River Science at the U.S. Geological Survey (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Summary
Pages 1-14
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Throughout history, rivers have sustained communities by providing drinking water, transportation routes, waterpower, hydroelectric power, fisheries, and wildlife habitat. River bottomlands have been transformed into rich agricultural lands, and water diversions irrigate distant farmlands.
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This chapter proposes three topical areas, namely, environmental flows and river restoration, sediment transport and geomorphology, and groundwater surface-water interactions, for special emphasis. It also recommends two crosscutting science activities, namely, surveying and mapping the nation's river systems according to key physical and landscape features and expanding work on predictive models, especially those that simulate interactions between physical-biological processes.
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In what ways do the USGS databases, spanning multiple disciplines, need to be modified to adequately store, manage, and disseminate River Science data in useful ways? (Chapter 5, "Integrated Data Archiving, Dissemination, and Man agement")
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Throughout the country, thousands of ecological restoration efforts are being undertaken to improve water quality, manage riparian zones, improve habitat, and stabilize streambanks. Billions of dollars are being spent on small projects and billions more on major restoration projects in the Everglades, coastal Louisiana, and the upper Mississippi River.
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These large-scale issues, coupled with numerous conflicts over smaller streams, involve battles between interests concerned with municipal and agricultural water supply, environmental flows (i.e., flow levels, timing, and variability) , and recreation.
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The USGS has collected river-related data since the 1800s, emphasizing consistent methodology and quality control. It is the primary science agency of the Department of the Interior, with strengths in hydrology and hydraulics, sediment transport, biology and ecology, aquatic chemistry, hydroclimatology, geology, and resource mapping.
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The intersection of society's needs and the USGS's strengths suggest a number of science priorities for USGS river science. These priorities are grouped into crosscutting science activities and topical science focus areas where recommendations for USGS research are offered.
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Models complement point measurements and surveys by interpolating across the data and providing a mechanism to predict future changes. The USGS has a 40year history of developing mathematical models of natural systems, including estuarine ocean circulation, surface-water runoff and river hydraulics, groundwater flow and solute transport, sediment transport, biological processes in streams, and groundwater and surface-water interaction.
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Improving and synthesizing the scientific information on environmental flows before, during, and after river restoration could lead to an improved ability to predict outcomes and thus more effective, costefficient habitat restoration. Recommendation: The USGS should develop the means to charac terize environmental flows in rivers by developing quantitative models that link changes in the ecological structure and function of river ecosystems (aquatic and riparian)
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Activities should include advancing basic re search on sediment transport processes, developing new technolo gies for measuring fluxes of bedload, suspended load, and wash load, and monitoring flow velocity and water temperature associat ed with such sediment transport conditions. Groundwater and Surface-Water Interactions River flows throughout the nation are affected when groundwater that normally discharges to rivers is captured for agriculture or other uses.
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To make gage data more useful for river science initiatives, the USGS should investigate cost-effective ways to collect more integrative biophysical data. 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.
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Integrated Data Archiving, Dissemination, and Management Integrative river science is supported by diverse measurements and observations. In contrast to streamflow data and point measurements of nutrient concentrations, observations to support river science include two-dimensional data and observations describing stream channel geometry, time-varying data on bed forms, channel sediments, and the land uses and vegetative cover of riparian corridors and upstream drainage areas.
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Science Centers and Priority Ecosystems Science sites, two-way flow of information between the Water Resources Discipline (WRD) personnel doing research and those doing applied science, the close links with universities of the BRD Cooperative Research Units and many of the WRD Science Centers, and the close ties between the BRD Science Centers and other federal agencies and between the WRD Science Centers and state and local agencies.
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By showing leadership in monitoring, modeling, surveying, synthesizing, and data management -- concerning topics such as environmental flows, behavior of sediment, and groundwater and surface-water interactions -- the USGS can contribute a great deal toward answering some of the most difficult and interdisciplinary questions involving rivers. Wise application of the knowledge gained will lead to better, more informed policy and management decisions throughout the nation.
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