For this analysis project, the focus was on the watersheds within Water Resource Inventory Area 1 (WRIA). The goal was to find locations that could serve as pollution sites for the streams and rivers within WRIA 1. The first map starts out by identitfying each of the 68 watersheds in WRIA 1. This allows for the viewer to gain a basic understanding of what they are looking at, as well as helps them find a specific area if that is what they are focusing on. Beneath the watershed map is a map showing all of the major streams and rivers in WRIA 1. This information sets the foundation for the rest of the analysis.
The next map shows the analysis of sources of runoff for each watershed. This analysis was conducted by taking the number of road and stream crossings in each county and normalizing them by the total distance of streams. This then shows the watersheds with the most oppertunities for pollution runoff due to road crossings. The map on the bottom shows the percentage of agricultural land per watershed. This is important to know when thinking about sources of runoff throughout the area because agricultural land is a huge contributer to runoff. This was found by identifying the amount agricultural land in each watershed and then dividing it by the area of total land in the watershed.
For the third map I used raw data from stream gage stations that are set up along the Nooksack River. I formatted the raw data so that it could be read by Arc GIS then I uploaded it into the software. After that I used graduated symbols to show which fork of the river has the most water flowing through it. I also included a chart that shows which forks are fed by snow melt and which ones are fed by rain water. This was shown by having a higher flow rate in one season or another. For example a snow fed river will have more water flowing through it in the early summer than in the winter due to the snow melting when the temperatures increasing.