Hydrological Modeling of Urban Watershed with Snowfall for the Indian Creek Basin

Abstract

The present study explores the transport rate of urban pollutants by using snow melting processes by road salts and electrical conductance in the Indian Creek and Tomahawk Creek in Kansas. We adopted a cross-correlation method to explore which water quality parameter would be more indicative for snowfall and melting processes, and compared their relationships to the runoff estimation from the ArcSWAT model. The cross correlation analysis shows that the peak of electric conductance in the creeks trails snowfalls was with average lags between 2 and 3 days. The ArcSWAT model shows that the effect of snowmelt on the electric conductance in the creeks was almost immediate with the average transport rate of 2.4 days and the snowmelt had negative impact on the turbidity. Also, the present study showed that in average times of concentration for the farthest point of the sub basin to the main streams was 48 minutes. The findings will measure the transport rate of the pollutant’s entrance into the water system and will allow water managers to implement better pollution control strategies during snow events.