Data Visualization, Time-Series Analysis, and Mass-Balance Modeling of Hydrologic and Water-Quality Data for the McTier Creek Watershed, South Carolina, 2007-2009.

摘要

The McTier Creek watershed is located in the headwaters of the Edisto River Basin, which is in the Coastal Plain region of South Carolina. The Edisto ecosystem has some of the highest recorded fish-tissue mercury concentrations in the United States. In an effort to advance the understanding of the fate and transport of mercury in stream ecosystems, the U.S. Geological Survey, as part of its National Water-Quality Assessment Program, initiated a field investigation of mercury in the McTier Creek watershed in 2006. The initial efforts of the investigation included the collection of extensive hydrologic and water-quality field data, along with the development of several hydrologic and water-quality models. This series of measured and modeled data forms the primary source of information for this investigation to assess the fate and transport of mercury within the McTier Creek watershed. The visualization of data is an important tool for understanding the trends and influencing variables of an ecosystem. One of the initial efforts for evaluating the hydrology and water quality in the McTier Creek watershed was the development of a digital spreadsheet for systematically visualizing and interrogating selected hydrologic, water-quality, and model data. This report briefly describes the development and application of the McTier Creek Data Viewer. The extensive database incorporated into the data viewer also provides a means for analysis and the development of analytical tools that may provide insights into the water quality within the McTier Creek watershed. One such application was the development of a simple water-quality load model that utilized a massbalance equation in conjunction with the topography-based hydrological model (TOPMODEL) developed to simulate flow in the McTier Creek watershed. Several variations of this simple load model were developed and are presented in the report.