BSYSE 456/556 Surface Hydrologic Processes and Modeling

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1 BSYSE 456/556 Surface Hydrologic Processes and Modeling Lab 9 (Prepared by Erin Brooks and Jan Boll, UI, and Joan Wu, WSU) P Introduction One of the most difficult tasks in watershed assessment and management is actually setting up a watershed database. This database includes digital topographic, land-use, soils, streams, roads, and other maps for the region. It also includes acquiring historic weather data from any available weather stations. Additionally, you may need information on streamflow, ground water, and water quality measurements made in the watershed. P Objectives The objective of this lab is to present the student with information on where to find information pertinent to the hydrology of a specific region and how to begin developing a watershed database. P Background Knowledge and Tasks I. The United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS) was created by an act of Congress in 1879 and today the USGS stands as the sole science agency for the Department of the Interior. The research and data collection at the USGS is directed into four main areas: biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water. The USGS web page processes numerous requests from users each day (source: accessed October, 2008). USGS Geography The USGS is a good resource for downloading GIS map layers. Their web site offers a wide variety of mapping products at various scales. After going to the web site explore the many options for obtaining geospatial information. Now go to Click on the National Elevation Dataset. Now click The Seamless Data Distribution System (SDDS) and then click View & Download United States Data. As we have used in our first GIS lab, the GeoCommunity website is also a good source of GIS data. The other primary source of mapping data for Idaho and parts of Eastern Washington is the (Click the GeoData tab and then use Find Data). USGS Water The water section of the USGS web site is organized into real-time stream flow, surface water, ground water, and water quality data. Real-time The real time data is available through phone and satellite hook up to USGS stream gage stations. For 1

2 example, Select Washington State as the Geographic Area Click on the green dot near Pullman. Notice a latitude, longitude, elevation, area, and HUC given for the South Fork Palouse River gage at Pullman (USGS South Fork Palouse River at Pullman, WA). Also listed are the periods of record for the site. You can also select site map in the Available data for this site Box Zoom in using 8 Go Back to Real-time Change the graph to plot the last 30 days of data Notice the hydrograph, compare to 37-year median streamflow. Compare the current reading to the 80, 50, and 20% accedence values. Understand what they mean. Question 1 Our 37-year median streamflow is generally below our daily average over this season. What about the comparison between the 37-year median and the streamflows in the last 30 days? What are the possible reasons for the discrepancies? Question 2 Why do you think there are consistent daily fluctuations in streamflow? Surface water The historical streamflow data, which is often of more importance in a hydrologic study, is also available from the USGS water web site. Click Historical Streamflow under Data Select Washington State Click Surface Water/Daily Data/ and use County as a site selection criterion Find the list of stream gaging stations in the Whitman County Click USGS (This is exactly the South Fork Palouse River at Pullman, WA) Notice daily data available from 1934 through (In fact, there is a gap between 1981 and 2001 and the USGS re-installed this gage in May, 2001). Type in 10/1/1980 and 9/30/1981 in the Begin date and End date Boxes Click on Tab Separated Then click Submit Here is the daily streamflow and you can save this data for further analysis and a variety of uses. Go to Palouse River Nr Potlatch ID (USGS , in Latah County) Obtain data for the last 30 days Compare the real time flows from the last 30 days to the 46-year median streamflow. 2

3 Question 3 Does this river show the same characteristics in terms of current flow in comparison to the historical medians as the South Fork Palouse River near Pullman? If so, why? Water Quality Many of the streams throughout the country have water quality data. Usually these data are taken at infrequent intervals Select discrete samples Select State and Site type as the site selection criteria Choose Washington State and Stream/River Check Parameter Group Period of Record table Click Submit Notice the measurements made in the many Washington streams for different time periods. Ground Water Specific ground-water data is also available throughout the country. In the Data Category box select Ground Water In the Geographic Area box select Idaho, then click Go Click on Field Water-level Measurements Under the Site Selection Criteria select County under Site Location and select Number of Observations under Data Attribute, and click Submit Select Latah County and type in 50 for observations, click Submit Click on the well having a Site Name of 39N 05W 07CBB1 Notice the depth of the well below the land surface. Question 4 Roughly, how fast (ft/yr) is the water level declining in this well? What are the possible causes? In the Available data for this site click on Site map Zoom in to see where it is located Question 5 Why is the response of the well 39N 05W 07DAD3 so different from the 39N 05W 07CBB1? II. Climate Data from NCDC The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the world s largest active archive of weather data. It is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS). The Center has more than 150 years of data on hand with 224 gigabytes of new information added each day. NCDC archives 99 percent of all NOAA data. It has satellite weather images back to NCDC maintains over 500 digital data sets, receives almost 2,000,000 requests each year, and records over 100 million hits per year on the website. 3

4 Publications There are many standard publications that the NCDC delivers (under List Data & Products). The following are the most relevant important publications. The Local Climatological Data (LCD) publication summarizes temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind speed and direction observations for several hundred cities in the U.S. and its territories. Most monthly publications also contain the three hourly weather observations for that month and an hourly summary of precipitation. Annual LCD publications contain a monthly summary of the past calendar year as well as historical averages and extremes. The Climatological Data (CD) publication includes monthly editions that contain station daily maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation. Some stations provide daily snowfall, snow depth, evaporation, and soil temperature data. Each issue also contains monthly summaries for heating and cooling degree days. The annual issue contains monthly and annual averages of temperature, precipitation, temperature extremes, freeze data, soil temperatures, evaporation, and a recap of monthly cooling degree days. The Hourly Precipitation Data (HPD) publication contains hourly precipitation amounts obtained from recording rain gages located at National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and cooperative observer stations. Published data are displayed in inches to tenths or inches to hundredths at local standard time. HPD includes maximum precipitation for nine (9) time periods from 15 minutes to 24 hours, for selected stations. The Monthly Climatic Data for the World (MCDW) provides monthly statistics for some 1,500 surface stations and approximately 800 upper air stations across the world. Radar and satellite images NCDC also offers radar and satellite images and software for viewing and handling hourly images. Types of weather stations There are primarily two types of weather stations that record and send data to the NCDC: Cooperative Weather Stations and First-order or Principal Weather Stations. Cooperative Weather Stations The National Weather Service (NWS) has been keeping daily records from cooperative weather stations since the 1880s. Measurements at cooperative stations are usually made manually and they typically record only daily weather parameters such as precipitation, snowfall, snow depth, maximum and minimum temperatures. Volunteers operate the majority of the cooperative weather stations. Universities and other state agencies also support Cooperative Weather Stations. All instruments are calibrated by NWS field representatives, cooperative program managers and hydro-meteorologic technicians. There are approximately 8,000 active cooperative observers around the US at this time. The NCDC web page lists approximately 23,000 cooperative stations that include currently inactive stations. The Cooperative Weather Stations are described by a six-digit code (the first two digits refer to the state code and the next four digits are a unique ID, which roughly represents the alphabetical order for each station in the state). First-order Weather Stations Principal climatological stations are referred to as First-order Weather Stations. These stations are typically controlled and maintained by a large government agency, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, National Weather Service, or one of the armed forces. First-order weather stations typically have automated measurements where data can be stored nearly continuously. The data are usually 4

5 summarized on 15-minute, hourly, or daily time steps. Most states installed First-order Weather Stations between 1946 and In the NCDC web page each weather station is listed as either a Cooperative Weather Station or a First-order Weather Station maintained by a specific agency. The measurement devices installed and weather parameters measured to a certain degree of precision is typically unique to the agency that maintains the weather station. For example, airports would measure unique parameters than perhaps a weather service forecast office. Both the Cooperative- and First-order Weather Station data can be downloaded from the web at the following address For example Go to the NCDC web page and click Find a Station under Data & Products Click on Search by Station Name Type in Pullman, WA and press Search Notice five stations with Pullman in their name. Notice all stations except the Pullman Moscow Regional Airport are listed as Cooperative weather stations. The Pullman Moscow Regional Airport is listed as an ASOS-FAA station, which stands for Automated Surface Observation System which is maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration. Notice inventory record length. 1) Click on the Pullman Moscow Regional Airport Notice for this ASOS-FAA weather station there is not any data listed under the Data Inventories. However, we can download the data from the Forms, Publications, and Web Pages section if we are using a *.edu domain. Click on Hourly/Daily Data, Local Climatological Data (unedited) 2) Go to NNDC Climate data: Click Station Name Type in Pullman and press Search For Stations then find the appropriate station and dataset. Question 6 What additional measurements are recorded at the Pullman Moscow Regional Airport that are not recorded at the Pullman 2 NW Cooperative Weather Station? Note: It is important when dealing with Cooperative Weather Station data that you note what time of day the measurements were made. Some Cooperative Weather Stations record at 7 or 8 AM and other stations record at 5 or 6 PM. The First-order Weather Stations typically assimilate their daily data at midnight. III. Soil Survey One of the most comprehensive sources of data on the properties of soil throughout the U.S. is the Soil Survey. Soil Surveys are created and maintained by the National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) which is a technical facility of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service). The home page for the NSSC is 5

6 The NSSC works closely with several federal and state agencies, land grant universities, and private entities as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS). The USDA, in cooperation with State agricultural experiment stations and other federal and state agencies, has been making soil surveys and publishing them since These surveys furnish soil maps and interpretations needed in giving technical assistance to farmers and ranchers; in guiding other decisions about soil selection, use, and management; and in planning research and disseminating the results of the research. The soil survey breaks a county down into specific soil classifications. For each soil classification a variety of physical soil properties are described both quantitatively and qualitatively according to visual observations and lab testing. The information recorded for each soil classification can be used by a hydrologist or watershed planner to better describe the hydrology of the landscape. Soil survey mapping scales generally range from 1:12,000 to 1:63,360 but are typically around the 1:20,000 scale. Digital Maps The NCSS offers these soil surveys in digital coverages at three different scales. The most detailed maps are the 1:24,000 Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) data. For regional or basin studies where detailed soil delineation is not required the NCSS offers the 1:250,000 scale State Soil Geographic (STASTGO) database. For even more general studies the NCSS offers the 1:500,000 scale National Soil Geographic (NATSGO) database. The SSURGO maps are typically only available for open, agricultural areas with the main purpose to help in agricultural management and planning. The STASTGO maps generalize the SSURGO soil maps into large soil units. The STASTGO maps, however, provide information on forested soils where detailed soil measurements are often not available. These soil properties are estimated by relating landscape features to land-use patterns and similar locations where soil information is available. Physical soil properties for each soil mapping unit include: soil texture, soil classification, soil depth, percent passing sieves (4, 10, 40, 200), rock fragments greater than 3 in, percent clay, permeability, available water capacity, soil ph, shrink-swell potential, erosion factors (K, T), percent organic matter, liquid limit, and plasticity index. Other more qualitative information given for each soil unit includes: hydrologic group, drainage class, flood frequency, flood duration, depth to high water table, depth to bedrock, and slope. IV. Final Note The web sites of the USGS, the NCDC, and the NSSC provide a good starting point for acquiring data. These sites are by no means exhaustive. Each watershed will have unique historical data that may not be included in these sites. One primary example we have found is that most of the watersheds in Idaho or Washington are also located on Tribal land. Many of these tribes have their own GIS, hydrology, and water quality group. They are usually cooperative and are willing to share their data. 6

StreamStats: Delivering Streamflow Information to the Public. By Kernell Ries

StreamStats: Delivering Streamflow Information to the Public By Kernell Ries U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey MD-DE-DC District 410-238-4317 kries@usgs.gov StreamStats Web Application