangay Bucari. Twenty-three creeks are found in Barangay Danao alone together with a
network of several creeks ain Sitio Tabionan which contribute significant discharge toi
Tabionan Creek which serves the major tributary of Sibalom River.
2. Loboc Watershed
The Loboc Watershed is the second largest of the 10 watersheds in the province of Bohol. It
covers a total of 51,300 hectares of which 38,475 hectares (75%) are considered as uplands.
It comprises approximately 12.5% of the total land area of Bohol. It embraces timberlands,
well-stocked forested area, karst area and has numerous caves and underground rivers. Most
of the land is devoted to agriculture. The mountains yield enormous deposits of non-metallic
minerals like limestone, high-grade silica, guano, phosphate rock and manganese. Its lush
vegetation is a source of indigenous raw materials like vines and fibers for various industries.
It plays host to four (4) protected areas, which are the Loboc Watershed Forest Reserve,
Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape, the Chocolate Hills Geological Monument and the
Loay-Albur-Loboc Protected Seascape. The watershed is linked with the second longest
river system in Bohol that feeds two hydroelectric power generation plants, the Philstarch
Corporation, the PALM, Inc., furniture industries and eco-tourism destination sites, among
others.
3. Talomo-Lipadas Watershed
The Talomo River headwaters are at the rim of the Mount Talomo crater, an elevation of
2,400 meters in the Apo Range. The drainage basin covers an area of 20,700 has. There are
26 barangays located in the Talomo Watershed covering the districts of Calinan, Baguio and
Tugbok. Like the Talomo River, the Lipadas River runs the flank of Mount Talomo. The

Lipadas River, however, starts from within the crater, which has an opening on the northeast
side. The drainage basin covers an area of 17,500 has. There are 27 barangays in the Lipadas
Watershed covering the districts of Toril and Talomo. The watershed supplies almost all the
ground water for Davao City. Because of agricultural activities such as uncontrolled use of
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, there is a danger that the aquifer and the surface water
may be contaminated with nitrates and phosphates.
4. Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve
The Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve is situated in the eastern part of the municipality of
Palompon, Leyte bounded by the Municipalities of Matag-ob and Merida, Leyte. It has a
total area of 2,392 hectares covering 9 barangays namely: San Miguel, Tinubdan, Caduhaan,
Hinagbuan, Liberty, Santiago, Tinago, Mabini and Cambacbac. The catchment and its
tributaries supply water to the said host municipalities. Lots of springs also can be found in
the area that augment to the supply of water. What used to be dominated by dipterocarp
stands, has been replaced by second growth and pioneer species like anislag. To some extent,
climax species like Tugas and Narra along stream banks can still be spotted. Plantation
species like Gmelina, Mahogany and Acacia cover extensive areas and are now potential
sources of planting stocks.
5. Abatan Watershed
The Abatan Watershed is one of the 11 watershed networks that support the island province
of Bohol. It covers some 36,540 hectares or close to 9% of the provinces total land area in
three distinct situations coastal, lowland and upland. It is geographically contiguous to the
Mualong Watershed on the southwest and the Wahig-Inabanga and the Loboc Watersheds on
the north and east, respectively. It occupies practically 110 barangays in thirteen (13)
municipalities. These municipalities have a combined population of 53,596 households or
approximately 256,943 individuals (source: Poverty Data Monitoring System, 2004-2006).
Its main drainage system is the Abatan River that provides freshwater to the Maribojoc Bay.
This river serves as the natural boundary between Maribojoc and Cortes, Antequera and
Balilihan, and San Isidro and Catigbian. The watershed also provides as habitat to other
wildlife such as the Philippine tarsier, python and cobra. Indigenous plants still abound as
source of raw materials for handicrafts such as nito, sig-id, banban, biliisan, and sagisi.Its
abundant mineral resources like limestone, guano, sand and gravel, clay soil, rock
phosphate,has attracted legions of prospectors and mining activities.

KIRPICH METHOD
The kirpich method is normally used for natural basins with well defined channels. If there are
many undefined channels that are grassed or vegetated throughout, the kirpich formula will
likely underestimate the time of concentration, and a factor of 1.3 1.5 should be added. If most
of the drainage basin is non-natural (urban, etc.) with concrete or other smooth channels, the
result should be decreased about 40 60%.
Kirpichs equation (1940) was developed for small, agricultural watersheds. It was derived by
examining the required time for the stream to rise from low to maximum stage during a storm.
The time of concentration was then assumed equal to that time.

where:
tc - time of concentration in hours.
L - length of the overland flow in feet.
S - average overland slope in ft/ft.
This equation given below was developed for overland flow on bare earth. For overland flow on
grassy earth, tc should be multiplied by 2.0. On concrete and asphalt surface it should be
multiplied by 0.4. An adjustment is made for watersheds with a CN number less than 80 using
the following equation:

The CN value must be defined for the given model (HEC-1, TR-20, etc.), otherwise a default CN
of 50 is used.
Overflow Method
Overland flow, also known as sheet flow, is a shallow flow of water, usually less than one inch
deep, over plane surfaces. Overland flow is usually found at the upper reaches of the hydraulic
flow path. On a topo map, you can tell that water will flow through a region as overland flow if
the contour lines do not show any V shapes to indicate streams. When you visit your property,
you can tell that water will flow through a region as overland flow if you do not see any gullies
or streambeds in the region.

Overland flow is water that runs across the land after rainfall, either before it enters a
watercourse, after it leaves a watercourse as floodwater, or after it rises to the surface naturally
from underground.
It does not include:

water that has naturally infiltrated the soil in normal farming operations

irrigation tailwater if its recycling meets best practice requirements

water collected from roofs for rainwater tanks.

Most water in rivers and underground reserves originates as overland flow. If too much water is
intercepted before it reaches a watercourse, or if too much floodwater is intercepted before it
returns to a watercourse, there can be serious implications for:

towns, industries and farms that rely on watercourses for water supplies

landholders who rely on beneficial flooding

the maintenance of healthy waterways

groundwater recharge

ecosystems relying on periodic inundation.

Curve Number Method

The curve number method (also called a curve number or simply CN) an empirical parameter
used in hydrology for predicting direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall excess. The curve
number method was developed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, which
was formerly called the Soil Conservation Service or SCS the number is still popularly known
as a "SCS runoff curve number" in the literature. The runoff curve number was developed from
an empirical analysis of runoff from small catchments and hillslope plots monitored by the
USDA. It is widely used and is an efficient method for determining the approximate amount of
direct runoff from a rainfall event in a particular area.
The runoff curve number is based on the area's hydrologic soil group, land use, treatment and
hydrologic condition. References, such as from USDA indicate the runoff curve numbers for
characteristic land cover descriptions and a hydrologic soil group.
The basis of the curve number method is the empirical relationship between the retention
(rainfall not converted into runoff) and runoff properties of the watershed and the rainfall.
Mockus found equation 1 appropriate to describe the curves of the field measured runoff and
rainfall values