Ellerbe Creek at Club Blvd RHESSys model (5-m resolution)

RHESSys version 5.18.2 model for Ellerbe Creek at Club Blvd, in Durham, NC (West Ellerbe Creek; WEC hereafter). WEC is a headwater watershed composed of urbanized land cover (36% impervious area) in Durham, North Carolina. The WEC is an order of magnitude larger with a drainage area of 15-km2. Continuous streamflow stage and discharge data are available from the USGS (gage ID 0208675010). Soils in the watershed range from sandy loam to silt loam (near riparian areas) and are characterized as being moderately well drained to somewhat poorly drained (near riparian areas). Located in the Piedmont physiographic province, Ellerbe Creek flows into Falls Lake, a water supply reservoir for Raleigh, NC.

This RHESSys model was developed using high-resolution data from Durham County Stormwater Services as well as U.S. EPA (see below). Soils data were acquired from USDA SSURGO web services using EcohydroLib (https://github.com/selimnairb/EcohydroLib), which was also used to assemble all required input datasets. RHESSysWorkflows (https://github.com/selimnairb/RHESSysWorkflows) was used to create RHESSys-specific input files (e.g. world file, flow table, and soil and vegetation parameters). See metadata.txt for more detailed workflow metadata, including command history, as well as data provenance information.

Datasets:

Streamflow gage location: Coordinate from USGS NWIS (gage ID 0208675010)
Digital Elevation Model (DEM): Custom DEM from 2012 Durham County, NC LIDAR
Landcover: 1m landcover provided by U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development Landscape Characterization branch (Dr. Drew Pilant, personal communication 2012)
Surface soil texture: USDA SSURGO data served by U.S. Department of Agriculture WFS and SOAP tabular web services
Vegetation leaf area index (LAI): Minimum LAI, peak LAI, and phenology derived from MODIS MOD 15 LAI and applied to biome types derived from landcover.
Storm drains/sewers: City of Durham Stormwater Services
Climate data (temperature, precipitation): North Durham Water Reclamation Facility Econet station (DURH) served by N.C. State Climate Office CRONOS web service7. DURH station approx. 5 km from watershed centroid.
Streamflow: USGS National Water Information System