Informing Tomorrow: Data from Today and 100 Years of Yesterdays

In addition to the real-time data for current streamflow and flood conditions, customers also have access to the entire historical file of surface-water records for rivers and streams throughout the country. This wealth of information includes data from 6,950 streamflow gaging stations nationwide, 400,000 station years of data, and 160 million daily records of water data on what has been happening with the Nation's rivers over time. Check out http://water.usgs.gov and then click on "historical."

As Flood Waters Rise, You Need Information Fast

When floodwaters threaten a community and county officials are racing against a rising river to warn their citizens, real-time streamflow information truly can be a lifesaver.

During severe flooding in Texas in June 1997, the USGS received the following about its real-time streamflow information on the World Wide Web: "Just a note of great appreciation for your site . . . . Your site has been the best source of river information we have ever been able to obtain to make rescue and evacuation decisions. We are currently using the Blanco River data to plan the search for two drowning victims on the Blanco River in Wimberly. Your work and site is much appreciated and invaluable to us!!! Thanks from the citizens in Hays County." The writer was Dan O'Leary, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator for the City of San Marcos, Texas. Saving lives and protecting property are the tangible human and economic benefits of having real-time streamflow information available.

Throughout the country, USGS streamflow gaging stations, equipped with real-time telemetry, are integral components of reservoir operations and river-forecast and flood-warning systems. The USGS gaging station network has been the backbone of the flood warning and management system throughout the United States. The real-time streamflow data

provided by the USGS are used by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and by countless State and county emergency and planning officials to ensure that lives and property are protected during floods.

Customer use of real-time streamflow information on the Web (http://water.usgs.gov/realtime.html) has increased by leaps and bounds. During September 1997, for example, 3.1 million "pages" of water resources information were delivered to 118,000 Web users. When the worst flooding in more than a century struck North Dakota in April 1997, anxious USGS customers "hit" the USGS North Dakota home page more than 580,000 times, seeking the latest information on the unprecedented spring flooding.

The percentage of external customers for USGS water resources data - 95 percent are outside USGS - is persuasive testimony to the usefulness of the information to a wide audience. While the flood-warning and emergency-response uses of the information are perhaps the most critical to the Nation as a whole, the information is also routinely used by recreationists to provide for a safe whitewater rafting experience or a prime day of fishing.

Stream-Gaging Data:
Very Versatile Information

The USGS stream-gaging program provides hydrologic information needed to help define, use, and manage the Nation's water resources. The program provides a continuous, documented, archived, unbiased, and broad-based source of reliable and consistent water data for scientists, engineers, industrial managers, and community planners. In fact, the program is broadly supported by user agencies -- 93 percent of the USGS gaging stations are funded, in whole or part, by USGS partners at the Federal, State, or local level. But because of the nationally consistent, prescribed standards by which the data are collected and processed, the data from individual stations are commonly used for purposes beyond that for which an individual station may have originally been funded. Those possible uses include the following:

• River-flood forecasting
• Emergency response and management to flooding
• Delineating and managing flood plains

• Operating and designing multipurpose reservoirs
• Designing highway bridges and culverts
• Developing or operating recreation facilities
• Scheduling power production
• Designing, operating, and maintaining navigation facilities
• Allocating water for municipal, industrial, and irrigation uses
• Administering compacts or resolving conflicts on interstate rivers
• Defining and apportioning the water resources at our international borders

• Characterizing current water-quality conditions
• Determining input rates of various pollutants into lakes, reservoirs, or estuaries
• Computing the loads of sediment and chemical constituents
• Setting permit requirements for discharge of treated wastewater
• Setting minimum flow requirements for sustaining aquatic life
• Monitoring compliance with environmental regulations

• Understanding the biological effects of contamination
• Evaluating surface- and ground-water interaction
• Undertaking scientific studies of long-term changes in the hydrologic cycle

Tracking a Flood's Course

With a colorful flood tracking chart in hand and a computer modem on line, citizens and emergency response personnel can record the latest river stage and predicted flood-crest information and plan accordingly. By comparing the current stage (the level of the river) and predicted flood crest to the recorded peak stages of previous floods, residents and emergency personnel can make informed judgments about impending floods and actions needed to lessen threats to life and property.

The flood tracking chart, available for selected rivers in several States, shows a map of the basin, the location of major real-time streamflow-gaging stations in the basin, and the historical recorded peak stages of previous major floods. Each of the small insert graphs represents a station and has a scale on which to record recently reported river stage from the USGS. The predicted flood-crest information from the National Weather Service also can be recorded on each graph.

During a flood, citizens and emergency personnel can obtain the most current river-stage data on the Web from the USGS by accessing http://water.usgs.gov and then clicking on "real time."