Executive Summary
This project is designed to model the flow rate
of water based on a variety of measured and assumed factors. Topographical
maps were used to obtain the elevations of four points in a tenth of a
square mile area. To simplify the data, elevations will only be used
from the intersection of the grid lines. The absorption rate will
be determined by elevation , the amount of slope, density of vegetation
and the type of soil.
Several assumptions are being made in order
to make this a manageable program. First, it must be assumed that
the type of soil; loam, sand, clay or rock are uniform in each block
outlined by the grid on the map. The second assumption is that vegetation
type is directly related to density and soil type. Therefore, sandy
soils will have a great absorption thereby allowing more vegetation to
grow irrelevant to the type (i.e. shrub, tree, and grass) which will decrease
the amount of run-off. Finally, it will be assumed that the slope
will only be able to add run-off from the corners of the adjacent squares
and that water will only run out one or two of the corners determined to
have the lowest elevation. This concept is still being developed.