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AcknowledgmentsThe author thanks Carl Carlson, David Bjerklie, Mary Ashman, and Kevin Breen of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Kathleen Crawley of the Rhode Island Water Resources Board for providing thoughtful and thorough technical and editorial reviews of this report, the HyDroDSS program, and accompanying digital media. Richard Vogel of Tufts University identified the position analysis approaches developed by Hirsch (1981b) as a potential method for drought-projection analyses and provided information on use of the probability-plot correlation coefficient method for evaluating the distribution of the random numbers generated by the HyDroDSS. Robert Hirsch of the USGS provided information on the application of position analysis, and Gary Tasker of the USGS provided background information on the use of bootstrap methods in the application of position analysis (Tasker and Dunne, 1997). Altitude, as used in this report, refers to distance above the vertical datum.Withdrawal rates from some production wells are reported in million gallons per month (Mgal/mo) and in million gallons per year (Mgal/yr).
Hydrologic Drought Decision Support System (HyDroDSS)By Gregory E. Granato
AbstractThe hydrologic drought decision support system (HyDroDSS) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Rhode Island Water Resources Board (RIWRB) for use in the analysis of hydrologic variables that may indicate the risk for streamflows to be below userdefined flow targets at a designated site of interest, which is defined herein as data-collection site on a stream that may be adversely affected by pumping. Hydrologic drought is defined for this study as a period of lower than normal streamflows caused by precipitation deficits and (or) water withdrawals. The HyDroDSS is designed to provide water managers with risk-based information for balancing water-supply needs and aquatic-habitat protection goals to mitigate potential effects of hydrologic drought.This report describes the theory and methods for retrospective streamflow-depletion analysis, rank correlation analysis, and drough...