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Pages 131-141

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From page 131...
... However, there remains a national need for science to support policy and management decision making that addresses conflicts over use of river resources and the best ways to ensure river ecosystems remain viable both now and in the future. RIVER SCIENCE DEFINED River science is the study of processes affecting river systems.
From page 132...
... WHAT THE USGS BRINGS TO RIVER SCIENCE Among federal agencies, the USGS is well poised to be a leader in river science. It historically has provided impartial policy-relevant data to the nation, leading all federal agencies in collecting hydraulic data on rivers, monitoring river conditions, and mapping the nation's mineral and water resources.
From page 133...
... These activities would underpin the USGS's science contribution to a broad national effort in river science. Surveying and Synthesizing River networks are intimately connected to the landscape and are integrators of climatic, geologic, and land-use processes within their watersheds.
From page 134...
... These models, if properly multidisciplinary and robust, could be invaluable in river restoration, planning, and multiple water resources issues. Models can also be used to address how flow might be decreased by groundwater pumping or enriched in excess nutrients from agricultural fields.
From page 135...
... Each of these science activities will include enhanced monitoring and modeling, and will be key components of the overall river science framework. Environmental Flows and River Restoration The `nation is spending billions on riverine restoration and rehabilitation projects, yet the science underlying these projects is not currently well understood and thus the approaches and their effectiveness vary widely.
From page 136...
... These advances could be applied to problems such as determining the risk of contaminated sediment resuspension, designing and maintaining flood-control channels, predicting channel behavior, understanding sedimentation and hydraulic roughness in mountain channels, restoring and re-meandering previously channelized streams, assessing the impact of dam removal on river sedimentation and habitat, estimating flows needed for removing sand and silt from gravel-bed streams, and improving sedimentation management in lakes and reservoirs. Knowing the science of these sediment-related processes is critical to the multibillion-dollar efforts to restore wetlands, reestablish flow regimes, and maintain river reaches for transport.
From page 137...
... Therefore, the USGS is well positioned to fulfill the growing need to concurrently monitor hydrologic, geomorphic, chemical, and ecological river conditions. Currently, streamflow data are available for many higher-order river systems, but data on water quality, sediment transport, biology, and ecology are often lacking.
From page 138...
... Among these efforts, the USGS should consider the incorporation of index biological reaches, where coupled measurements of river flows, groundwater levels and fluxes, and water quality are combined with riparian cover mapping. The USGS should prioritize based on those variables with broad science and management applications, and seek opportunities to collaborate with other programs that monitor rivers so efforts build on each other and do not duplicate one another.
From page 139...
... Three-dimensional data describing flow velocity fields are now available from innovative acoustic Doppler technologies that have been enhanced by the USGS, and even four-dimensional measurements (i.e., time-varying, three-dimensional fields) are both technologically and economically practical data forms with great potential value for river science.
From page 140...
... These include place-based experience and long-term datasets of some of the Biological Resources Discipline (BRD) Science Centers and Priority Ecosystems Science sites, the two-way flow of information between the Water Resources Discipline (WRD)
From page 141...
... Wise application of the knowledge gained will lead to better, more informed policy and management decisions throughout the nation.


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