The Implications of Discretizing Continuous Random Variables: An Example Using the U.S. Geological Survey Reporting Standards for Streamflow Data

Archfield, Stacey A.; Vogel, Richard M.

doi:10.1061/41036(342)519

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The scatter on the Q axis, particularly with small discharges, sometimes arises from the degree of data accuracy of reported streamflow values which are usually rounded up. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports mean daily streamflow values less than 0.028 m 3 /s to the nearest hundredth place (0.01) [1]. The existence of evapotranspiration or precipitation can induce additional scatter among the plotted (− dQ /dt, Q) points [22].…”

Section: Natural Watersheds Without Evapotranspiration From the Grounmentioning

confidence: 98%

Recession slope curve analysis under human interferences

Wang

Cai

2010

Advances in Water Resources

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Section: Natural Watersheds Without Evapotranspiration From the Grounmentioning

confidence: 98%

Recession slope curve analysis under human interferences

Wang

Cai

2010

Advances in Water Resources

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“…One expects distinct differences between the frequency analysis of flood flows and low streamflows. Estimators of low streamflow statistics are known to have extremely high relative errors (even higher than for floods) due, in part, to a lack of data, measurement errors, complex hydrologic processes, the inadequate or improper characterization of watershed hydrogeology, and roundoff errors due to USGS reporting standards (Archfield & Vogel, 2009). The development of frequency analysis procedures that are specifically suited for low streamflows is not only needed but also long overdue.…”

Section: Development Of Guidelines For Determining Drought and Low-fl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the need for streamflow drought frequency guidelines in the U.S.

Vogel

Kroll

2021

Water Policy

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Extreme drought and resulting low streamflows occur throughout the U.S., causing billions of dollars in annual losses, detrimentally impacting ecosystems, as well as agricultural, hydropower, navigation, water supply, recreation, and a myriad of other water resource systems, leading to reductions in both the effectiveness and resiliency of our water resource infrastructure. Since 1966, with the introduction of Bulletin 13 titled ‘Methods of Flow Frequency Analysis’, the U.S. adopted uniform guidelines for performing flood flow frequency analysis to ensure and enable all federal agencies concerned with water resource design, planning, and management under flood conditions to obtain sensible, consistent, and reproducible estimators of flood flow statistics. Remarkably, over one-half century later, no uniform national U.S. guidelines for hydrologic drought streamflow frequency analysis exist, and the various assorted guidelines that do exist are not reliable because (1) they are based on methods developed for floods, which are distinctly different than low streamflows and (2) the methods do not take advantage of the myriad of advances in flood and low streamflow frequency analyses over the last 50 years. We provide a justification for the need for developing national guidelines for streamflow drought frequency analysis as an analog to the existing national guidelines for flood frequency analysis. Those guidelines should result in improved water resources design, planning, operations, and management under low streamflow conditions throughout the U.S. and could prove useful elsewhere.

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“…Only eight watersheds were found suitable for analysis based on the selection criteria in this study. Watersheds with areas less than ~50 km 2 had to be excluded due to the poor gauging precision of low flows for USGS gauges (Archfield & Vogel, ), which prevented an accurate representation of baseflow recession rates in those watersheds. Many additional watersheds had to be excluded due to the frequent occurrence of wildfires exceeding the 5% area threshold during the prefire and postfire analysis periods.…”

Section: Watershedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of wildfire on baseflow recession rates in California

Bart

Tague²

2017

Hydrological Processes

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The effect of wildfire on peak streamflow and annual water yield has been investigated empirically in numerous studies. The effect of wildfire on baseflow recession rates, in contrast, is not well documented. The objective of this paper was to quantify the effect of wildfire on baseflow recession rates in California for both individual watersheds and for all the study watersheds collectively. Two additional variables, antecedent groundwater storage and potential evapotranspiration, were also investigated for their effect on baseflow recession rates and postfire baseflow recession rate response. Differences between prefire and postfire baseflow recession rates were modeled statistically in 8 watersheds using a mixed statistical model that accounted for fixed and random effects. For the all‐watershed model, antecedent groundwater storage, potential evapotranspiration, and wildfire were each found to be significant controls on baseflow recession rates. Wildfire decreased baseflow recession rates 52.5% (37.6% to 66.0%), implying that postfire reductions in above‐ground vegetation (e.g., decreased interception, decreased evapotranspiration) were a stronger control on baseflow recession rate change than hydrophobicity. At an individual watershed scale, baseflow recession rate response to wildfire was found to be sensitive to intraannual differences in antecedent groundwater storage in 2 watersheds, with the effect of wildfire on baseflow recession rates being greater with lower levels of antecedent groundwater storage. Examination of burn severity for a subset of the study watersheds pointed to riparian zone burn severity as a potential primary control on postfire recession rate change. This study demonstrates that wildfire may have a substantial impact on fluxes to and from groundwater storages, altering the rate at which baseflow recedes.

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The Implications of Discretizing Continuous Random Variables: An Example Using the U.S. Geological Survey Reporting Standards for Streamflow Data

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Recession slope curve analysis under human interferences

Recession slope curve analysis under human interferences

On the need for streamflow drought frequency guidelines in the U.S.

The impact of wildfire on baseflow recession rates in California

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