Whitewater Watershed “Paired-Watershed” Monitoring Project

John Nieber, Professor
Bradley Hansen, Assistant Scientist
Gregory Johnson, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Funding Source

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Objective

To assess the differences of runoff, sediment yield, and nutrient yield from two small watersheds located in southeast Minnesota and to evaluate the ability of the complex hydrologic simulation model, GSSHA, to simulate the hydrology of those two watersheds.

Need or Impact

With the need to develop Best Management Practices for land uses and TMDLs for streams in Minnesota, it is necessary to acquire hydrologic and water quality data from areas of critical interest. A TMDL for the Whitewater River Watershed is sediment. It is therefore necessary to quantify runoff and sediment concentrations/yield from different areas within the watershed. To extrapolate the experimental results from the small watershed sites, it is necessary to test and calibrate hydrologic/water quality models for the watersheds.

Project Status

This study involves the continuation of a monitoring program for acquisition of field data. We will continue to monitor the watershed through 2005. We now have data from 1996. We are currently summarizing the acquired data for the US-EPA STORET system, and we are analyzing the data for quantifying the characteristics of the watersheds as they respond to variable weather conditions. Starting in January 2004 we are applying the GSSHA (Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis) model to these two watersheds. We intend to calibrate the model for these field sites. This model would then be available for use on other parts of the Whitewater River Watershed.