Volfe Watershed Rainfall/Runoff in Southern California

Event Center BC

Water is a limiting commodity in arid regions worldwide, including Southern California. If more water supplies could be developed locally, less would be needed via expensive water delivery systems. However, supplies are variable annually with unpredictable rainfall. If rainfall/runoff relationships were better understood, perhaps variable supplies could be better estimated for agricultural, domestic, and industrial water supply. By studying Volfe watershed in the San Gabriel Mountains we can obtain an estimate of how much water is being provided and additionally predict how neighboring watersheds in Southern California are expected to behave. The stream flow was calculated by manually reading historical stream charts and rainfall available from previous work. Annual graphs were generated comparing and calculating the runoff ratios to the annual rainfall. When measuring water stage height and comparing it to existing rating curve I can determine the volume of water over the course of a year. These readings indicate that runoff water is only a small percentage (< 10) of rainfall in Volfe watershed. Additionally, plotting the runoff ratio against the same year’s rainfall shows no pattern, but when, plotting the runoff ratio against the previous year’s rainfall shows a better pattern. This science allows for estimates of the water runoff to be used to better predict water drought for the year. If the predictions for the year consist of abundance of water than we can prepare/manage to store water, but if we predict drought for the year then we must limit water use in our communities.