Interactive Watershed Map

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Using the Map: Tutorial

For a tutorial on how to upload your classroom's data to the Interactive Map, click here.

 

Watershed Wise

Watershed or catchment area is a geographic area within which all water, sediments, and dissolved substances drains into the same river or waterbody. Watersheds range in size from a small pond near the top of a hill to the Mississippi River and the minor and major tributaries that drain into it. There are often many smaller watersheds also known as sub-basins within larger watersheds. For example, the Winooski River watershed has six headwater streams or rivers that flow into the larger Winooski River and eventually into a bigger catchment area, Lake Champlain, the largest watershed in Vermont.

Lake Champlain Basin spans two states and two countries. The lake drains north from Whitehall, New York 120 miles to the outlet at the Richelieu River in Quebec. From there, the water flows into the St. Lawrence River and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Lake Champlain has 587 miles of shoreline, over 70 islands and 6.8 trillion gallons of water. Compared to larger lakes in the United States, Lake Champlain is unique because of its depth, width and watershed size. Over 90% of the water that flows to the lake comes from the surrounding watersheds or sub-basins. The ration of Lake Champlain to its watershed is 1:18; the Great Lakes are 1:2.

Lake Champlain contains eight or nine sub-basins depending on which map you use. Five and one-half of a sub-basin are in Vermont, New York has two and one-half sub-basins and Quebec shares a portion of three sub-basins. The total area of the basin Lake Champlain Basin (Basin) is 8,234 square miles, 56% is in Vermont, 37% in New York and 7 % in Quebec.

The sub-basins are: Missisquoi/Pike Basin, Lamoille Basin, Winooski Basin, Otter/Lewis Basin, Poultney-Mettawee/South Lake Basin, Boquet/Ausable Basin (NY), Saranac/Chazy Basin (NY) and Grand Isle Basin. An outlier basin is one that groups all of the brooks and small streams that drain directly into Lake Champlain without connecting to one of the larger tributaries after which the sub-basins are named. This ninth basin is known as the Lake Champlain (direct) basin.

How to Use this Interactive Map

Scroll over any of the Vermont Lake Champlain sub-basins (colored polygons) or zoom into a favorite river and click on the spot, Watershed Detail Page will pop up. Click on the Watershed Detail Page to be linked to a page that provides more details about the basin and the schools collecting water quality data in that basin. From this Watershed Detail Page schools can link to their own personal watershed site and record water quality sampling data, upload photos, and eventually post video and stewardship reports. The public can see what Vermont students are doing out in their local streams by viewing stream monitoring data they’ve collected as part of Watershed Alliance’s Stream Monitoring & Stewardship Program.

Comments & Suggestions

The interactive watershed map and database are a new project developed and designed by Lake Champlain Sea Grant and UVM Watershed Alliance. We are interested to hear your feedback on how we can make this a user friendly tool for students and schools. Please contact Erin De Vries at UVM Watershed Alliance, erin.devries@uvm.edu with suggestions or comments.

Information on sub-basins povided by the Lake Champlain Basin Program Atlas.