Changes in Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Surface Water Quality and Modelling Surface Discharge in Beaver Creek Watershed, Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia

• Main Author: James, Tosin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2020
• Subjects: Water Quality; Hydrology; Modeling; Land Use/Land Cover; Escherichia coli; GIS; Remote Sensing; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Studies; Geographic Information Sciences; Spatial Science; Water Resource Management; Nash; Sutcliffe; Beaver Creek
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3747; https://dc.etsu.edu/context/etd/article/5213/viewcontent/JamesT042820f.pdf

Beaver Creek is an impaired streams that is not supporting its designated use for recreation due to Escherichia coli (E.coli), and sediment. To address this problem, this thesis was divided into two studies. The first study explored changes in Land Use Land Cover (LULC), and its impact on surface water quality. Changes in E.coli load between 1997-2001 and 2014-2018 were analyzed. Also, Landsat data of 2001, and 2018 were examined in Terrset 18.31. Mann-Whitney test only showed a significant reduction in E.coli for one site. Negative correlation was established between E.coli load, and Developed LULC, Forest LULC, and Cultivated LULC. The second study modelled discharge for Beaver Creek watershed using HEC-HMS. This study simulated discharge in an upstream sub-watershed of Beaver Creek, and the full Beaver Creek with a Nash-Sutcliffe of 0.007, and R2 0.20. Sub-basins with high discharge were identified for further examination for possible high sediment load.