PROGRAMS AND PLANS--Station List for National Streamflow Information Program
In Reply Refer To:
Office of Surface Water
Mail Stop 415
MEMORANDUM
July 21, 2000
To: District Chiefs
District Data Chiefs
District Site Administrators
District GIS Specialists
From: Robert M. Hirsch
Chief Hydrologist
Subject: PROGRAMS AND PLANS--Station List for National Streamflow Information Program
RESPONSE REQUESTED BY SEPTEMBER 15, 2000
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has outlined in several recent reports
its plans for a National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) built on a
national network of streamgaging stations. In fiscal year (FY) 2000, we
were successful in getting an appropriation of $2 million; in FY 2001, we
anticipate an appropriation of between $3.7 and $5.1 million,
respectively, for the Real-Time Hazards Initiative, the first steps in
building this national network. In the budget process for fiscal year
2002, soon to get underway, we wish to maintain this positive momentum by
presenting to the Department of the Interior, Office of Management and
Budget, and Congress a well-planned initiative to continue building the
needed network.
The first step in developing this initiative is to compile a master list
of around 5,000 stations for a basic Federally funded streamgaging network
and associated infrastructure. We have developed five goals that the
network should meet. They are:
1. Water Quality--Stations required by the three national USGS water
quality networks (HBM, NASQAN, NAWQA LIP).
2. Treaties, Compacts, and Flow Across State Lines--Stations required
for treaties and compacts and for flows across State lines with drainage
areas greater than 500 square miles.
3. River Basin Outflows--Stations that best represent outflows from the
hydrologic accounting units.
4. Sentinel Watersheds--Stations that best represent the flows from the
"eco-hucs" in the Nation that help define regional hydrologic conditions
and their changes over time.
5. National Weather Service Forecast Locations--Stations needed by the
NWS to forecast floods.
I believe it is important for this basic Federal network to have a high
degree of specificity. We need to be able to say to our many customers
and supporters: "If we can get the NSIP plan funded, these are the
stations that we will fund entirely with USGS appropriations. We will
still rely on you extensively for funding through the Cooperative Water
Program, but this is a set of stations that simply ought to be operated
regardless of support from other agencies." We would like to be able to
show them (as well as OMB and Congress) what the network looks like and
justify the design.
The process of defining this network needs to be a partnership between
headquarters and the districts. The first approximation of the network
was completed with the publication of the NSIP report "Streamflow
Information for the Next Century." This was done quickly and presents a
national overview but is not suitable for detailed planning. We are now
moving to a more detailed process. Right now in the Office of Surface
Water, using GIS tools, the staff is defining a headquarters "best
estimate" of the streamgaging stations needed to meet the goals. We
expect to send this best estimate to the districts for verification and
correction based on your, more detailed, knowledge. Our aim is to have
this iteration complete by October 2000 for use in presenting enhancements
in our FY 2002 budget. To do this we will need your input completed by
September 15, 2000. Even after the October 2000 version of the network
there will be opportunities to refine and improve the network. In
particular, we would hope that districts would engage cooperators and
users of gage information in the process of refinement. This involvement
of cooperators will help us gain the buy-in that is crucial to the success
of NSIP.
To carry out the process of defining the basic Federal network, the Office
of Surface Water will be sending you a CD with a set of coverages in
ARCmap and a set of instructions for its use. The ARCmap software will be
distributed to your System Administrators by August 14, 2000. To carry
out the task effectively, we are asking that each Data Chief (or Field
Office Chief) work closely with a skilled GIS specialist to review the
maps provided on the CD and make specific recommendations for station
locations where a goal is not met, make corrections if listed stations are
not the best ones to meet the goals, and approve listed stations that do
best meet the goals. We expect that this effort could take from a few
days to a week of the Data Chief's and GIS specialist's time, and that
they will need significant support from the District Computer Site
Administrator. Please look at work schedules now to try to identify the
time when they can do this work together. Computer system requirements are
outlined in Attachment 1. In addition we plan to hold a cyber-seminar on
August 16, 2000, at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) to explain the tasks and to
demonstrate the software. Details on this cyber-seminar will be provided
as soon as arrangements are finalized.
We think that this initiative is important enough to justify the
expenditure of time. We are gaining momentum in our attempts to increase
Federal support for streamgaging. We think this next step is crucial to
keeping the process going. We expect that the network funding will change
gradually over the next few years, with more funds going to the
data-processing infrastructure and an increasing percentage of funds going
to the basic Federal network stations each year.
Your help is vital to this process. Thank you for your help and
cooperation.
Copy to: Regional Directors
Regional Hydrologists
Regional Program Officers
Regional Surface-water Specialists
Attachment 1 -- System Requirements
ARC/INFO 8.0.2 Workstation and Desktop will be required for the NSIP
project. This needs to be installed on an NT running NT 4.0, serve pack 5,
that is configured as follows. Only one NT needs this configuration for
the Data Chief and the GIS Specialist, not everyone in the district
office. This is the only configuration has been tested and has been
certified to work. Other configurations, such as Windows Terminal Servers,
are still being tested and are not recommended at this time.
System Requirements:
NT 4.0 w/serve pack 5
400mhZ minimum processor
128MB RAM minimum
8MB video card
200MB paging area
1.5 GB disk space for ARC/INFO Workstation & Desktop
ARC/INFO 8 Keycodes (which also works with ARC/INFO 7.x)
ARC/INFO 8 License manager software
ARC/INFO 8.0.2 Workstation Software
ARC/INFO 8.0.2 Desktop Software (which has the ARCmap module)
20MB disk space for NSIP data
CD-ROM
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* Robert M. Hirsch
* Associate Director for Water
* 409 National Center rhirsch@usgs.gov
* U.S. Geological Survey 703-648-5215
* Reston, VA 20192 fax 703-648-7031
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