Eagle Creek Land Use Characterization and Land Use Change and Implications for Watershed Management

For a complete discussion of the land use characterization, land use change, and implications for watershed management please refer to the land use section under the main CIWRP report page.

Subwatersheds 

            CUPE staff also used the land cover data to evaluate the degree of change at the subwatershed level for the Eagle Creek, Fall Creek, and Cicero Creek watersheds.  The Eagle Creek watershed is made up of 10 subwatersheds with areas ranging from 10.4 to 20.9 square miles.  The Fall Creek watershed is made up of 15 subwatersheds with areas ranging from 7.7 to 21.5 square miles.  The Cicero Creek watershed consists of 11 subwatersheds with areas ranging from 13.6 to 23.7 square miles.  A closer look reveals that patterns of land cover change remained constant across the subwatersheds; however, development occurred more rapidly in some watersheds than in others.   

            Figure VIII-2 illustrates types of land cover in each of the Eagle Creek subwatersheds and the surrounding areas.  Evaluation of the Eagle Creek subwatersheds indicates that the largest degree of change occurred in the southeastern portion of the Eagle Creek watershed.  Most development during this time period occurred in the Eagle Creek-Long Branch/Irishman Run subwatershed and the area east of this subwatershed boundary. 

            Tables VIII-2 through VIII-4 summarize the proportion and types of changes occurring in each of the Eagle Creek subwatersheds.  Table VIII-2 presents the proportion of Eagle Creek subwatersheds by land cover type in 1985.  Table VIII-3 identifies the proportion of Eagle Creek subwatersheds by land cover type in 2000.  Table VIII-4 summarizes the change in proportion of the subwatersheds by land cover type between 1985 and 2000.
 

Table VIII-2

Table VIII-3

Table VIII-4

            Table VIII-4 shows that the largest increase in development occurred in Eagle Creek-Long Branch/Irishman Run.  This subwatershed experienced a 3.3% increase in high density land cover and 4.7% increase in low density land cover.  In 2000, the percent of total urbanized land (high and low density land cover) in the Eagle Creek subwatersheds ranged from 0.2% in the Mounts Run-Neese Ditch subwatershed to 14.5% in the Eagle Creek-Long Branch/Irishman Run subwatershed.  The declining proportion of forest and agriculture land cover appears to reflect similar increases in the herbaceous (grassland), high density, and low density land covers.  This pattern is consistent across all of the Eagle Creek subwatersheds.  Despite these changes, agriculture remained the dominant land cover type in all of the subwatersheds with the exceptions of the Little Eagle Branch-Woodruff and Eagle Creek-Long Branch/Irishman Run subwatersheds where herbaceous (grassland) was the dominant land cover type.