Assessing the National Streamflow Information Program (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-12
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From page 1... ...
That report also stated that new resource management issues and data delivery capabilities have increased the demand for streamflow information and that new technologies and methodologies have to be developed to improve the reliability of streamflow information and decrease its cost. Most importantly, this report proposed creation of the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP)
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From page 2... ...
Measure flow for water quality needs FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR A BASE STREAMGAGE NETWORK Independent of the USGS's long experience in providing consistent, quality-assured streamflow data, a national streamflow information program merits federal support because streamflow information supports national interests (e.g., interstate water supply disputes) in addition to local or private interests.
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From page 3... ...
Therefore, the committee will evaluate the program with respect to: · The minimum national streamflow information needs that should be met by the network, including those related to interstate and international waters, flow forecasts, river basin outflows, sentinel watersheds, and water quality. · The components of the NSIP plan that are reasonable, appropriate, and sufficient, including an enhanced nationwide streamgaging network with a larger share of national funding, intensive data collection during major floods and droughts, periodic regional and national assessments of streamflow characteristics, enhanced streamflow information delivery to customers, and methods development and research.
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From page 4... ...
A greater degree of collaboration between the USGS, NWS, and NRCS in planning and locating future gage sites and forecast points would be beneficial, especially in arid and semiarid states with growing populations, where intermittent or "flashy" streamflow creates forecasting challenges. The five NSIP goals reflect areas of compelling national interest in streamflow information and are an appropriate foundation for the National Streamflow Information Program.
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From page 5... ...
They can guide incremental decisions to add or eliminate individual gages within a local or regional network serving narrow, well-defined goals by, for example, ranking gages in order of their marginal regional information content. In contrast, the breadth of both the national goals and the hydroclimatic variation spanned by the NSIP network cannot meaningfully be reduced to a concise set of valuation measures.
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From page 6... ...
Such protocols and measurement techniques have to address the unique challenges in monitoring flow extremes, which are usually outside the range of direct measurements used to establish flow rating curves and are often poorly measured by conventional techniques. The USGS's outstanding studies of the 1993 Mississippi River provide compelling models for integrated interdisciplinary study of extreme events, integrating expertise in water resources, channel and floodplain morphology, sediment transport, hyporheic processes, and ecosystem response.
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From page 7... ...
Streamflow data can support a far richer interpretation if combined with geospatial information, as indeed the USGS has done in designing the NSIP base gage network. Streamgaging points can be associated with information about the stream network (e.g., network topology codified in the National Hydrography Dataset)
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The USGS should provide access to a broader range of geospatially linked data (unit values, channel cross sections, remotely sensed images, velocity fields, stream network position, and landscape attributes) to enable richer data interpretation than is presently done.
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show promise of providing significant improvements in streamflow and streambed measurement. With due care in ensuring comparability of data produced by traditional streamgaging methods and new technologies, the USGS is encouraged to aggressively pursue new technologies for streamflow and water quality measurement with a view to accelerating the implementation of time- and labor-saving flow measurement techniques and continuous water quality monitoring, as soon as practicable.
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From page 10... ...
, is a "discovered" streamgage network, serendipitously maintained within the national network through the cumulative effect of unrelated decisions to maintain gaging at these sites. When gaging was initiated at many of the sites with 50- to 100-year records, detection of trends in climate change was an unimagined use of streamgage data.
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From page 11... ...
This requires the characterization of river systems continuously in space, not just at gaging stations, and would benefit greatly from a more comprehensive NSIP data delivery system, focusing on streambed, sediment, and velocity distributions, as well as the discharge itself. Data of relevance to river science should also be rescued from historical files and made available on the Internet; these include crest stage data, slope-area data from flood studies, gaging station channel geometry, and bed sediment characteristics.
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From page 12... ...
watersheds can provide not only hydrologic reference points for the nation but stream morphology reference points as well. The representativeness of sentinel watersheds for characterizing the hydrologic and geomorphic diversity of the nation in support of river science should be explicitly evaluated.
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