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4 Interpretive Studies
Pages 34-48

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From page 34... ... Feedback from these applications, in turn, generates and refines the emerging questions and problems that drive the evolving research program toward timely challenges that are well suited to the USGS's expertise. The value added through the intersection of USGS interpretive studies and research is well demonstrated in the agency's work in bridge scour and flood peak estimation on ungaged watersheds. Read the entire page →
From page 35... ... Research needs related to interpretive studies include more rigorous treatment of nonstationarity in hydrologic risk assessment, including nonstationarity and persistence in climatic linkages, changing land use and watershed conditions, and the dynamics of channel morphology and sediment transport. The role of the USGS in interpretive studies includes technology transfer, integrating cooperator needs with the research program, and information generation. Read the entire page →
From page 36... ... provide resource managers with standard, reliable baseline information on flood frequency that directly supports design and floodplain management activities throughout the nation. Interpretive studies have also integrated the products of the national research program in hydrologic regionalization and the estimation of flood peaks at ungaged sites (Stedinger and Tasker, 1985, 1986; Tasker and Stedinger, 1989, 1992; Tasker and Slade, 1994; Tasker et al., 1996) Read the entire page →
From page 37... ... Such models hold the promise of meshing paleoflood studies and other aspects of flood geomorphology with the relatively short time scales of gaged flow records. Opportunities Independence, Stationarity, and Homogeneity The USGS interpretive studies in regional flood frequency analysis present a timely opportunity for technology transfer in reevaluating traditional methods used in flood frequency estimation. Read the entire page →
From page 38... ... Along with improved techniques for flood quartile estimation, the explicit computation of quantitative confidence limits represents essential information for planning, resource allocation, and risk-based decision making. Extreme Events and Risk-Based Decision Making Extreme event information commonly developed through interpretive studies (such as regional flood frequency analyses) Read the entire page →
From page 39... ... INTERPRETIVE STUDIES 39 of risk-based decision making and flood frequency analysis is observed in the ongoing discussion over the appropriate use of expected probability estimators and maximum likelihood estimators (NRC, 1995; Stedinger, 1996) to estimate flood exceedance probabilities and the likelihood of future flood damage. Read the entire page →
From page 40... ... represents a core set of stream gages selected to provide a representative database of unregulated streamflow throughout the nation. The ways in which land clearance and development affect existing streamflow records show the need for maintaining continuous records on relatively unregulated streams as well as refining techniques for flood frequency analysis that account for land-use changes and other sources of nonstationarity. Read the entire page →
From page 41... ... During flood events, when scour, erosion, and out-of-bank flows can significantly change the crosssection of rated river channels, the USGS performs direct streamflow measurements to allow forecasters and managers to incorporate rapidly changing conditions in their management activities. For example, during the great flood of 1993 in the upper midwestern United States, over 2,000 field visits to collect supplemental discharge measurements or to check and repair gaging equipment were made by USGS hydrologic technicians (National Weather Service, 1994~. Read the entire page →
From page 42... ... Multiebjective Network Design The USGS's expertise and application of optimization techniques to the cost-effective design of stream gaging networks provides a methodological foundation to help balance the competing demands for hydrologic data that are increasingly placed on the national stream gage network. For example, long records of unregulated discharge, such as the Hydroclimatic Data Network, provide an invaluable database to support research and risk-based decision making related to climate variability and change. Read the entire page →
From page 43... ... Large-scale remote sensing capabilities, such as NASA's Mission to Planet Earth and defense technology conversions, afford many opportunities to enhance the study of extreme events through cooperative research initiatives and interagency coordination. Existing and anticipated multisensor earth observations from space can document inundated land areas, suspended sediment concentrations, basin characteristics, and even approximate peak discharges for individual extreme flood events. Read the entire page →
From page 44... ... Interpretive studies also provide the mechanism to transfer products of the USGS research effort to other federal agencies, cooperators, and resource managers. Scour studies addressing the risk of failure for bridges and highway structures have a more direct risk management focus than flood frequency estimation. Read the entire page →
From page 45... ... Opportunities Products of the National Research Program have suggested criteria for riskbased design of bridge and highway structures that can be more cost effective than traditional design criteria. The USGS's interpretive studies on bridge scour provide the opportunity to integrate risk-based criteria in the design of vulnerable structures. Read the entire page →
From page 46... ... Interpretive studies of scour and failure in watersheds that have experienced land-use changes provide the opportunity to integrate research in watershed processes and the impact of landuse changes to risks and costs associated with the failure of structures located in the river channel. The USGS's interdisciplinary expertise in flood frequency analysis, fluvial geomorphology, and sediment transport provides the foundation to identify the limits of current practice and identify new challenges and research needs in design criteria and risk evaluation. Read the entire page →
From page 47... ... (The Great Flood of 1993 manifested similarly extreme in both the magnitude of precipitation about 30 inches in 4 months and the spatial extent of summer flooding (Lott, 1993~.) These events suggest a varying spatial scale associated with the recurrence interval of extreme hydrologic events that may not be well represented using standard methods of hydrologic regionalization and frequency analysis. Read the entire page →
From page 48... ... Role of the USGS Drought-related interpretive studies expand the information base supporting research (Liu and Stedinger, 1991) and represent a valued mechanism to transfer research products to resource managers and cooperators (Ludwig and Tasker, 1993~. Read the entire page →

From page 34...

... Feedback from these applications, in turn, generates and refines the emerging questions and problems that drive the evolving research program toward timely challenges that are well suited to the USGS's expertise. The value added through the intersection of USGS interpretive studies and research is well demonstrated in the agency's work in bridge scour and flood peak estimation on ungaged watersheds.

4 Interpretive Studies Pages 34-48

4 Interpretive Studies
Pages 34-48