Watershed Characterization

Lecture 4
 Definition of Watershed
• Watershed is a land area drained by a stream or fixed body
of water and its tributaries having a common outlet for
surface runoff.
American Heritage Dictionary
• Normally, its boundary or divide is delineated
topographically, following the ridges in a landscape.
─ The upstream area of any given point on the landscape
─ Physically defined by drainage point and upstream area
─ Also known as basin, sub-basin, catchment, and contributing area
 Why Watershed Approach?
 The condition of the watershed is crucial in the overall
health of ecosystems.
 Watershed is composed of various interacting ecosystems
from the upland to the lowland.
◦ In the headwater area is the forest ecosystem, and the typical outlet
leads to the coastal/marine ecosystem.
◦ Somewhere in the middle lie the agro- and urban ecosystems.
 The overall goal of watershed management is to harmonize
these ecosystems for the continuous provision of goods and
services.
 Flood incidences and siltation of bodies of water are typical
indicators of improperly managed watersheds.
 Watershed Delineation
 Watershed delineation is an initial process in the
development of management plans in a watershed.
 This is commonly done using topographic maps where
ridges and stream networks are defined. This also provides
the extent of the landscape from which the different
resources are characterized and described.
 Traditionally, contour lines from topographic maps are used
to delineate the boundary of a watershed.
 The main outlet of the watershed is first identified from the
network of streams and this is usually located at the furthest
downstream point of the river.
 Manual Delineation

Watershed
divide

Drainage
direction Outlet

1:24,000 scale map

 Watershed
 However, at present, watershed boundaries are mostly
defined using digital elevation models (DEMs) derived
from advanced geospatial technologies such as satellite
imaging and LiDAR technology.
 Topography defines watersheds which are fundamentally
the most basic hydrologic landscape elements.
Duality between Terrain and Drainage Network

 Flowing water erodes landscape and

carries away sediment sculpting the
topography
 Topography defines drainage direction
on the landscape and resultant runoff
and streamflow accumulation
processes.
Watershed Delineation From DEM
 Arc hydro tools
 Hydrology Tools
 Watershed Delineation
How it works

• Water always flows downhill

• For any point on a grid representing a landscape,
a drop of water can be traced downhill
 direction of flow is known for every DEM cell
• For any point on a grid representing a landscape,
a flow pathway can be traced back uphill
 flow accumulation is known for every DEM cell
• Uphill back-tracing proceeds to a ridgeline or to the edge of the
grid
• Termination of uphill back-tracing defines watershed boundary
Watershed Delineation

Steps :
1. Create a depressionless DEM
2. Calculate flow direction
3. Calculate flow accumulation
4. Create watershed Pour points
5. Delineate watersheds
1. Creating a depressionless DEM
 DEM must eventually drain off edge of grid
 Areas of internal drainage will result in unprocessed areas
 FILL routine fills in sinks or cuts off peaks creating a new
grid with no drainage errors
elevation
2. Flow Direction

• Every cell flows into another cell or off the grid

edge

• Flow direction is calculated as the direction of

steepest downward descent

• Flow direction is calculated for each cell,

resulting in a new grid theme
2. Flow Direction
 Flow direction is calculated as the direction of steepest
downward descent

 A flow direction grid assigns a value to each cell to indicate

the direction of flow –that is, the direction that water will
flow from that particular cell based on the underlying
topography of the landscape.
 This is a crucial step in hydrological modeling, as the
direction of flow will determine the ultimate destination of
the water flowing across the surface of the land.
 Flow Direction
 Flow direction grids are created using the Flow Direction tool.
 For every 3x3 cell neighborhood, the grid processor finds the
lowest neighboring cell from the center.
 Each number in the matrix below corresponds to a flow direction
–that is, if the centre cell flows due north, its value will be 64; if it
flows northeast, its value will be 128, etc.
 These numbers have no numeric meaning –they are simply codes
that define a specific directional value, and are determined using
the elevation values from the underlying DEM.

 There are eight valid output directions relating to the eight

adjacent cells into which flow could travel.

 This approach is commonly referred to as an eight-direction (D8)

flow model and follows an approach presented in Jenson and
Domingue (1988).
Fdr…
Fdr and FAC
Flow direction (Fdr)

flow moves out direction of

of a cell in one flow is saved as
of 8 directions a code number
 32 64 128
Flow Direction Grid 16 1

8 4 2

2 2 4 4 8
1 2 4 8 4
128 1 2 4 8
2 1 4 4 4
1 1 1 2 16
 3. Flow Accumulation
 The Flow Accumulation tool calculates the flow into each cell by
identifying the upstream cells that flow into each downslope cell.
 The Flow Accumulation tool calculates accumulated flow as the
accumulated weight of all cells flowing into each downslope cell
in the output raster.
 In other words, each cell’s flow accumulation value is determined
by the number of upstream cells flowing into it based on
landscape topography.
◦ Each cell has been coded for direction of flow
◦ Cumulative flow is calculated from flow direction
◦ Output grid is created where values are the
number of upstream cells
◦ Lower accumulation values are ridge tops
◦ Higher accumulation values are valleys & stream channels
FAC
Grid Network
 Flow Accumulation Grid
Area draining in to a grid cell

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0 0 3 2 2 0

0 0 0 0 11 0 1
0 11 1
0 1 0 0 0 1 15 0
0 15
0 2 5 0 2 5 24 1
1
24

Link to Grid calculator

ArcHydro Page 72
 Contributing Area Grid

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 4 3 3 1 1 4 3 3 1

1 1 12 1 2 1 1
1 12 2
1 1 2 16 1 1 2 1
1 16
1 3 6 25 2 1 3 6
2
25

TauDEM convention. The area draining each grid cell

including the grid cell itself.
Flow Accumulation > 5 Cell Threshold

0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0

0 0 11 0 1

0 0 1 15 0

0 2 5 24 1
Stream Network for 5 cell Threshold
Drainage Area

0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0

0
0 0 1
11
0 1 0
0
15
0 2 5
1
24
Streams with 200 cell Threshold
(>18 hectares or 13.5 acres drainage area)
 Watershed and Drainage Paths Delineated
from 30m DEM

Automated method is more consistent than hand delineation

Summary of Key Processing Steps
 [DEM Reconditioning]
 Pit Removal (Fill Sinks)
 Flow Direction
 Flow Accumulation
 Stream Definition
 Stream Segmentation
 Catchment Grid Delineation
 Raster to Vector Conversion (Catchment Polygon,
Drainage Line, Catchment Outlet Points)
Channel network delineation, other options

4 3 2

5 1

6 7 8

Contributing Area Grid Order

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 4 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 1
1 1 12 1 2 1 1 3 1 1
1 1 2 16 1 1 1 1 3 1
1 3 6 25 2 1 2 2 3 1