Urban Riparian Wetland Hydrology Dataset_Stormwater Capture in Beaver-mediated Wetlands along Walnut Creek, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

This is the initial release of a hydrology dataset pertaining to the riparian floodplain wetlands alongside Walnut Creek in Raleigh, North Carolina USA.  Walnut Creek is the main drainage channel in an urbanized watershed (HUC-12: 030202011101) in central North Carolina.  There are several riparian floodplain wetlands along the creek which are largely supplied by urban stormwater runoff including directed storm sewer flows and regular overbank flooding events. In many of these wetlands local water retention and residence time in the surface ponds is mediated by the damming activity of North American beavers (Castor canadensis).  This dataset contains data specific to the hydrology of Walnut Creek, and the surface ponds and groundwater at the Walnut Creek Wetland Park which is actively influenced by resident beavers.  The period of this dataset is from January 22, 2023 through January 30, 2024. 

The core of the dataset is water stage measured in five surface pond sites and six groundwater monitoring wells within Walnut Creek Wetland Park.  This data was collected using synchronized Solinst Levelogger pressure transducer sensors at 15-minute intervals, compensated with corrections for barometric pressure measured locally using a Solinst Barologger sensor. In addition to this data collected by the authors, this dataset also includes publicly available stream stage and precipitation data obtained from the US Geological Survey, and weather and soils data from the North Carolina State Climate Office. In total, this dataset aims to provide a comprehensive view of surface and subsurface hydrology in the studied wetlands as it connects with precipitation events, antecedent moisture conditions, directed stormwater flows and overbank flood events. 

This hydrology dataset is intended to accompany the separate water quality dataset published on Zenodo at URL: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10888463. Together, these datasets are meant to support an improved understanding of the water availability and water quality found in connection with beaver-mediated stormwater capture in an urbanized watershed in the North Carolina Piedmont.

This dataset resulted from research supported with a Graduate Student Research Grant awarded by the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), under Project Number 23-10-W: "Stormwater Diversion, Storage, and Treatment by Beaver-enhanced Floodplain Wetlands in Piedmont Urban Watersheds".  

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) under Grant No. (DGE 2137100). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Special thanks to Raleigh Parks and Walnut Creek Wetland Park for making this work possible.