Mapping and Delineating

     In order to best help a body of water it is important to not only study the waterway itself, but study and fully understand the land area that drains into it, also known as a watershed. Like stated in the first post, the total area of the Chester River watershed is roughly 250,000 acres. Only about 20% of the total area is water, the remaining is land. When studying the system that is a watershed, it is critical to look at the land use. In the case of the Chester River agricultural land dominates, around 65% of the total land is utilized for agriculture. (Chester River Association, 2016) This agricultural land contributes to the sediment and nutrient pollution that the Chester River sees on a regular basis. Some areas fare better than others. There are also a few larger towns located within the watershed that contribute to the amount of sediment pollution seen as well due to increased areas of impervious cover. The major towns are Chestertown, Millington, Queenstown and Centreville. 

Photo courtesy of Lee & Ng, 2016

Some of the major tributaries of the Chester River are:  

Lower River - Grays Creek, Langford Creek, Corsica River, Reed Creek

Middle River - Southeast Creek, Island Creek, Radcliffe Creek

Upper River - Chesterville Branch, Red Lion Branch, Andover Branch

    Part of this week's assignment was to map out the total area of the watershed. Since this has already been done numerous times for the Chester River I chose to pick two smaller sub-watersheds to map. This was my first time working with the application and I learned a lot, but struggled a little due to the lack of elevation. The headwaters of the Chester River are only about 60 feet above sea level and when it empties into the Chesapeake Bay it is at, or in some cases, below sea level. (Maryland Topographic Map, n.d.) Below you will see the three maps I created. 

Map 1 shows the entirety of the Chester River Watershed and labels the start of the river, the most populated town (green) and the two sub-watersheds I mapped.

Map 2 shows the first sub-watershed I mapped which is Philip Creek located in the lower section of the Chester River. I used to live within this sub-watershed which is why I chose to loo into it. The lowest area (where the label is) would often flood after heavy rainfall. This area is also almost entirely agricultural land. 

Map 3 is another sub-watershed located in the middle section of the Chester River watershed. I currently reside within this sub-watershed. So far we have not seen as much flooding and the land area is a mix of residential and agricultural land.