Using a geographic information system (GIS) and the water erosion prediction project model (WEPP) to obtain soil erodibility parameters for predicting sediment yields from urbanizing sub-basins in Montgomery County, Maryland, U.S.A

A ten year study by Yorke and Herb (1978) described the effects of land use on erosion and runoff from small sub-basins within the Rock Creek and Northwest Branch Anacostia River basins in Montgomery County, Maryland. The urbanized catchment of Lutes Run, located in the southwest corner of the Northwest Branch Anacostia River watershed, was included in the Yorke and Herb study. Sediment yields, runoff rates and other hydrologically significant data were collected for ten years for each effective storm event from temporary monitoring stations located within Lutes Run sub-basin. Storm characteristics were documented every fifteen minutes from a temporary rain gauging station. At various times Lutes Run underwent construction activity and the total area of construction was well documented.; This research was conducted to select model inputs describing erodibility, so that the urbanized landscape can be accurately modeled using the Water Erosion Prediction Project model (WEPP). WEPP was created to model erosion from agricultural, range and forested lands and requires four input files describing land use, soil, climate and slope for each hillslope of the watershed. For greater detail of land use heterogeneity the hillslopes of Lutes Run basin were broken into Overland Flow Elements (OFEs). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...