U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Office of Surface Water Reston, VA StreamStats: By Kernell Ries A Web Site for Stream Information

Outline  Background  Massachusetts StreamStats  National StreamStats Prototype  Presentations by StreamStats Team  Implementation Plans and Unresolved Issues

Background

Need for Streamflow Statistics  Water resources planning, management, and permitting by Federal, State, local agencies  Instream flow determinations for controlling pollution and protecting habitat  Designing and permitting facilities such as wastewater-treatment plants, hydropower plants, and water-supply reservoirs  Designing structures such as roads, bridges, culverts, dams, locks, and levees

Problems in Providing Statistics  Published streamflow statistics for data- collection stations are scattered among hundreds of reports nationally  Many publications are out of date and/or out of print  Labor cost for information requests is high  Streamflow statistics are not available everywhere they are needed

Regression Equations  Used to estimate streamflow statistics for ungaged sites  Relate streamflow statistics to measured basin characteristics  Developed by all 48 USGS Districts on a State-by- State basis through the cooperative program  Often not used because of large efforts needed to determine basin characteristics  Users often measure basin characteristics inaccurately, increasing errors in estimates

Example Regression Equation  Regression equations take the form: Q 100 = 0.471A E SH  where: A is drainage area, in square miles E is mean basin elevation, in feet SH is a shape factor, dimensionless

Basin Characteristics Used for Peak Flows

Massachusetts StreamStats

Massachusetts StreamStats provides-  Published streamflow statistics, basin characteristics, and other information for data-collection stations  Estimates of streamflow statistics, basin characteristics, and other information for user-selected points on ungaged streams

Massachusetts StreamStats

User Interface Streamflow Statistics Database Statistics Calculation Program GIS Database Web Application Components

User Interface  Displays ~ 120 map layers  Allows adding/subtracting layers one at a time  Zoom, pan, identify  Displays data-collection site locations  Allows selection of data-collection site locations and ungaged sites  Displays results in a Web browser window

Statistics Database Includes  Descriptive information, such as station name and number, coordinates, period of record  Previously published streamflow statistics for data-collection stations  Previously published basin characteristics, such as drainage area, total stream length, mean basin slope

GIS Database Includes  Map layers needed to determine drainage boundaries and areas  Map layers needed to measure basin characteristics in regression equations  Map layers needed to locate sites of interest, such as state and town boundaries, streams, and roads  Digital topographic maps (DRG’s) for detailed selection

Statistics Calculation Program  Determines drainage boundaries and measures basin characteristics for user- selected sites  Solves regression equations to obtain estimated streamflow statistics and provides prediction intervals as estimates of errors  Delivers basin characteristics, streamflow statistics, prediction intervals, and maps of user-defined basins to user interface

Benefits  Published statistics are readily available  Ungaged site process takes 5 to 15 minutes  Large collections of maps, equipment, and software are not necessary  Consistent information delivery  Little or no additional error is introduced  Only basic understanding of hydrology, computer science, geographic analysis is needed  Reduced information requests

National StreamStats Prototype

National Prototype  Prototype will potentially work for any State  Easier to use and with more functionality than the MA application  Currently implemented only for parts of ID  Implementation planned for NH, VT, MA, ID, TN, and KS within a year  In cooperation with ESRI

Functionality  Zoom to street address, geographic name, or coordinates  Display of default base data layers for selected map scale ranges  Evaluate basin boundaries in the map frame  Print maps shown in the map frame  Download basin boundary and other map data  More analysis functionality (drainage-area ratio estimates, weighted estimates, etc.) is planned

Development Strategy  Program will run as a dll in ESRI software (ArcMap, ArcIMS, ArcSDE)  Programming done in MS Visual Basic and XML, based on the ArcGIS Hydro-Data Model and Tools  All GIS data will reside on a single server  New streamflow statistics database was developed  The National Flood Frequency Program (NFF) used to solve regression equations  Extensive pre-processing of basin characteristics to speed computations

StreamStatsDB  StreamStatsDB is used to manage streamflow and basin characteristics for data-collection stations

StreamStatsDB, cont’d  Linked to map in user interface showing site locations  Built using MS Access and Visual Basic  Contains fields for all streamflow and basin characteristics that are currently used, and allows new characteristics to be added  Data entered by District office personnel

National Flood Frequency Program  NFF will solve regression equations for StreamStats

Modifications to NFF  Ability to solve regression equations for any flow type  Calculation of prediction intervals  Calculation of drainage-area ratio estimates and weighting with regression estimates  Adding of data base attributes to allow use as a subroutine of StreamStats  Urban equations will not be available in StreamStats

Additional Presentations

Dean Djokic, Zichuan Ye (ESRI)  Prototype demonstration  Conceptual design  Integration with ArcHydro Tools

Jacqueline Coles (USGS)  Prototype system configuration  Web deployment

Alan Rea (USGS)  Data requirements and architecture  EDNA approach

Peter Steeves (USGS)  New England approach

Kernell Ries (USGS)  Implementation plans  Unresolved Issues  Summary

StreamStats Implementation Plans

Implementation Plan  District offices will complete required work, usually through cooperative funding  StreamStats team will provide guidance and support to Districts  States will be put on line internally to check results  States will be made available to the public when results have been proven acceptable

District Responsibilities  Provide regression equations  Populate the streamflow statistics database  Develop any necessary GIS data  Test the application and summarize results  Potentially develop new regression equations, using GIS data to measure basin characteristics  Approve use of equations on Web

State Implementation Options  Implement regression equations first  Implement existing equations only  Develop new equations  Implement database for data-collection sites first  Populate with previously calculated statistics  Calculate new statistics  Implement database and regression equations at the same time

Long-Term Plan  Include additional States  Add drainage-area ratio estimates  Add batch processing  Add automated update of non- interpretive streamflow statistics  Add methods for regulated streams  Add sediment (and possibly other) data

Internal Issues  Integration with other USGS efforts, such as the National Map, NWIS-Web, SPARROW, TerraServer  Standardized measuring procedures and naming of basin characteristics  Policy for updating streamflow statistics for data-collection stations  Long-term support

External Issues  Links to other applications and data bases, such as EPA’s EnviroMapper, FEMA’s MSC Product Map Search, NRCS’s Lighthouse Project  Software updates (Arc 9, etc.)  Technical support of ArcHydro Tools

Summary  StreamStats uses cutting-edge technology to put stream information in the hands of users  Design is based on the ArcHydro Data Model and the functionality of the ArcHydro Toolset  Design is flexible and expandable  Implementation for States will be done through cooperative funding agreements  Full implementation will likely take several years

More information  National StreamStats web page streamstats.htmlhttp://water.usgs.gov/osw/programs/ streamstats.html  Massachusetts StreamStats web page  NFF Program web page