Project Outcome

The Headwaters to Groundwater Project was completed March 15, 2008. As an assessment project, data was collected, analyzed and categorized. The Project did not directly implement water recharge projects. The results are now available to major stakeholders and the general public.

Creating feasible, sustainable water utilization plans rely on accurate data. Although some federal, state, local and community agencies and organizations have been conducting surface water quality monitoring, there has been no systematic monitoring and sampling in the focus area. Results of the Headwaters to Groundwater Project will now serve as the cornerstone for effective watershed management.

Closer monitoring will be required to evaluate the impact of vegetation and atmospheric factors such as evaporation and storm runoff across the study area.

Geodatabase

Compiled from 75 existing and new geographic data, the new geodatabase is organized by 13 data themes: base data (imagery and derived raster data), cultural data, fire data, general hydrology, geology, groundwater data, natural hazards, infrastructure (including transportation and water related), land use, wetlands data, soils, vegetation and weather data. Flow direction and accumulating models were created from DEMs and added to the geodatabase.

Data Evaluation

Results conclude the most suitable areas for recharge are combined catchments possessing the highest potential for direct infiltration, runoff, and flow accumulation, and the lowest stream gradients with flat or nearly flat adjacent land area. The combined catchments considered the best candidates include Devil Canyon and Brown’s Canyon Wash and Bell Creek.

Other combined catchments with significant potential for infiltration and/or runoff and the highest suitability in terms of land area and stream slope class may also warrant further investigation, include Chatsworth Creek and Box Canyon (32) which contains the Chatsworth Reservoir and Santa Susana Pass Wash (36), see Figure 2.

A complete Final Report and Recharge Suitability Analysis (RSA) are available as pdf. downloads.