Charles creek flood zone modeling: A correlation study of environmental conditions versus water level in the Pasquotank watershed

The Charles Creek area in Elizabeth City, NC experiences frequent flood conditions seemingly unrelated to rainfall amounts. The purpose of this study was to compare barometric pressures, lunar cycles, wind directions, and wind speeds with water depth readings of Charles Creek (a tributary of the Pasquotank River). A static remote imaging system was used to measure water depth through pixel enumeration and referencing through remote sensing techniques coupled with custom image processing software. Environmental data was collected through Elizabeth City State University´s National Renewable Energy Laboratory Weather Monitoring Station. The data was correlated using MINITAB (R) to find an equation to approximate a model of the rise of the Creek water level based upon environmental conditions. The regression equation had a coefficient of determination of 42%; this means there was a 42% probability the model was useful at predicting the pixel count based on environmental variables.