San Juan Creek Channel Assessment

PACE needed to provide a detailed hydraulic study of major streams within the San Juan Creek watershed located in South Orange County.  The hydraulic model needed a detailed stream assessment in order to generate the Manning’s n-value or the resistance of water flow over the surface.  The model also needed more detail for the bank and stream elevations.  PACE sent a crew of engineers with a GPS enabled camera and a GPS to document the channel in greater detail.  The photos were compared to well documented samples that have Manning’s n values assigned, and the elevations were used to generate profiles within the hydraulic model.  The project provided PACE with a greater understanding of the channel characteristics and was able to successfully produce a detailed model of the necessary channels.