The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a Web application, named StreamStats, for providing stre... more The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a Web application, named StreamStats, for providing streamflow statistics, such as the 100-year flood and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, to the public. Statistics can be obtained for data-collection stations and for ungaged sites. Streamflow statistics are needed for water-resources planning and management; for design of bridges, culverts, and flood-control structures; and for many other purposes. StreamStats users can point and click on data-collection stations shown on a map in their Web browser window to obtain previously determined streamflow statistics and other information for the stations. Users also can point and click on any stream shown on the map to get estimates of streamflow statistics for ungaged sites. StreamStats determines the watershed boundaries and measures physical and climatic characteristics of the watersheds for the ungaged sites by use of a Geographic Information System (GIS), and then it inserts the characteristics into previously determined regression equations to estimate the streamflow statistics. Compared to manual methods, StreamStats reduces the average time needed to estimate streamflow statistics for ungaged sites from several hours to several minutes.
1 Methods for Estimating Low-Flow Statistics for Massachusetts Streams By Kernell G. Ries, III, a... more 1 Methods for Estimating Low-Flow Statistics for Massachusetts Streams By Kernell G. Ries, III, and Paul J. Friesz Abstract Methods and computer software are described in this report for determining flowduration, low-flow frequency statistics, and August median flows. These low-flow statistics can be estimated for unregulated streams in Massachusetts using different methods depending on whether the location of interest is at a streamgaging station, a low-flow partial-record station, or an ungaged site where no data are available. Lowflow statistics for streamgaging stations can be estimated using standard U.S. Geological Survey methods described in the report. The MOVE.1 mathematical method and a graphical correlation method can be used to estimate low-flow statistics for low-flow partialrecord stations. The MOVE.1 method is recommended when the relation between measured flows at a partial-record station and daily mean flows at a nearby, hydrologically similar streamgaging station i...
Approximately 25,000 new households and thousands of new jobs will be established in an area that... more Approximately 25,000 new households and thousands of new jobs will be established in an area that extends from southwest to northeast of Baltimore, Maryland, as a result of the Federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, with consequent new demands on the water resources of the area. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Maryland Department of the Environment, has extended the area of implementation and added functionality to an existing map-based Web application named StreamStats to provide an improved tool for planning and managing the water resources in the BRAC-affected areas. StreamStats previously was implemented for only a small area surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, and it was extended to cover all BRAC-affected areas. StreamStats could provide previously published streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent probability flood and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, for U.S. Geological Survey data-collection stations and estimates of streamflow statistics for any user-selected point on a stream within the implemented area. The application was modified for this study to also provide summaries of water withdrawals and discharges upstream from any user-selected point on a stream. This new functionality was made possible by creating a Web service that accepts a drainage-basin delineation from StreamStats, overlays it on a spatial layer of water withdrawal and discharge points, extracts the water-use data for the identified points, and sends it back to StreamStats, where it is summarized for the user. The underlying water-use data were extracted from the U.S. Geological Survey's Site-Specific Water-Use Database System (SWUDS) and placed into a Microsoft Access database that was created for this study for easy linkage to the Web service and StreamStats. This linkage of StreamStats with water-use information from SWUDS should enable Maryland regulators and planners to make more informed decisions on the use of water resources in the BRAC area, and the technology should be transferrable to other geographic areas. Incorporation of Water-Use Summaries into the StreamStats Web Application for Maryland water withdrawals and wastewater-discharge permits. The Water Management Administration (WMA) of the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is responsible for evaluating permit applications and issuing these permits (Maryland Department of the Environment, 2009). Making good permitting decisions will require the WMA to understand the natural availability of the affected water resources in relation to current and requested water withdrawals and return flows. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with MDE, began a program of study in January 2008 of the potential impacts of BRAC on water resources in Maryland. The program consisted of four coordinated investigations: water-use activities, modeling of groundwater flow, low-flow statistical analysis for streams, and hydrologic monitoring. This report summarizes the investigation to estimate low-flow statistics for streams that potentially could be affected by new water withdrawals. Areas in Maryland that will be affected by BRAC are in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont Physiographic Provinces, which are separated by the Fall Line (fig. 1). Fort Meade is in the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province near the Fall Line. Most of the anticipated water-resource impacts from expansion of this facility are expected to occur within the recharge areas of several important aquifers in the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province, although some impacts are also likely to occur in Piedmont Physiographic Province areas adjacent to the base. APG is located within the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province, but most of the increased water use from BRAC-related development is expected to occur in the surrounding counties, which are situated largely within the Piedmont Physiographic Province. Figure 1. Location of areas affected by Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) activities in Maryland, including Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade.
Conversion Factors and Datum Multiply By To obtain Length foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m) mile (mi) 1.... more Conversion Factors and Datum Multiply By To obtain Length foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m) mile (mi) 1.609 kilometer (km) Area square mile (mi 2) 2.590 square kilometer (km 2) Volume cubic foot (ft 3) 28.32 cubic decimeter (dm 3) cubic foot (ft 3) 0.02832 cubic meter (m 3) Flow rate cubic foot per second (ft 3 /s) 0.02832 cubic meter per second (m 3 /s) Horizontal coordinate information is referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83).
2009 International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems & Web Services, 2009
StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey Web-based geographic information systems application deve... more StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey Web-based geographic information systems application developed as a tool for water-resources planning and management, engineering design, and other applications. The primary functionality of StreamStats allows users to obtain drainage-basin boundaries, basin characteristics, and streamflow statistics for gaged and ungaged sites. Recently, tools that allow stream-network navigation were added to StreamStats. These tools allow users
The sustainability of human water use practices is a rapidly growing concern in the United States... more The sustainability of human water use practices is a rapidly growing concern in the United States and around the world. To better characterize direct human interaction with hydrologic systems (stream basins and aquifers), we introduce the concept of the water use regime. Unlike scalar indicators of anthropogenic hydrologic stress in the literature, the water use regime is a two-dimensional, vector indicator that can be depicted on simple x-y plots of normalized human withdrawals (h out) versus normalized human return flows (h in). Four end-member regimes, natural-flow-dominated (undeveloped), human-flow-dominated (churned), withdrawal-dominated (depleted), and return-flow-dominated (surcharged), are defined in relation to limiting values of h out and h in. For illustration, the water use regimes of 19 diverse hydrologic systems are plotted and interpreted. Several of these systems, including the Yellow River Basin, China, and the California Central Valley Aquifer, are shown to approach particular end-member regimes. Spatial and temporal regime variations, both seasonal and long-term, are depicted. Practical issues of data availability and regime uncertainty are addressed in relation to the statistical properties of the ratio estimators h out and h in. The water use regime is shown to be a useful tool for comparative water resources assessment and for describing both historic and alternative future pathways of water resource development at a range of scales.
ABSTRACT Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Becaus... more ABSTRACT Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Because most stream reaches are ungauged, this data is commonly needed for rivers that have no readily available measurements of streamflow. In the Connecticut River Basin, located in the northeast United States, dam operation and its effects on the aquatic habitat are of particular interest. Here, daily streamflow is needed for use as input to reservoir simulation and optimization models of the Connecticut River Basin as well as to develop ecological-flow prescriptions for rivers and streams in the Connecticut River Basin. To provide a common scientific foundation for water allocation decisions, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a freely available and easy-to-use software tool termed the Connecticut River UnImpacted Streamflow Estimation (CRUISE) tool to estimate a daily streamflow time series at ungauged locations in the basin. CRUISE is used in sequence with the USGS StreamStats Web application (http://streamstats.usgs.gov), where users are able to point and click on a stream location of interest and obtain a delineated watershed and watershed characteristics for the location. Users then enter the watershed characteristics into the CRUISE tool to estimate a daily time series of streamflow. Daily streamflow was shown to be reliably estimated by the CRUISE tool, with efficiency values between the observed and estimated streamflows ranging from 0.69 to 0.92 and ecologically-relevant streamflow statistics derived from the estimated daily streamflow to be generally within +/- 10 percent of the streamflow statistics computed from the observed daily streamflow values.
TMDL 2010: Watershed Management to Improve Water Quality Proceedings, 14-17 November 2010 Hyatt Regency Baltimore on the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland USA, 2010
Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, strea... more Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, streamflow information is needed at locations that are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publicly available, map-based, regional software tool to estimate historical, unregulated, daily streamflow time series (streamflow not affected by human alteration such as dams or water withdrawals) at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then links to a spreadsheet-based program that computes estimates of daily streamflow for the river location selected. For a demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was, in general, shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool. Estimating the highest and lowest streamflows that occurred in the demonstration region over the period from 1960 through 2004 also was accomplished but with more difficulty and limitations. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.
Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Often times, st... more Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Often times, streamflow information is needed at locations which are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publically-available, mapbased, regional software tool to interactively estimate daily streamflow time series at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then returns estimates of daily streamflow for the location selected. For the demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool, with efficiency values computed from observed and estimated streamflows ranging from 0.69 to 0.92. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.
The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a Web application, named StreamStats, for providing stre... more The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a Web application, named StreamStats, for providing streamflow statistics, such as the 100-year flood and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, to the public. Statistics can be obtained for data-collection stations and for ungaged sites. Streamflow statistics are needed for water-resources planning and management; for design of bridges, culverts, and flood-control structures; and for many other purposes. StreamStats users can point and click on data-collection stations shown on a map in their Web browser window to obtain previously determined streamflow statistics and other information for the stations. Users also can point and click on any stream shown on the map to get estimates of streamflow statistics for ungaged sites. StreamStats determines the watershed boundaries and measures physical and climatic characteristics of the watersheds for the ungaged sites by use of a Geographic Information System (GIS), and then it inserts the characteristics into previously determined regression equations to estimate the streamflow statistics. Compared to manual methods, StreamStats reduces the average time needed to estimate streamflow statistics for ungaged sites from several hours to several minutes.
1 Methods for Estimating Low-Flow Statistics for Massachusetts Streams By Kernell G. Ries, III, a... more 1 Methods for Estimating Low-Flow Statistics for Massachusetts Streams By Kernell G. Ries, III, and Paul J. Friesz Abstract Methods and computer software are described in this report for determining flowduration, low-flow frequency statistics, and August median flows. These low-flow statistics can be estimated for unregulated streams in Massachusetts using different methods depending on whether the location of interest is at a streamgaging station, a low-flow partial-record station, or an ungaged site where no data are available. Lowflow statistics for streamgaging stations can be estimated using standard U.S. Geological Survey methods described in the report. The MOVE.1 mathematical method and a graphical correlation method can be used to estimate low-flow statistics for low-flow partialrecord stations. The MOVE.1 method is recommended when the relation between measured flows at a partial-record station and daily mean flows at a nearby, hydrologically similar streamgaging station i...
Approximately 25,000 new households and thousands of new jobs will be established in an area that... more Approximately 25,000 new households and thousands of new jobs will be established in an area that extends from southwest to northeast of Baltimore, Maryland, as a result of the Federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, with consequent new demands on the water resources of the area. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Maryland Department of the Environment, has extended the area of implementation and added functionality to an existing map-based Web application named StreamStats to provide an improved tool for planning and managing the water resources in the BRAC-affected areas. StreamStats previously was implemented for only a small area surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, and it was extended to cover all BRAC-affected areas. StreamStats could provide previously published streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent probability flood and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, for U.S. Geological Survey data-collection stations and estimates of streamflow statistics for any user-selected point on a stream within the implemented area. The application was modified for this study to also provide summaries of water withdrawals and discharges upstream from any user-selected point on a stream. This new functionality was made possible by creating a Web service that accepts a drainage-basin delineation from StreamStats, overlays it on a spatial layer of water withdrawal and discharge points, extracts the water-use data for the identified points, and sends it back to StreamStats, where it is summarized for the user. The underlying water-use data were extracted from the U.S. Geological Survey's Site-Specific Water-Use Database System (SWUDS) and placed into a Microsoft Access database that was created for this study for easy linkage to the Web service and StreamStats. This linkage of StreamStats with water-use information from SWUDS should enable Maryland regulators and planners to make more informed decisions on the use of water resources in the BRAC area, and the technology should be transferrable to other geographic areas. Incorporation of Water-Use Summaries into the StreamStats Web Application for Maryland water withdrawals and wastewater-discharge permits. The Water Management Administration (WMA) of the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is responsible for evaluating permit applications and issuing these permits (Maryland Department of the Environment, 2009). Making good permitting decisions will require the WMA to understand the natural availability of the affected water resources in relation to current and requested water withdrawals and return flows. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with MDE, began a program of study in January 2008 of the potential impacts of BRAC on water resources in Maryland. The program consisted of four coordinated investigations: water-use activities, modeling of groundwater flow, low-flow statistical analysis for streams, and hydrologic monitoring. This report summarizes the investigation to estimate low-flow statistics for streams that potentially could be affected by new water withdrawals. Areas in Maryland that will be affected by BRAC are in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont Physiographic Provinces, which are separated by the Fall Line (fig. 1). Fort Meade is in the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province near the Fall Line. Most of the anticipated water-resource impacts from expansion of this facility are expected to occur within the recharge areas of several important aquifers in the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province, although some impacts are also likely to occur in Piedmont Physiographic Province areas adjacent to the base. APG is located within the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province, but most of the increased water use from BRAC-related development is expected to occur in the surrounding counties, which are situated largely within the Piedmont Physiographic Province. Figure 1. Location of areas affected by Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) activities in Maryland, including Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade.
Conversion Factors and Datum Multiply By To obtain Length foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m) mile (mi) 1.... more Conversion Factors and Datum Multiply By To obtain Length foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m) mile (mi) 1.609 kilometer (km) Area square mile (mi 2) 2.590 square kilometer (km 2) Volume cubic foot (ft 3) 28.32 cubic decimeter (dm 3) cubic foot (ft 3) 0.02832 cubic meter (m 3) Flow rate cubic foot per second (ft 3 /s) 0.02832 cubic meter per second (m 3 /s) Horizontal coordinate information is referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83).
2009 International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems & Web Services, 2009
StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey Web-based geographic information systems application deve... more StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey Web-based geographic information systems application developed as a tool for water-resources planning and management, engineering design, and other applications. The primary functionality of StreamStats allows users to obtain drainage-basin boundaries, basin characteristics, and streamflow statistics for gaged and ungaged sites. Recently, tools that allow stream-network navigation were added to StreamStats. These tools allow users
The sustainability of human water use practices is a rapidly growing concern in the United States... more The sustainability of human water use practices is a rapidly growing concern in the United States and around the world. To better characterize direct human interaction with hydrologic systems (stream basins and aquifers), we introduce the concept of the water use regime. Unlike scalar indicators of anthropogenic hydrologic stress in the literature, the water use regime is a two-dimensional, vector indicator that can be depicted on simple x-y plots of normalized human withdrawals (h out) versus normalized human return flows (h in). Four end-member regimes, natural-flow-dominated (undeveloped), human-flow-dominated (churned), withdrawal-dominated (depleted), and return-flow-dominated (surcharged), are defined in relation to limiting values of h out and h in. For illustration, the water use regimes of 19 diverse hydrologic systems are plotted and interpreted. Several of these systems, including the Yellow River Basin, China, and the California Central Valley Aquifer, are shown to approach particular end-member regimes. Spatial and temporal regime variations, both seasonal and long-term, are depicted. Practical issues of data availability and regime uncertainty are addressed in relation to the statistical properties of the ratio estimators h out and h in. The water use regime is shown to be a useful tool for comparative water resources assessment and for describing both historic and alternative future pathways of water resource development at a range of scales.
ABSTRACT Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Becaus... more ABSTRACT Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Because most stream reaches are ungauged, this data is commonly needed for rivers that have no readily available measurements of streamflow. In the Connecticut River Basin, located in the northeast United States, dam operation and its effects on the aquatic habitat are of particular interest. Here, daily streamflow is needed for use as input to reservoir simulation and optimization models of the Connecticut River Basin as well as to develop ecological-flow prescriptions for rivers and streams in the Connecticut River Basin. To provide a common scientific foundation for water allocation decisions, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a freely available and easy-to-use software tool termed the Connecticut River UnImpacted Streamflow Estimation (CRUISE) tool to estimate a daily streamflow time series at ungauged locations in the basin. CRUISE is used in sequence with the USGS StreamStats Web application (http://streamstats.usgs.gov), where users are able to point and click on a stream location of interest and obtain a delineated watershed and watershed characteristics for the location. Users then enter the watershed characteristics into the CRUISE tool to estimate a daily time series of streamflow. Daily streamflow was shown to be reliably estimated by the CRUISE tool, with efficiency values between the observed and estimated streamflows ranging from 0.69 to 0.92 and ecologically-relevant streamflow statistics derived from the estimated daily streamflow to be generally within +/- 10 percent of the streamflow statistics computed from the observed daily streamflow values.
TMDL 2010: Watershed Management to Improve Water Quality Proceedings, 14-17 November 2010 Hyatt Regency Baltimore on the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland USA, 2010
Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, strea... more Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, streamflow information is needed at locations that are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publicly available, map-based, regional software tool to estimate historical, unregulated, daily streamflow time series (streamflow not affected by human alteration such as dams or water withdrawals) at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then links to a spreadsheet-based program that computes estimates of daily streamflow for the river location selected. For a demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was, in general, shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool. Estimating the highest and lowest streamflows that occurred in the demonstration region over the period from 1960 through 2004 also was accomplished but with more difficulty and limitations. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.
Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Often times, st... more Streamflow information is critical for solving any number of hydrologic problems. Often times, streamflow information is needed at locations which are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publically-available, mapbased, regional software tool to interactively estimate daily streamflow time series at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then returns estimates of daily streamflow for the location selected. For the demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool, with efficiency values computed from observed and estimated streamflows ranging from 0.69 to 0.92. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed.
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