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30-574: Painter Creek begins northeast of Big Pine Hill in Thornhurst Township. It flows west-northwest for several tenths of a mile before turning north in a valley. After nearly a mile, the creek turns north-northwest and enters Spring Brook Township. It then turns north-northeast for more than a mile and receives two unnamed tributaries from the left before reaching its confluence with Panther Creek. Painter Creek joins Panther Creek 0.90 square miles (2.3 km) upstream of its mouth. The elevation near

60-459: A barrier island or a submerged plateau , such as an ocean bank . A barrier island is a long narrow island composed of sand and forming a barrier between an island lagoon or sound and the ocean. A submerged plateau is a relatively flat topped elevation of the sea floor at shallow depth — generally less than 200 metres (660 ft) — typically on the continental shelf or near an island . Streamflow Streamflow , or channel runoff ,

90-426: A stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongside the bed of a river , creek, or stream . The bank consists of the sides of the channel , between which the flow is confined. Stream banks are of particular interest in fluvial geography, which studies the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. Bankfull discharge is a discharge great enough to fill

120-621: A channel is measured using stream gauges or can be estimated by the Manning equation . The record of flow over time is called a hydrograph . Flooding occurs when the volume of water exceeds the capacity of the channel. Streams play a critical role in the hydrologic cycle that is essential for all life on Earth. A diversity of biological species, from unicellular organisms to vertebrates, depend on flowing-water systems for their habitat and food resources. Rivers are major aquatic landscapes for all manners of plants and animals. Rivers even help keep

150-630: A few patches of wetlands . The watershed of Painter Creek has an area of 4.51 square miles (11.7 km). Nearly all of the watershed is in Thornhurst Township and Spring Brook Township. However, a small corner is in Bear Creek Township , in Luzerne County . The mouth of the creek is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Avoca. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Pleasant View Summit. A bog known as

180-470: A lake or ocean. This would disrupt the ecosystem. Streamflow is one important route of water from the land to lakes and oceans. The other main routes are surface runoff (the flow of water from the land into nearby watercourses that occurs during precipitation and as a result of irrigation), flow of groundwater into surface waters, and the flow of water from constructed pipes and channels. Streamflow confers on society both benefits and hazards. Runoff downstream

210-403: A percentage of total runoff. Plotted on a graph, these data from the unit hydrograph for that storm, which represents the runoff added to the pre-storm baseflow. To forecast the flows in a large drainage basin using the unit hydrograph method would be difficult because in a large basin geographic conditions may vary significantly from one part of the basin to another. This is especially so with

240-422: A river to rise, peak, and fall in response to a storm. Once a rainfall-runoff relationship is established, then subsequent rainfall data can be used to forecast streamflow for selected storms, called standard storms. A standard rainstorm is a high intensity storm of some known magnitude and frequency. One method of unit hydrograph analysis involves expressing the hour by hour or day by day increase in streamflow as

270-407: A shallow slope. In freshwater ecology , banks are of interest as the location of riparian habitats . Riparian zones occur along upland and lowland river and stream beds. The ecology around and depending on a marsh , swamp , slough , or estuary , sometimes called a bank, is likewise studied in freshwater ecology. Banks are also of interest in navigation , where the term can refer either to

300-408: A stream, a short term forecast of discharge can be made for a given rainstorm using a hydrograph. This method involves building a graph in which the discharge generated by a rainstorm of a given size is plotted over time, usually hours or days. It is called the unit hydrograph method because it addresses only the runoff produced by a particular rainstorm in a specified period of time—the time taken for

330-422: A variety of ways to measure the discharge of a stream or canal. A stream gauge provides continuous flow over time at one location for water resource and environmental management or other purposes. Streamflow values are better indicators than gage height of conditions along the whole river. Measurements of streamflow are made about every six weeks by United States Geological Survey (USGS) personnel. They wade into

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360-407: Is a means to collect water for storage in dams for power generation of water abstraction. The flow of water assists transport downstream. A given watercourse has a maximum streamflow rate that can be accommodated by the channel that can be calculated. If the streamflow exceeds this maximum rate, as happens when an excessive amount of water is present in the watercourse, the channel cannot handle all

390-529: Is good for environment, as stagnant water does not stay fresh and inviting very long. There are many factors, both natural and human-induced, that cause rivers to continuously change: Natural mechanisms Human-induced mechanisms Streamflow is measured as an amount of water passing through a specific point over time. The units used in the United States are cubic feet per second , while in most other countries cubic meters per second are utilized. There are

420-450: Is straightened, a line can be ruled drawn through the points. A projection can then be made by extending the line beyond the points and then reading the appropriate discharge for the recurrence interval in question. Runoff of water in channels is responsible for transport of sediment , nutrients , and pollution downstream. Without streamflow, the water in a given watershed would not be able to naturally progress to its final destination in

450-427: Is the flow of water in streams and other channels , and is a major element of the water cycle . It is one runoff component, the movement of water from the land to waterbodies , the other component being surface runoff . Water flowing in channels comes from surface runoff from adjacent hillslopes, from groundwater flow out of the ground, and from water discharged from pipes. The discharge of water flowing in

480-745: The Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1183201. In the early 2000s, the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan recommended that Spring Brook Township include protection of Painter Creek in their comprehensive plans, as well as their ordinances for land use, zoning, and subdivision. In 2012, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission considered adding

510-470: The aquifers underground full of water by discharging water downward through their streambeds. In addition to that, the oceans stay full of water because rivers and runoff continually refreshes them. Streamflow is the main mechanism by which water moves from the land to the oceans or to basins of interior drainage . Stream discharge is derived from four sources: channel precipitation, overland flow, interflow, and groundwater. Rivers are always moving, which

540-446: The mouth of Painter Creek is 1,411 feet (430 m) above sea level . The elevation near the source of the creek is between 2,000 and 2,020 feet (610 and 620 m) above sea level. The surficial geology in the vicinity of Painter Creek mainly consists of a glacial or resedimented till known as Wisconsinan Till. Further away from the creek, there is bedrock consisting of conglomerate , shale , and sandstone . There are also

570-546: The Hydrological Division of the USGS for large streams. For a basin with an area of 5,000 square miles or more, the river system is typically gauged at five to ten places. The data from each gauging station apply to the part of the basin upstream that location. Given several decades of peak annual discharges for a river, limited projections can be made to estimate the size of some large flow that has not been experienced during

600-600: The Painter Creek Bog is listed on the Lackawanna Natural Areas Inventory. It is a glacial kettlehole bog of fair quality and is undisturbed. It is located in Pinchot State Forest . The main threats to the area include flooding be beavers and logging. The bog has an area of 5 acres (2.0 ha) and contains approximately 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) of open water. Painter Creek was entered into

630-509: The channel and overtop the banks. The descriptive terms left bank and right bank refer to the perspective of an observer looking downstream ; a well-known example of this being the southern left bank and the northern right bank of the river Seine defining parts of Paris . The shoreline of ponds , swamps , estuaries , reservoirs , or lakes are also of interest in limnology and are sometimes referred to as banks. The grade of all these banks or shorelines can vary from vertical to

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660-672: The creek, along with several dozen others in Pennsylvania, to its list of wild trout streams. The Painter Creek Greenway was proposed in the Open Space, Greenways & Outdoor Recreation Master Plan for Luzerne County and Lackawanna County. The entire length of the creek is in Pinchot State Forest . The 23-mile (37-kilometer) Pinchot Trail passes near the creek in one section. Wild trout naturally reproduce in Painter Creek from its headwaters downstream to its mouth. Bears were observed in

690-482: The distribution of rainfall because an individual rainstorm rarely covers the basin evenly. As a result, the basin does not respond as a unit to a given storm, making it difficult to construct a reliable hydrograph. For large basins, where unit hydrograph might not be useful and reliable, the magnitude and frequency method is used to calculate the probability of recurrence of large flows based on records of past years' flows. In United States, these records are maintained by

720-403: The period of record. The technique involves projecting the curve (graph line) formed when peak annual discharges are plotted against their respective recurrence intervals. However, in most cases the curve bends strongly, making it difficult to plot a projection accurately. This problem can be overcome by plotting the discharge and/or recurrence interval data on logarithmic graph paper. Once the plot

750-412: The stream flow termed the orange method or float method is: In the United States, streamflow gauges are funded primarily from state and local government funds. In fiscal year 2008, the USGS provided 35% of the funding for everyday operation and maintenance of gauges. Additionally, USGS uses hydrographs to study streamflow in rivers. A hydrograph is a chart showing, most often, river stage (height of

780-661: The stream to make the measurement or do so from a boat, bridge, or cableway over the stream. For each gaging station, a relation between gage height and streamflow is determined by simultaneous measurements of gage height and streamflow over the natural range of flows (from very low flows to floods). This relation provides the streamflow data from that station. For purposes that do not require a continuous measurement of stream flow over time, current meters or acoustic Doppler velocity profilers can be used. For small streams—a few meters wide or smaller— weirs may be installed. One informal method that provides an approximation of

810-533: The vicinity of Painter Creek in the late 1800s. The Painter Creek Bog mainly consists of a floating peat mat with low growths of sphagnum and graminoids . Shrubs such as highbush blueberry are also present in the bog. Further away, there are boreal conifer trees such as spruce and larch . left bank In geography , a bank is the land alongside a body of water . Different structures are referred to as banks in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters),

840-471: The water above an arbitrary altitude) and streamflow (amount of water, usually in cubic feet per second). Other properties, such as rainfall and water quality parameters can also be plotted. For most streams especially those with a small watershed, no record of discharge is available. In that case, it is possible to make discharge estimates using the rational method or some modified version of it. However, if chronological records of discharge are available for

870-543: The water, and flooding occurs. The 1993 Mississippi river flood , the largest ever recorded on the river, was a response to a heavy, long duration spring and summer rainfalls. Early rains saturated the soil over more than a 300,000 square miles of the upper watershed, greatly reducing infiltration and leaving soils with little or no storage capacity. As rains continued, surface depressions, wetlands, ponds, ditches, and farm fields filled with overland flow and rainwater. With no remaining capacity to hold water, additional rainfall

900-546: Was forced from the land into tributary channels and thence to the Mississippi River . For more than a month, the total load of water from hundreds of tributaries exceeded the Mississippi's channel capacity, causing it to spill over its banks onto adjacent floodplains. Where the flood waters were artificially constricted by an engineered channel bordered by constructed levees and unable to spill onto large section of floodplain,

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