Watershed management begins with identifying the watershed boundaries.

This case study, developed using data from Novi, Michigan, determines the watershed boundaries of the Middle Rouge River using a hydrologic. The model is then compared to current drainage and district maps.

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Applying a hydrologic model to the system answers basic questions.

Hydrologic models can provide data for the following applications: determining watershed boundaries,identifying stream networks,predicting and tracking spills in the river, estimating runoff, and planning flood control.The goal of this is to provide a working knowledge of the ArcView Spatial Analyst and Hyrologic extensions.

After developing planning maps for residential, commercial, and industrial sites, future work might include tackling such questions as

• Where does all the water in the Rouge River watershed accumulate?

• Does the amount of urbanization in proximity to the river affect its health? How?

• How would a toxic spill in the City of Novi affect residents downstream?

• What can be done, using GIS, to maintain a healthy river?

• What other kinds of data are necessary to fully understand the mechanics of an urban river?

This case study requires a basic understanding of geographic information systems and ArcView 3.x.If you are unfamiliar with either of these,we recommend you read our Training Manual and complete the accompanying exercises before proceeding with this case study.

• Document (Watershed.pdf - 2.53 Mb) of this case study in Adobe Acrobat Reader format.

• Data used in  this case study (Watershed.zip - 46.4 Mb)

• Spatial Analyst (Licensed Software), Hydrologic, an extension for ArcView that contains useful spatial operation tools. It is developed, collected, or modified by Mike DeLaune, Oregon Department of Forestry.

Please read the Frequently Asked Questions for the Case Studies.

This case study developed by W/SA with contributions by the following;

• Dr.Yichun Xie, Director, IGRE at Eastern Michigan University.
• Beverly Hunter, Consultant to W/SA
• IGRE Staff.