Open AccessResearch Spotlight: New method to estimate daily flow rates at streams that lack gauges
Author(s) -
Kumar Mohi
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2011eo060009
Subject(s) - streams , streamflow , hydrology (agriculture) , surface runoff , environmental science , stream flow , flow (mathematics) , stream bed , geography , computer science , drainage basin , geology , ecology , computer network , geometry , cartography , geotechnical engineering , mathematics , biology
Records of daily streamflow rates can help scientists estimate future runoff volumes or determine whether fish and other aquatic species have enough water to survive an upcoming season. Many streams are monitored by gauges; however, the sheer number of catchments throughout the United States makes it impractical to have instruments at every stream. As a result, scientists and water resources managers often face the problem of needing to know flow rates within ungauged streams. Archfield and Vogel have developed a method to estimate such flow rates. Using southern New England as a case study, the authors first selected a gauged stream and then, using statistical methods, compared the record of daily streamflow rates from that stream spanning the past 50 years to 27 other streams in the area. On the basis of this comparison, they made a map that marked out the region surrounding their stream where rates at the gauged stream were correlated to other streams about 98% of the time. The researchers then drew borders around the area where their stream matched other streams 95% of the time. Through a series of decreasing percentages of correlation, the authors built a spatial view of how closely their reference‐gauged stream matched other streams in the region. ( Water Resources Research , doi:10.1029/2009WR008481, 2010)