Transcript Examining the Effects of Urbanization on the Indian Creek Watershed K.
Slide 1
Examining the Effects of Urbanization on the Indian Creek Watershed
K. F. Golson-Garner, T. D. Tsegaye, T.L. Coleman, W. Tadesse, and D. Spencer
Alabama A&M University, Department of Plant and Soil Science,
P.O. Box 1208, Normal, AL. 35762
ABSTRACT
Results & Discussion
The Indian Creek watershed continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in North Alabama. Despite environmental concerns, the
population of this area and surrounding areas continues to grow, initiating the transformation of undeveloped land at an unprecedented
rate. The watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River Basin, is located in Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama. Indian Creek is
the major water system for this particular watershed and is in close proximity to much of the urbanization that is taking place.
Historically, this watershed as been frequented with flooding and continues to be a flood prone area and subject to increasing concerns as
urbanization continues to flourish. The objectives of this study are assess the impact of changes in landuse/landcover and examine the soil
and hydrological parameters that affect the processes that take place in this particular watershed. The recent increases in urbanization
have inflicted this watershed with even more drainage problems as the percentage of impervious zones is drastically increased. In addition,
most of the sources of the pollution in this watershed are non-point source and Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing
provide the most efficient methods for examining the sources of this pollution and identifying potential problems.
1980
2003
INTRODUCTION
The Indian Creek watershed continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in
North Alabama. The commercial and residential communities in this area are growing at an
alarming rate. The watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River basin, is located in
Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama. Indian Creek is the major water system for this
particular watershed and is in close proximity to much of the urbanization that is taking place.
Historically, this watershed as been frequented with flooding and continues to be a flood
prone area and subject to increasing concerns as urbanization continues to flourish. This
makes the Indian Creek Watershed the focus of numerous environmental and government
groups. This particular watershed is also the site of the second largest research park in the
United States and the Providence Town Community, which is a new development with homes
ranging from the $200,000 to 2 million dollars and a myriad of commercial properties. The
recent increases in urbanization have inflicted this watershed with even more drainage
problems as the percentage of impervious zones is drastically increased, as well as surface
runoff. The construction of the Providence Town Community is less than twenty feet from
Indian Creek; therefore, much of the loose sediment and debris from this construction site
flows directly into the creek and downstream. These urban areas have large surfaces (both
paved areas and roofs) which block the natural passage of water into the soil. As water runs
over the land and paved surfaces, sediment, debris, and pollutants are picked up, and from
there, flow into storm drains and ditches which lead to Indian Creek and eventually the
Tennessee River. Because there is less infiltration, peak flows of storm water runoff are larger
and arrive earlier, increasing the magnitude of urban floods (Donaldson, 2005).
Nonetheless, Madison County’s population continues to grow at an enormous rate,
almost fifty percent over the last two decades. Hence, undeveloped land is being transformed
at an unprecedented rate and the environmental effects are alarming. A research project
conducted using analyzed data from Landsat imagery showed the changes in
landuse/landcover from the mid 1980’s through 2000 with projections to the year 2020.
According to Laymon, 2005, in 1984, 13% of the total land area of Madison County was
developed. In 1990, only 21% was developed (Fig. 1). By the year 2000, 30% of the county
was developed; in just sixteen years, the amount of developed land in Madison County had
doubled. Observations of developed land areas for 1984, 1990, and 2000 suggested that by
the year 2010 developed land may total 38% and that 50% of the land in Madison County
may be developed be by the year 2020 (Laymon, 2005).
Figure 7. Landuse Classification for the Indian Creek Watershed (1980 &1990)
Indian Creek Watershed
State Boundaries
Wheeler Lake
50
0
50
100 Miles
N
W
E
S
Indian Creek at the GreenWay Walking Trail
Figure 3. Boundary of the Indian Creek Watershed
and the Wheeler Lake Basin.
1990
2000
Construction Site of Providence Town Community
Indian Creek
Construction Site of Providence
Community School
2020
Land Use in the Upper Indian Creek Watershed
Figure 1. Projected Land Development in Madison County and the Indian Creek Watershed.
Cropland
Notably, these changes in landuse/landcover are causing severe damage to the ecosystems of
Madison County, in particular the Indian Creek Watershed. According to a report published
by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) the Indian Creek
Watershed has historically been dominated by agriculture and forested areas. As seen in
Figure 2, a landuse classification performed by ADEM in 2002 showed that over 41% of the
watershed was occupied by cropland, 32.7% was occupied by forest, 15.7 was occupied by
residential, 10.1 was occupied by pasture and 0.5% was unclassified (Thompson, 2002). In
2002 the predominant landuses in the upper portion of the Indian Creek Watershed were
cropland and pasture.
These areas are now being replaced with urban infrastructure.
Increased construction and the presence of loose sediment in this watershed have created soil
erosion problems and various sources of water contamination.
To date, siltation is the most significant problem for the Indian Creek. Most of the
pollution in Indian Creek is non-point source pollution. In 2002, agriculture was the #1
contributor to siltation in the watershed. Indian Creek has also been on the State of
Alabama’s 303(d) list since 1996 for its presence of nutrients, organic loading/low dissolved
oxygen, and siltation and currently, it has two separate impaired segments. Although, its use
is currently classified as Fish and Wildlife, biological data collected by the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) in 1994 and 1995 indicated impaired macro-invertebrate and fish
communities. The impairment was attributed to siltation and organic enrichment/low
dissolved oxygen but water column sampling was not conducted at the time to support this
assumption. Besides the TVA study conducted in 1994 and 1995, there have been two
additional studies performed by ADEM on Indian Creek. None of the samples from either
study showed a dissolved oxygen violation. Nevertheless, environmental conditions have
changed drastically since 2002 and flooding and pollution continues to worsen in this
watershed. Because water often acts as an integrator of events at other locations in the
watershed, it is critical that knowledge of the drainage system within the watershed is be
known and practices be implemented that would improve the current conditions of this
watershed. Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing provide a number
of ways to compile and interpret data that would help foster new ideas for environmental
preservation and monitoring (Jensen, 2005).
Indian Creek at the GreenWay Walking Trail
Indian Creek at the Madison Pike
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Indian Creek Cattle Farm
1984
Indian Creek at the Providence Bridge
Forest
Pasture
Residential
Commericial
Water
Geographical Information Systems was used to gather the soil and hydrological data for
the study. Results from BASINS showed that there were five major soil classes of soil in the Indian
Creek Watershed. As indicated in Figure 4, the most dominant soil class was Decatur-EmoryBewleyville, which is a normally a silt loam soil in its natural state. The other dominant soil types
ranged from clay loam to fine sandy loam. Interesting the Chennby-Ennis-Etowah series was the
least dominant according to the Statsgo data. Unfortunately, Statsgo, provides a very broad
description of the soils present in any area. It is expected that the variability that exist in the soils
for this area were not captured, since the Chennby-Ennis-Etowah is the series most common to
creek side areas and was shown to be native the southern tip of the watershed. It is expected that
there will be extensive variability in the soils of this area, because of the nature of the flooding for
this watershed. In addition, most of the soils have been extensively washed from there natural
location in the watershed.
The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was used to show the variability within elevation for
this particular watershed. Elevation, which ranged from 544 to 1398 feet, is very important because
the significant effect that it has on drainage and flooding within the watershed. Areas at higher
elevations tend be less vulnerable to flooding, in fact these are the areas that are more susceptible
initiating soil runoff or erosion. The lowest elevation was observed at the southern tip of the
watershed and is also the flood prone area of the watershed. The highest elevation was observed at
the northern corners of the watershed (Figure 5 ).
This research project analyzed data from the Landsat satellite imagery. Madison County is
entirely contained within a single Landsat scene. A set of georeferenced maps were created to show
the changes in landuse/landcover for the Indian Creek Watershed from the year 1980 to year 2003.
As shown in Figure 6, a variety of band combinations, along with digital ortho maps and analogue
maps were used to determine landuse classification for watershed. A total of 10 classes were used
for each classification. Unsupervised Classification for 1980 and 2003, respectively, showed that
the landuse/landcover and has changed significantly over the last twenty-three years. The landuses
for 1980 are also much more concentrated than those for the year 2003. Notably, a significant
amount of forest and agricultural land has been converted to urban transportation and urban
commercial and residential areas. Nonetheless the dominant landuses are still agriculture and
forestry as indicated in Figure 7. However, urbanization is flourishing in the middle and lower
portions of the watershed. According Figure 8, these also the areas that are more prone to flooding.
These areas are therefore very sensitive to urbanization and should be the areas of focus in terms of
monitoring. There were some apparent differences in the two in the downtown area as well. In
1980 the landuse was more uniform; today there is a lot more variability in the landsuses for this
area. The most obvious manifestation of urban development is an increase in impervious cover and
the corresponding loss of natural vegetation. Land clearing, soil compaction, riparian corridor
encroachment, and modification to the surface water drainage network all typically accompany
urbanization. Although impervious areas themselves do not generate pollution, they are the major
contributor to changes in watershed hydrology that drive many of the physical changes affecting
streams (May et al, 2004).
Figure 8. FEMA data for flood prone areas in the
Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
Figure 4. Soil Class Descriptions for the Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
CONCLUSION
Map Unit
Soil Type
AL005
CHENNEBY-ENNIS-ETOWAH
AL006
DECATUR-EMORY-BEWLEYVILLE
AL021
FULLERTON-DECATUR-COLBERT
AL026
NELLA-GORGAS-HARTSELLS
AL251
DICKSON-FULLERTON-DECATUR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by the Center for Hydrology, Soil
Climatology and Remote Sensing (HSCaRS) and the Department
of Plant and Soil Science Department at Alabama A & M
University.
Figure 2. Land Use in the Upper Indian Creek
Watershed (ADEM-2002)
Figure 5. Digital Elevation Model for Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
REFERENCES
1. Donaldson, Susan. 2005. The Effects of Urbanization on the
Water Cycle. University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
Service: Fact Sheet FS-04-42. Reno, NA. pp 1-2.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Area
The Indian Creek watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River Basin, is located in Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama.
Indian Creek, the major water source for this watershed is a tributary to the Tennessee River (Fig. 3). It is a part of the United States Geological
Survey 06030002, which includes Wheeler Lake. Of the 103,400 acres of land that make up the Wheeler Lake Basin, approximately 49,200
acres are inundated or floodprone. Indian Creek begins Northwest of Huntsville in Section 34, Township 2S, and Range 2W. It has a linear
distance of 5.95 miles and a total drainage area of 38.8 square miles. Its elevation beings at 544 ft and ends at to 1398 ft. Its classification is Fish
and Wildlife. The predominant geology of the watershed consists primarily of Tuscumbia Limestone Formation of the Mississippi System in the
Interior Low and Appalachian Plateau province. The parent material is karst natured limestone and chert. The natural vegetation for the region
is transitional between the oak-hickory type to the west and the mixed mesopyhtic forests of the Appalachian ecoregions to the east. The flatter
areas of the watershed to the east and on both sides of the Tennessee River contain very deep, well-drained reddish, soils that are intensively
farmed. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) sub-watershed basin #250 represents this watershed (Thompson, 2002).
Data Analysis
The watershed was delineated using BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating Point & Nonpoint Sources). BASINS, is a multipurpose environmental analysis system that integrates a GIS, national watershed data, and state-of-the-art environmental assessment and
modeling tools into one convenient package. BASINS includes a data extractor, projector, project builder, GIS interface, various GIS-based tools,
a series of models, and custom databases. Delineation, which is a process known as watershed segmentation, divides the watershed into discreet
land and channel segments to analyze watershed behavior. Delineation of a watershed provides a bounded area wherein the physical processes
are similar. Because of the integrating nature of water in a drainage basin, analysis of the water can track activities elsewhere in the watershed.
BASINS, which, is a Geographical Information Systems database was also the source of several other forms of information. A GIS is an
information system for spatial data that are referenced by geographic coordinates. It is designed to acquire, store, retrieve, manipulate, analyze
and display geographic data.
Urbanization exerts heavy social, ecological, environmental and
climatic pressures on surrounding lands. Madison County is
currently facing the loss of wetlands, forests, wildlife habitat, and
agricultural lands forever. Because of its rapid growth, the Indian
Creek Watershed has been identified by the Huntsville Land Trust
as a target area for acquisition and preservation. This program is
termed the “Greenprint for Growth” and it identifies valuable
undeveloped land and works to acquire and preserve them.
Remote Sensing is a good tool for watershed monitoring and
preservation. In addition, remote sensing has the ability to
improve current practices within a watershed. Land cover
classification can improve current practices by providing a means
to check whether an area has been developed consistent with the
planning documents and whether the development within a given
community is consistent with the standard assessments of percent
impervious surfaces.
2. Jensen, John. R. 2005. Introductory Digital Image Processing:
A Remote Sensing Perspective. Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper
Saddle River, NJ 07458. pp. 1-131.
3. Laymon, Charles A. 2005. "Greenprint for Growth” in
Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama: A Plan for Land
Preservation. Huntsville, AL. pp. 1-4. Internet Online.
4. May, Christopher W., Richard R. Horner, James R. Karr, Brian
W, Mar, Eugene B. Welch. 2004. Effects of Urbanization on
Small Streams in the Puget Sound Ecoregion. Watershed
Protection Techniques. Seattle WA. 2(4): 483-494.
Landsat 2003 Image
Water 1,2,3
Water 1,2,4
Figure 6. Band Combinations for water landuse classification
for the Indian Creek Watershed.
5. Thompson, David. 2002. Final TMDL Development for Indian
Creek/AL 06030002_250_02. Low Dissolved Oxygen /Organic
Loading. Water Quality Branch Water Division. Alabama Dept. of
Environmental Management. Montgomery, AL. pp. 2-31.
Examining the Effects of Urbanization on the Indian Creek Watershed
K. F. Golson-Garner, T. D. Tsegaye, T.L. Coleman, W. Tadesse, and D. Spencer
Alabama A&M University, Department of Plant and Soil Science,
P.O. Box 1208, Normal, AL. 35762
ABSTRACT
Results & Discussion
The Indian Creek watershed continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in North Alabama. Despite environmental concerns, the
population of this area and surrounding areas continues to grow, initiating the transformation of undeveloped land at an unprecedented
rate. The watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River Basin, is located in Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama. Indian Creek is
the major water system for this particular watershed and is in close proximity to much of the urbanization that is taking place.
Historically, this watershed as been frequented with flooding and continues to be a flood prone area and subject to increasing concerns as
urbanization continues to flourish. The objectives of this study are assess the impact of changes in landuse/landcover and examine the soil
and hydrological parameters that affect the processes that take place in this particular watershed. The recent increases in urbanization
have inflicted this watershed with even more drainage problems as the percentage of impervious zones is drastically increased. In addition,
most of the sources of the pollution in this watershed are non-point source and Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing
provide the most efficient methods for examining the sources of this pollution and identifying potential problems.
1980
2003
INTRODUCTION
The Indian Creek watershed continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in
North Alabama. The commercial and residential communities in this area are growing at an
alarming rate. The watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River basin, is located in
Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama. Indian Creek is the major water system for this
particular watershed and is in close proximity to much of the urbanization that is taking place.
Historically, this watershed as been frequented with flooding and continues to be a flood
prone area and subject to increasing concerns as urbanization continues to flourish. This
makes the Indian Creek Watershed the focus of numerous environmental and government
groups. This particular watershed is also the site of the second largest research park in the
United States and the Providence Town Community, which is a new development with homes
ranging from the $200,000 to 2 million dollars and a myriad of commercial properties. The
recent increases in urbanization have inflicted this watershed with even more drainage
problems as the percentage of impervious zones is drastically increased, as well as surface
runoff. The construction of the Providence Town Community is less than twenty feet from
Indian Creek; therefore, much of the loose sediment and debris from this construction site
flows directly into the creek and downstream. These urban areas have large surfaces (both
paved areas and roofs) which block the natural passage of water into the soil. As water runs
over the land and paved surfaces, sediment, debris, and pollutants are picked up, and from
there, flow into storm drains and ditches which lead to Indian Creek and eventually the
Tennessee River. Because there is less infiltration, peak flows of storm water runoff are larger
and arrive earlier, increasing the magnitude of urban floods (Donaldson, 2005).
Nonetheless, Madison County’s population continues to grow at an enormous rate,
almost fifty percent over the last two decades. Hence, undeveloped land is being transformed
at an unprecedented rate and the environmental effects are alarming. A research project
conducted using analyzed data from Landsat imagery showed the changes in
landuse/landcover from the mid 1980’s through 2000 with projections to the year 2020.
According to Laymon, 2005, in 1984, 13% of the total land area of Madison County was
developed. In 1990, only 21% was developed (Fig. 1). By the year 2000, 30% of the county
was developed; in just sixteen years, the amount of developed land in Madison County had
doubled. Observations of developed land areas for 1984, 1990, and 2000 suggested that by
the year 2010 developed land may total 38% and that 50% of the land in Madison County
may be developed be by the year 2020 (Laymon, 2005).
Figure 7. Landuse Classification for the Indian Creek Watershed (1980 &1990)
Indian Creek Watershed
State Boundaries
Wheeler Lake
50
0
50
100 Miles
N
W
E
S
Indian Creek at the GreenWay Walking Trail
Figure 3. Boundary of the Indian Creek Watershed
and the Wheeler Lake Basin.
1990
2000
Construction Site of Providence Town Community
Indian Creek
Construction Site of Providence
Community School
2020
Land Use in the Upper Indian Creek Watershed
Figure 1. Projected Land Development in Madison County and the Indian Creek Watershed.
Cropland
Notably, these changes in landuse/landcover are causing severe damage to the ecosystems of
Madison County, in particular the Indian Creek Watershed. According to a report published
by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) the Indian Creek
Watershed has historically been dominated by agriculture and forested areas. As seen in
Figure 2, a landuse classification performed by ADEM in 2002 showed that over 41% of the
watershed was occupied by cropland, 32.7% was occupied by forest, 15.7 was occupied by
residential, 10.1 was occupied by pasture and 0.5% was unclassified (Thompson, 2002). In
2002 the predominant landuses in the upper portion of the Indian Creek Watershed were
cropland and pasture.
These areas are now being replaced with urban infrastructure.
Increased construction and the presence of loose sediment in this watershed have created soil
erosion problems and various sources of water contamination.
To date, siltation is the most significant problem for the Indian Creek. Most of the
pollution in Indian Creek is non-point source pollution. In 2002, agriculture was the #1
contributor to siltation in the watershed. Indian Creek has also been on the State of
Alabama’s 303(d) list since 1996 for its presence of nutrients, organic loading/low dissolved
oxygen, and siltation and currently, it has two separate impaired segments. Although, its use
is currently classified as Fish and Wildlife, biological data collected by the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) in 1994 and 1995 indicated impaired macro-invertebrate and fish
communities. The impairment was attributed to siltation and organic enrichment/low
dissolved oxygen but water column sampling was not conducted at the time to support this
assumption. Besides the TVA study conducted in 1994 and 1995, there have been two
additional studies performed by ADEM on Indian Creek. None of the samples from either
study showed a dissolved oxygen violation. Nevertheless, environmental conditions have
changed drastically since 2002 and flooding and pollution continues to worsen in this
watershed. Because water often acts as an integrator of events at other locations in the
watershed, it is critical that knowledge of the drainage system within the watershed is be
known and practices be implemented that would improve the current conditions of this
watershed. Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing provide a number
of ways to compile and interpret data that would help foster new ideas for environmental
preservation and monitoring (Jensen, 2005).
Indian Creek at the GreenWay Walking Trail
Indian Creek at the Madison Pike
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Indian Creek Cattle Farm
1984
Indian Creek at the Providence Bridge
Forest
Pasture
Residential
Commericial
Water
Geographical Information Systems was used to gather the soil and hydrological data for
the study. Results from BASINS showed that there were five major soil classes of soil in the Indian
Creek Watershed. As indicated in Figure 4, the most dominant soil class was Decatur-EmoryBewleyville, which is a normally a silt loam soil in its natural state. The other dominant soil types
ranged from clay loam to fine sandy loam. Interesting the Chennby-Ennis-Etowah series was the
least dominant according to the Statsgo data. Unfortunately, Statsgo, provides a very broad
description of the soils present in any area. It is expected that the variability that exist in the soils
for this area were not captured, since the Chennby-Ennis-Etowah is the series most common to
creek side areas and was shown to be native the southern tip of the watershed. It is expected that
there will be extensive variability in the soils of this area, because of the nature of the flooding for
this watershed. In addition, most of the soils have been extensively washed from there natural
location in the watershed.
The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was used to show the variability within elevation for
this particular watershed. Elevation, which ranged from 544 to 1398 feet, is very important because
the significant effect that it has on drainage and flooding within the watershed. Areas at higher
elevations tend be less vulnerable to flooding, in fact these are the areas that are more susceptible
initiating soil runoff or erosion. The lowest elevation was observed at the southern tip of the
watershed and is also the flood prone area of the watershed. The highest elevation was observed at
the northern corners of the watershed (Figure 5 ).
This research project analyzed data from the Landsat satellite imagery. Madison County is
entirely contained within a single Landsat scene. A set of georeferenced maps were created to show
the changes in landuse/landcover for the Indian Creek Watershed from the year 1980 to year 2003.
As shown in Figure 6, a variety of band combinations, along with digital ortho maps and analogue
maps were used to determine landuse classification for watershed. A total of 10 classes were used
for each classification. Unsupervised Classification for 1980 and 2003, respectively, showed that
the landuse/landcover and has changed significantly over the last twenty-three years. The landuses
for 1980 are also much more concentrated than those for the year 2003. Notably, a significant
amount of forest and agricultural land has been converted to urban transportation and urban
commercial and residential areas. Nonetheless the dominant landuses are still agriculture and
forestry as indicated in Figure 7. However, urbanization is flourishing in the middle and lower
portions of the watershed. According Figure 8, these also the areas that are more prone to flooding.
These areas are therefore very sensitive to urbanization and should be the areas of focus in terms of
monitoring. There were some apparent differences in the two in the downtown area as well. In
1980 the landuse was more uniform; today there is a lot more variability in the landsuses for this
area. The most obvious manifestation of urban development is an increase in impervious cover and
the corresponding loss of natural vegetation. Land clearing, soil compaction, riparian corridor
encroachment, and modification to the surface water drainage network all typically accompany
urbanization. Although impervious areas themselves do not generate pollution, they are the major
contributor to changes in watershed hydrology that drive many of the physical changes affecting
streams (May et al, 2004).
Figure 8. FEMA data for flood prone areas in the
Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
Figure 4. Soil Class Descriptions for the Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
CONCLUSION
Map Unit
Soil Type
AL005
CHENNEBY-ENNIS-ETOWAH
AL006
DECATUR-EMORY-BEWLEYVILLE
AL021
FULLERTON-DECATUR-COLBERT
AL026
NELLA-GORGAS-HARTSELLS
AL251
DICKSON-FULLERTON-DECATUR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by the Center for Hydrology, Soil
Climatology and Remote Sensing (HSCaRS) and the Department
of Plant and Soil Science Department at Alabama A & M
University.
Figure 2. Land Use in the Upper Indian Creek
Watershed (ADEM-2002)
Figure 5. Digital Elevation Model for Indian Creek Watershed. (BASINS)
REFERENCES
1. Donaldson, Susan. 2005. The Effects of Urbanization on the
Water Cycle. University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
Service: Fact Sheet FS-04-42. Reno, NA. pp 1-2.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Area
The Indian Creek watershed, which is a part of the Tennessee River Basin, is located in Madison County near Huntsville, Alabama.
Indian Creek, the major water source for this watershed is a tributary to the Tennessee River (Fig. 3). It is a part of the United States Geological
Survey 06030002, which includes Wheeler Lake. Of the 103,400 acres of land that make up the Wheeler Lake Basin, approximately 49,200
acres are inundated or floodprone. Indian Creek begins Northwest of Huntsville in Section 34, Township 2S, and Range 2W. It has a linear
distance of 5.95 miles and a total drainage area of 38.8 square miles. Its elevation beings at 544 ft and ends at to 1398 ft. Its classification is Fish
and Wildlife. The predominant geology of the watershed consists primarily of Tuscumbia Limestone Formation of the Mississippi System in the
Interior Low and Appalachian Plateau province. The parent material is karst natured limestone and chert. The natural vegetation for the region
is transitional between the oak-hickory type to the west and the mixed mesopyhtic forests of the Appalachian ecoregions to the east. The flatter
areas of the watershed to the east and on both sides of the Tennessee River contain very deep, well-drained reddish, soils that are intensively
farmed. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) sub-watershed basin #250 represents this watershed (Thompson, 2002).
Data Analysis
The watershed was delineated using BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating Point & Nonpoint Sources). BASINS, is a multipurpose environmental analysis system that integrates a GIS, national watershed data, and state-of-the-art environmental assessment and
modeling tools into one convenient package. BASINS includes a data extractor, projector, project builder, GIS interface, various GIS-based tools,
a series of models, and custom databases. Delineation, which is a process known as watershed segmentation, divides the watershed into discreet
land and channel segments to analyze watershed behavior. Delineation of a watershed provides a bounded area wherein the physical processes
are similar. Because of the integrating nature of water in a drainage basin, analysis of the water can track activities elsewhere in the watershed.
BASINS, which, is a Geographical Information Systems database was also the source of several other forms of information. A GIS is an
information system for spatial data that are referenced by geographic coordinates. It is designed to acquire, store, retrieve, manipulate, analyze
and display geographic data.
Urbanization exerts heavy social, ecological, environmental and
climatic pressures on surrounding lands. Madison County is
currently facing the loss of wetlands, forests, wildlife habitat, and
agricultural lands forever. Because of its rapid growth, the Indian
Creek Watershed has been identified by the Huntsville Land Trust
as a target area for acquisition and preservation. This program is
termed the “Greenprint for Growth” and it identifies valuable
undeveloped land and works to acquire and preserve them.
Remote Sensing is a good tool for watershed monitoring and
preservation. In addition, remote sensing has the ability to
improve current practices within a watershed. Land cover
classification can improve current practices by providing a means
to check whether an area has been developed consistent with the
planning documents and whether the development within a given
community is consistent with the standard assessments of percent
impervious surfaces.
2. Jensen, John. R. 2005. Introductory Digital Image Processing:
A Remote Sensing Perspective. Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper
Saddle River, NJ 07458. pp. 1-131.
3. Laymon, Charles A. 2005. "Greenprint for Growth” in
Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama: A Plan for Land
Preservation. Huntsville, AL. pp. 1-4. Internet Online.
4. May, Christopher W., Richard R. Horner, James R. Karr, Brian
W, Mar, Eugene B. Welch. 2004. Effects of Urbanization on
Small Streams in the Puget Sound Ecoregion. Watershed
Protection Techniques. Seattle WA. 2(4): 483-494.
Landsat 2003 Image
Water 1,2,3
Water 1,2,4
Figure 6. Band Combinations for water landuse classification
for the Indian Creek Watershed.
5. Thompson, David. 2002. Final TMDL Development for Indian
Creek/AL 06030002_250_02. Low Dissolved Oxygen /Organic
Loading. Water Quality Branch Water Division. Alabama Dept. of
Environmental Management. Montgomery, AL. pp. 2-31.