USGS Streamflow Monitoring in Georgia
NIDIS Early Warning System Development Workshop
May 18-19, 2010Callaway Gardens, GA
Enhance our ability to collect and deliver RT info from earth-observation networks
With our partners, assess the vulnerability of cities and ecosystems
Ensure science is effectively applied to reduce losses
Natural Hazards—one of the strategic directions for USGS
Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges, USGS Science in the Decade 2007—2017, Circular 1309
USGS National Monitoring Network
Real-Time Data Networks:• 9,329 surface-water stations
• 386 lake & reservoir stations
• 3,635 raingage stations
• 1,353 groundwater wells
• 1,742 continuous water-quality
Effort underway to upgrade entire network to hourly transmissions
USGS in Georgia
• 316 surface-water stations
• 251 have raingages
• 51 have continuous water-quality
• 100% transmit hourly
• All have emergency random transmissions
USGS Stream Gage Installation
Housing with raingage
Pressure orifice line buried
Outside gage (staff)
Reasons for monitoring streamflow Flood control Drought monitoring State Water Planning Resolving disputes Water supplies Maintaining flows for assimilative capacity Hydro-electric power Navigation Safe bridge and roadway design Recreation and tourism Long-term climate analyses Modeling
Allatoona Dam
USGS Hazards Products
USGS Hazards Products—NHSS
• Interactive map to see all hazards currently happening
• Different colors for different types of events
• Click on event and popup window gives more details
• All real-time data collected by USGS
• All historical data• All daily, monthly, annual
statistics• All field measurements• All peak flows
National Water Information System— NWISWeb
Instantaneous Data Archive
WaterWatch—Drought Watch
Streamail
Water data on request to your cell phone/email.
Send email to [email protected] and in the subject line put the USGS station number, like “02336300”
Get a reply:The latest river stage and streamflow values you requested from StreaMail. Site: 02336300
Station name: PEACHTREE CREEK AT ATLANTA, GADate: 09/30/2009Time: 09:00:00Stage: 2.95 feetStreamflow: 90 cubic feet per second (cfs)
Link to charts for 02336300:Stage: http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/wwapps/zchart.php?i=nwis2&&vt=uv&&cd=00065&site_no=02336300
Streamflow: http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/wwapps/zchart.php?i=nwis2&&vt=uv&&cd=00060&&site_no=02336000
USGS Hazards Products—Streamail
WaterAlert
Courtesy AJC
USGS WaterAlert
Sends emails/texts based upon user pre-set thresholds
All real-time parametersHourly or daily intervalsThresholds: greater than
less thanbetween a rangeoutside a range
USGS Hazards Products—Webcam
Peachtree Creek Webcam
1st for USGS in SE US
Continuous streaming feed
User can control camera on webpage for 3 min. timeslot
USGS can override at any time
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Lessons Learned
1. Must QA/QC data even more rigorously on a daily basis and respond to gage issues faster because critical decisions are being made with limited resources.
2. Streamgage funding is more prevalent during droughts because of duration and areal extent of droughts compared to floods.
3. Raingages are critical and relatively inexpensive addition to streamgage.
4. Drought field operations are can be difficult to manage due to prolonged nature of event producing long-term personnel needs.
Lessons Learned (cont.)
5. Gages must be retrofitted to be able to measure extremely low water levels.
6. Portraying streamflow levels in easy to comprehend way is very important (see WaterWatch pages).
7. Droughts are not all about lack of water—water quality becomes more important with less water for dilution.
8. Early and continued monitoring of groundwater levels can be critical to understanding the extent of drought problems.