ESM425: Watershed Hydrology NAME: ______Man Lok Chow________

Pct: ______ / 100

(10 pts total)
Lab Week 1: Unit conversions and watershed basics
Due: Next week at the start of lab

Objectives
 Learn to use dimensional analysis to track calculations so we do not make errors.
 To be able to convert between English and SI (Système International, a.k.a. metric) units.
 Understand how watersheds are delineated, stream reaches numbered, and where to
retrieve online standardized watershed boundaries.

Background
You may check your work with conversion tools, but please SHOW ALL WORK AND TURN IN PROBLEMS
NEATLY WORKED. You are welcome to use Excel, or any other software package if you wish. If you
use Excel, please be sure that your spreadsheet is carefully labeled so that we can follow all of
your steps. If your assignments are not well organized, we will return them without review.

Tips: Some of the unit conversion are in the appendix of the Hydrology and the Management of
Watersheds book; however, to answer some of these questions you might have to search for
outside material. Online search engines (Google) can also do unit conversions. For the best
online source for conversion factors, try Wolfram|Apha, but make sure you show not only how
you calculated your answer, but the units as well.

Check your work! Here are some steps to do so:

1.) A dimensional analysis - check to make sure the basic units (mass, length, time) balance.
2.) A unit analysis, make sure that the specific units (kg, L, cm, ft, gal., etc.) are correct, and
3.) A magnitude analysis. Ask yourself: Does the answer reasonable?

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Part I. Unit Conversions
1. a.) The long-term average rainfall recorded in Vancouver, WA is 43 inches/year. Convert this
quantity to units of mm yr-1.

b.) The average annual rainfall recorded in the Hood River, OR was 558 mm. This is the
arithmetic mean for each month over the 30-year period, adjusted as necessary, and
includes the liquid water equivalent of snowfall. Convert this quantity to inches.

2. The Clackamas River Watershed above the town of Milwaukie OR is 940 square miles.
Convert this area to:

a.) hectares

b.) acres

c.) square kilometers

3. If the ambient temperature is 59 °F, convert this quantity to:

a.) °C

b.) °K

4. One cubic foot of:

a.) water weighs 28.3 kg. Convert this to pounds.

a.) solid, dry rock weighs 28.3 kg. Convert this to pounds.

5. The density of a snow sample is 334 kg m-3 (or kg/m3).

a.) Convert the density to g cm-3

b.) Convert the density to lbs ft -3

6. A farmer with 160 acres has an annual legal water right of 495 acre-feet. Convert this volume
to: a.) ft3 b.) m3 c.) US gallons

7. If 5.1 mm of rainfall fell evenly over a 37.6 hectare catchment, how many acre-feet of water
were deposited? (It might help to draw a figure)

8. If 0.894 L of water were collected in a standard U.S. precipitation gauge having an 8 inch
circular opening, how many inches of rain were deposited? (It might help to draw a figure)

9. a.) It takes 2.501 x 106 Joules of energy to vaporize 1 kg of water. This value is known as the
latent heat of vaporization of water. Convert this quantity to calories per gram (cal g -1).
Show your work or zero credit.

b.) It takes approximately 79.7 cal to freeze 1 g of water. This value is also known as the
latent heat of fusion. Convert this quantity to J kg-1. Show your work or zero credit.

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10. The flow of the Salmon River near Whitebird, ID on Aug. 7, 2012 at 7:45am was 5460 cfs.

(cfs = cubic feet per second)

a.) Compute the flow in m3 s-1.

b.) Compute the flow in m3 day-1

c.) Compute water volume in acre-feet that passed that day assuming a constant flow rate.

Part II. Automated watershed delineation [do on a computer with internet]

A number of online tools and databases exist that delineate watershed boundaries from digital
elevation models (DEM). One very useful tool for not only delineated watersheds but also
retrieve watershed statistics and hydrological data is the USGS StreamStats tool.

12. Open your browser and go to: http://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/index.html Click “State

Applications” in the left menu. Choose state Oregon in the drop-down menu at the top. Click on the link
“Interactive Map”.

 Click on “Zoom To: ▼” at the top of the map, select Place Name, and type: Washington Park,
Oregon. Leave the Layer as “Community” and set the State to “Oregon”. Click Find.

 Campus is due east of Washington Park which is located on a hill! Check out all the creeks which
run from the hills and underground through downtown Portland using the
Watershed Delineation tool (this symbol: at the top of the map and click on
that point at the base of the creek under Broadway Bridge at the Willamette River.

 Use the Print Screen (PrntScr) button on your keyboard to capture the image of the
watershed. Paste it into your lab document and crop the image if necessary to show just the
watershed and a reasonable amount of surroundings. This image is your answer to this
question.

13. With the watershed showing on your screen, click the Compute Basin Characteristics Tool

in the “Delineation Results” window. In the window that opens, click the “Compute Basin
Chars” button.

Estimate:

How many square miles of this watershed is covered by tree canopy? ___________________

What is the average annual precipitation within the watershed? ___________________

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Part III. Manual watershed delineation

Attached is a portion of the 1:24,000 scale 7.5-minute USGS topographic map for the Battle
Ground area.

Saying it is a “7.5-minute quad” means the whole quadrangle map covers 7.5 minutes of
longitude and latitude (there being 60 minutes in a degree and 360 degrees to circle the globe).
So in this case “minute” is a measure of relative geographic distance.

1:24,000 scale means that 1 inch on the map equals 24,000 inches in the real world.

Optional: You can read more about USGS topo maps here: http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/ and
here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrangle_(geography)

Optional: You can download any USGS quad sheets for free. See
http://www.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9797/3571

or the actual map locator and download site: http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/maplocator/

(xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_48&uiarea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=
%24ROOT)/.do

14. On the attached portion of the quad:

a. Find where the Sandy Creek and ZigZag Creek meet at ZigZag Oregon. This confluence
is going to be the “outlet” of your watershed.

b. With blue colored pencil, or using a dotted gray pencil line, trace back upstream from
this point, marking along every stream that drains to this point. Stop when you get to
the top (headwaters) of a creek. Repeat for all tributaries that drain to your outlet.

c. Notice where your marked streams get close to adjacent streams that are part of
other adjacent catchments – you will want your watershed boundary to slice between
your marked streams and those neighboring, unconnected streams!

d. Notice where some high points are near the top of your watershed (recall: hilltops will
appear as sets of concentric circles).

e. Starting at your outlet point, work uphill on one side of the creek to delineate the
watershed boundary around Sandy creek, following the rules of watershed delineation
(connect high points, cross topo contours at right angles, “collect” all water that would
run downhill to your creek…). When you get to the top of the watershed, either work
back down the other side, or start at the bottom again and work up the second side.

15. Label each reach (i.e., creek section) within this watershed with its Strahler stream order
number.

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