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Upstream watershed boundary delineation from a point

SeanWineland

Hello, I am trying to figure out how to delineate an upstream watershed boundary from a single point feature. I understand that you can do this online using streamstats but this feature is unavailable in my state (WV). I have searched everywhere online for a guide/tutorial on how to do this to no avail. I have DEM data for my state and point features where I took my samples, I just need some guidance!

Any help will be greatly appreciated

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SeanWineland

By custom points I just simply mean a sample location taken by me. A lat long coordinate. I want to determine the upstream watershed that contributes to all water in that watershed at that point. Is there any way to do this?

ChrisDonohue__GISP

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "custom points"?

Typically the Watershed tool is run based on the Pour Point, which represents the point to derive the watershed upstream from. As an input, the Pour Point is most commonly a point in a point feature class.

The outlet, or pour point, is the point on the surface at which water flows out of an area. It is the lowest point along the boundary of a watershed.

How Watershed works—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

So in the Watershed Tool, for "Input raster or feature pour point data" one typically uses a point feature class with the pour point.

Chris Donohue, GISP

SeanWineland

I have gone through this process already and unfortunately there is nowhere to use custom points to delineate an upstream watershed boundary from that point.

ChrisDonohue__GISP

I've not run ArcHydro myself, so someone else will have to comment on how it is done with that particular software, but if you have the Spatial Analyst extension and ArcGIS Desktop you can derive a Watershed boundary using the Watershed geoprocessing tool, preceded by several processes to set it up.

Source: Deriving runoff characteristics—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

An overview of the Hydrology toolset—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

How Watershed works—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Caveat - before one can derive the Watershed, one typically needs to do preparation on the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to make it hydrologically correct. The DEM will need to be processed to make it "Depressionless". If not, there will be all sorts of wierdness.

Creating a depressionless DEM—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Chris Donohue, GISP

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