Monday, April 11, 2016

Project Proposal: Drainage Flow model of the Litchfield Mine Site

Intorduction 

This research project will focus on the development of a drainage flow model for a mine site. Calculating hydrologic characteristics at a mine site are important when considering environmental health and mine management. Improper management of stock piles may lead to erosion of aggregate piles due to storm runoff.  The main objective is to observe is ArcGIS will be able to calculate a detailed drainage model using UAS imagery. Hydrology tools in ArcMap will be used to model the flow of water across the surface. Three tools that will be used are Fill, Flow direction, and Watershed. Results of this project will add to the conversation of high resolution hydrology flow models extracted from UAS imagery.
                                                                          
Study Area

The Litchfield Mine site will be used for this project. The Mine site contains multiple stock piles and a holding pool located next to the Chippewa River (Figure 1). The Litchfield Mine is located near Eau Claire in West Central Wisconsin.  Flight data was collected Sunday, March 13th flown at 200ft with a Sony A6000. Conditions were overcast with light rain earlier that morning.




Methods:

Step 1. Process imagery in Pix4D to extract a DEM for spatial analysis in ArcGIS.
Step 2.  Run the Fill tool. Because the study area contains a holding pond and possibly other depressions that trap water, this tool will be used to fill in any “sinks”. This will help produce a more accurate hydrologic model.
Step 3. Run the Flow Direction Tool. The Flow Direction tool calculates the direction of water flow on a surface. Cells that are a sink will be undefined.
Step 4. Run the Watershed Tool. This tool will be able to delineate natural boundaries of common drainage within the study area if there are any.
Step 5: Development of maps illustrating water flow.

Discussion

Possible avenues of discussion may be a critique on ArcGIS ability to apply hydrology tools meant for larger scale project to one of a small scale one.

Did this project yield any notable water flow patterns on the Litchfield Mine site? 

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