James Quanvie, Dylan Carr, Andrew Del Turco, Brett Meyers

Watershed Hydrology
Dr. Emma Witt
Exam 2 Write Up
10/27/17

An Evaluation of Surface Water in the Lake Fred Watershed - Stream Flow Out of Morses Mill
Stream

Introduction​​:​ Team 7’s job was to collect data from the Morses Mill Stream outlet of Lake Fred
in order to estimate the amount of water being discharged from the watershed. In order to do this,
they had to use Manning’s equation and existing stage-discharge relationships.
Methods:​​ On 11/8/17: The height of the bridge and the width of the stream was measured with a
tape measure. The morphology of our channel was measured by differential leveling in 2 foot
intervals and the elevation of a known USGS marker was recorded in order to determine exact
elevations. Velocity was measured with Water Velocity Flow Meter at 16 points throughout the
stream. The flood prone area was calculated based on the stream depth.
On 11/10/17: The data collected was put into a Microsoft Excel Worksheet to be analyzed by
Manning’s equation and displayed by graphs**. It was compared to pre-existing data for optimal
accuracy. A trend-line of the pre-existing data was made and the equation was used to calculate
discharge of Lake Fred from 11/16/15 - 6/4/16. The discharge of the stream was calculated from
the measured velocity data.
On 11/13/17: The stage of the stream was recorded using a data collector placed at the right bank
edge and recorded data from 9/3/15 - 4/21/16 in intervals of 15 minutes.

Results​​:​ It is important to note that it rained​ 0.88 in​​. the day before the stream velocities were
measured (11/7/17). Our rate of discharge was determined using Manning’s equation and was
found to be about 23.25 cfs as shown in ​Table 1​​.

Table 1

Date 11/8/17 Stage (ft) Depth (ft) Velocity (ft/s) Discharge (cfs)

Right Edge 2 1.5 0 0

3 1.5 0.468 2.106

4 1.7 0.573 3.8964

5 2 0.449 4.49

6 1.9 0.307 3.4998

7 2 0.364 5.096
 8 2 0.173 2.768

9 1.9 0.15 2.565

10 1.9 0.132 2.508

11 1.9 0.1 2.09

12 2 0.105 2.52

14 2 -0.062 -1.736

16 2 -0.068 -2.176

18 1.8 -0.026 -0.8424

20 1.6 -0.036 -1.152

Left Edge 22 1.2 -0.09 -2.376

Total Discharge 23.2568

The following graph depicts the depth at stage intervals of 1 foot starting from a right edge of 2 ft and ending at the stage of 12 ft.
From the stage of 12 ft to the left edge of 22 ft the intervals were changed to every 2 feet as the velocity at those intervals were
negative. The graph also represents a general outline of the stream.

By way of differential leveling we found the channel morphology to be relatively

uniform. This was determined measuring the area directly under the bridge and is most likely the
reason for the uniformness of our channel. See graph below (​Figure 1​​).

Figure 1​ The following table depicts the stream morphology measured on 11/07/207 in 2 foot increments relative to water depth
by the surveying technique known as differential leveling.
 Knowing the flood stage and channel morphology we were able to calculate total
discharge for the the stream by integrating the equation produced by a best fit trendline for the
graph of our 15 minute interval discharge (y= 17.045x3 - 47.025x2 + 45.58x - 11.874 with an R
value of 0.804). Over this time period we have determined that our stream discharged about
123,680,000 cubic feet per second of water. This can be seen in the figure below (​Figure 2​​).

Figure 2 ​The following table depicts the total discharge of the stream.

Conclusion: ​The total streamflow out of Morses Mill Stream was 123,680,000 cubic feet per
second from November 16, 2015 to June 4, 2016. The discharge Morses Mill Stream was
23.2568 cubic feet per second on November 8, 2017.