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At least 1,117 records · Page 62Linked to original sources
USGS2011

Changes in low-flow frequency from 1976-2006 at selected streamgages in New York, excluding Long Island

Many Federal, State, and local agencies use low-flow data to establish water-use policy and help determine the total maximum daily loads and effluent limits of point and nonpoint sources of contamination of surface water during periods of decreased streamflow. Low-flow magnitude and frequency are used often by water-supply planners, reservoir managers, and hydroelectric facilities to manage water availability for supply and power generation. Low-flow statistics for eight selected U.S. Geological Survey streamgages in New York State were calculated for the period from 1976 through 2006 and for the entire period of continuous streamflow record. The 7-day, 2-year and 10-year low flows were computed and compared with those low flows published in the1979 U.S. Geological Survey report, Low-flow frequency analysis of streams in New York, Bulletin 74. Observed changes in low-flow frequency at each gage were then examined and compared to changes in precipitation and land use to determine whether a relation between similar patterns could be identified. A statewide U.S. Geological Survey study has not been done to develop equations for estimating low flows on rural unregulated streams in New York. Currently (2010) only one regional study developed for parts of the lower Hudson River Basin in 1986 is available to assist in estimating low flows on rural streams with unregulated streamflow in New York. Low-flow statistics published in the 1979 report need to be updated by using additional data collected since 1976 to determine current low-flow conditions across New York State. At-site low-flow statistics were updated for eight streamgages in New York by using continuous daily streamflow data through 2006 for the future development of a statewide research study. Selection of the eight streamgages used in this study identified a major deficiency in the number of available unregulated long-term U.S. Geological Survey streamgages needed for the development of regional low-flow equations in New York. A limited analysis of the changes in land use for the contributing drainage areas for each streamgage, changes in precipitation, and trends in the annual 7-day minimum flow also are presented. The 7-day, 2-year low flow showed increases of 14 to 35 percent and the 7-day 10-year low flow showed zero to 19 percent increases at rural streamgages with unregulated streamflows when statistics were computed by using data from 1976 through 2006 and compared with published data in Bulletin 74. When the entire period of record was used to compute low flow frequencies, the 7-day, 2-year low flows increased from about 6 to 15 percent whereas the 7-day 10-year low flows showed zero to 5 percent increases. Streamgages affected by urbanization and regulation for water supply showed the most significant changes in the 7-day, 2-year and 10-year low-flow frequencies. These streamgages are included to help identify the effects of urbanization and regulation on streamflow at these locations. The 7-day 10-year low flow increased by 65 percent at the U.S. Geological Survey streamgage Hackensack River at West Nyack, N.Y., and increased 120 percent at the U.S. Geological Survey streamgage Neversink River at Godeffroy, N.Y., when statistics were computed by using data from 1976 through 2006 and compared with the statistics for the regulated period computed in Bulletin 74.

New York↗
USGS2012

Assessment of total nitrogen and total phosphorus in selected surface water of the National Park Service Northern Colorado Plateau Network, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, from 1972 through 2007

Nutrients are a nationally recognized concern for water quality of streams, rivers, groundwater, and water bodies. Nutrient impairment is documented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a primary cause of degradation in lakes and reservoirs, and nutrients are related to organic enrichment and oxygen depletion, which is an important cause of degradation in streams. Recently (2011), an effort to develop State-based numeric nutrient criteria has resulted in renewed emphasis on nutrients in surface water throughout the Nation. In response to this renewed emphasis and to investigate nutrient water quality for Northern Colorado Plateau Network streams, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, assessed total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentration data for 93 sites in or near 14 National Park units for the time period 1972 through 2007.

Arizona;Colorado;Idaho;New Mexico;Utah;Wyoming↗
USGS2013

Analysis of environmental setting, surface-water and groundwater data, and data gaps for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Tribal Jurisdictional Area, Oklahoma, through 2011

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Tribal Jurisdictional Area, consisting of approximately 960 square miles in parts of three counties in central Oklahoma, has an abundance of water resources, being underlain by three principal aquifers (alluvial/terrace, Central Oklahoma, and Vamoosa-Ada), bordered by two major rivers (North Canadian and Canadian), and has several smaller drainages. The Central Oklahoma aquifer (also referred to as the Garber-Wellington aquifer) underlies approximately 3,000 square miles in central Oklahoma in parts of Cleveland, Logan, Lincoln, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie Counties and much of the tribal jurisdictional area. Water from these aquifers is used for municipal, industrial, commercial, agricultural, and domestic supplies. The approximately 115,000 people living in this area used an estimated 4.41 million gallons of fresh groundwater, 12.12 million gallons of fresh surface water, and 8.15 million gallons of saline groundwater per day in 2005. Approximately 8.48, 2.65, 2.24, 1.55, 0.83, and 0.81 million gallons per day of that water were used for domestic, livestock, commercial, industrial, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric purposes, respectively. Approximately one-third of the water used in 2005 was saline water produced during petroleum production. Future changes in use of freshwater in this area will be affected primarily by changes in population and agricultural practices. Future changes in saline water use will be affected substantially by changes in petroleum production. Parts of the area periodically are subject to flooding and severe droughts that can limit available water resources, particularly during summers, when water use increases and streamflows substantially decrease. Most of the area is characterized by rural types of land cover such as grassland, pasture/hay fields, and deciduous forest, which may limit negative effects on water quality by human activities because of lesser emissions of man-made chemicals on such areas than in more urbanized areas. Much of the water in the area is of good quality, though some parts of this area have water quality impaired by very hard surface water and groundwater; large chloride concentrations in some smaller streams; relatively large concentrations of nutrients and counts of fecal-indicator bacteria in the North Canadian River; and chloride, iron, manganese, and uranium concentrations that exceed primary or secondary drinking-water standards in water samples collected from small numbers of wells. Substantial amounts of hydrologic and water-quality data have been collected in much of this area, but there are gaps in those data caused by relatively few streamflow-gaging stations, uneven distribution of surface-water quality sampling sites, lack of surface-water quality sampling at high-flow and low-flow conditions, and lack of a regularly measured and sampled groundwater network. This report summarizes existing water-use, climatic, geographic, hydrologic, and water-quality data and describes several means of filling gaps in hydrologic data for this area.

Oklahoma↗
USGS2013

Regional bankfull-channel dimensions of non-urban wadeable streams in Indiana

During floods, damage to properties and community infrastructure may result from inundation and the processes of erosion. The damages imparted by erosion are collectively termed the fluvial erosion hazard (FEH), and the Indiana Silver Jackets Multi-agency Hazard Mitigation Taskforce is supporting a program to build tools that will assist Indiana property owners and communities with FEH-mitigation efforts. As part of that program, regional channel-dimension relations are identified for non-urban wadeable streams in Indiana. With a site-selection process that targeted the three largest physiographic regions of the state, field work was completed to measure channel-dimension and channel-geometry characteristics across Indiana. In total, 82 sites were identified for data collection; 25 in the Northern Moraine and Lake region, 31 in the Central Till Plain region, and 26 in the Southern Hills and Lowlands region. Following well established methods, for each data-collection site, effort was applied to identify bankfull stage, determine bankfull-channel dimensions, and document channel-geometry characteristics that allowed for determinations of channel classification. In this report, regional bankfull-channel dimension results are presented as a combination of plots and regression equations that identify the relations between drainage area and the bankfull-channel dimensions of width, mean depth, and cross-sectional area. This investigation found that the channel-dimension data support independent relations for each of the three physiographic regions noted above. Furthermore, these relations show that, for any given drainage area, northern Indiana channels have the smallest predicted dimensions, southern Indiana channels have the largest predicted dimensions, and central Indiana channels are intermediate in their predicted dimensions. When considering the suite of variables that influence bankfull-channel dimensions, it appears that contrasting runoff characteristics between the three physiographic regions may explain much of the inequality observed in the measured channel dimensions. While this investigation targeted non-urban wadeable streams in Indiana, site conditions prevented data collection in some areas. Therefore, application of the results of this study always should include knowledge gained from local observations.

Indiana↗
USGS2018

Comparison of U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Reclamation water-use reporting in the Colorado River Basin

The use of water in the United States is arguably one of the most important factors determining water availability at any specific place and time. Numerous local, State, and Federal entities develop, compile, and report water-use data, which can lead to confusing or conflicting information. This report was authored jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to compare and contrast the two agencies’ water-use information programs in the Colorado River Basin. The report also describes the legal drivers for each program, clarifies confusing terminology, compares the methods used, and contrasts the information reported by each agency. This detailed comparison demonstrates that these two Federal agencies have different missions, different programmatic drivers, and different user communities, all of which lead to different approaches to water-use data collection, analysis, and reporting. This report highlights those differences and explains why the USGS and Reclamation programs exist and how the data serve different user communities. Even though the two water-use programs are different by design and purpose, the program comparison presented in this report has identified opportunities for closer coordination and sharing of information between the USGS and Reclamation, as well as program components where agency collaboration can improve water-use estimate methodologies. This comparison effort emphasizes that it is incumbent upon each agency to clearly define the meaning of the terms used and the appropriate application of the reported information to avoid confusion or the accidental misuse of the information. An additional benefit of this comparison effort is the formation of a joint USGS/Reclamation water-use team that will continue to investigate opportunities to expand and coordinate future water-use data compilation and reporting.

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming↗
USGS2019

Hydrologic study at Farm Creek Marsh, Dorchester County, Maryland, from April 2015 to April 2016

In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey began a 1-year hydrologic study to investigate the extent and cause of inundation at Farm Creek Marsh, in Dorchester County, Maryland. In combination with a tide and precipitation gage, a representative section of the marsh was instrumented with surface-water monitors and shallow groundwater piezometers to capture the spatial and temporal extent of inundation. In addition, water-quality data (major ions and nutrients) were collected to help discern the cause of inundation. Results indicate that during the year-long study, all sites were periodically inundated, ranging from a total of 108 days to the entire study period of 353 days. The depth of inundation was typically between 0 and 0.2 feet (ft) (above land surface), with the exception of large storm events. Less than 0.5 ft of elevation was the difference between a site being inundated during the entire study period of 353 days and a site being inundated for 36 consecutive days out of 108 total days of inundation during the study period. Water-quality data showed a large difference in pH between marsh surface water (6.1 to 6.9 standard pH units) and shallow groundwater (3.0 to 3.6 standard pH units), with differences also observed in concentrations of silica, iron, manganese, and potassium. Collectively, the combination of water-quality, hydrologic, and soils data indicate that inundation is caused by tide and storm events rather than groundwater discharge.

Maryland↗
USGS2021

Estimating Piacenzian sea surface temperature using an alkenone-calibrated transfer function

Stationarity of environmental preferences is a primary assumption required for any paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossil materials based upon calibration to modern organisms. Confidence in this assumption decreases the further back in time one goes, and the validity of the assumption that species temperature tolerances have not changed over time has been challenged in Pliocene studies. We use paired U K′ 37 (unsaturated ketones with 37 carbon atoms) sea surface temperature (SST) and faunal assemblage data to directly calibrate North Atlantic Piacenzian planktonic foraminifer assemblages to Piacenzian alkenone paleotemperature estimates to provide an alternative paleoceanographic reconstruction approach that does not rely on stationarity. In doing so, we extend Pliocene SST estimates to sites where only quantitative faunal assemblage data were previously available and improve the spatial resolution of the North Atlantic SST reconstruction.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2021

Factors affecting uncertainty of public supply, self-supplied domestic, irrigation, and thermoelectric water-use data, 1985–2015—Evaluation of information sources, estimation methods, and data variability

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water-Use Program is responsible for compiling and disseminating the Nation's water-use data. Working in cooperation with local, State, and Federal agencies, the USGS has collected and published national water-use estimates every 5 years, beginning in 1950. These water-use data may vary because of actual changes in water use, because of changes in estimation methods, or because of errors. Comparison and interpretation of these data is difficult without first determining the factors that contribute to data variability. This report describes factors that may affect data quality and documents ways to investigate the variability of public supply, self-supplied domestic, irrigation, and thermoelectric water-use data for the 1985–2015 compilations. The USGS produces national water-use estimates for various categories of water use for every county in the United States. Knowledge about the sources of data for county estimates is important because factors such as estimation methodology and reporting affect data uncertainty Determination of meaningful patterns and trends in the data are contingent on the use of consistent methodology throughout the period of interest. With the many ways that water-use data have been collected, assembled, and estimated, multiple factors likely contribute to data uncertainty, Data used to produce these estimates may be furnished from agencies that collect information from entities who report water use; gaps in reported data are typically estimated to achieve a comprehensive county estimate. For example, public supply and thermoelectric category data are based primarily on furnished site-specific data; whereas crop irrigation is often furnished or estimated at the county scale. Public supply deliveries for domestic use and self-supplied domestic withdrawals are most often estimated by USGS personnel using per capita use rate coefficients. Irrigation may be estimated using crop water requirements, application rates, or other soil water balance methods when furnished reported data are not available. Rates, percentages, medians, and interquartile ranges were used to investigate variability in the water-use data among States, regions, and years. The purposes of these evaluations were to (1) identify extreme values that may reflect changes in information sources, estimation methods, or errors; (2) indicate areas of variable or consistent values that are unexpected; and (3) indicate areas where values change because of local climate or other factors. Where factors are identified that contribute to data variability, such as a change in methodology, additional work could determine uncertainty because of these factors. These evaluations identified the availability of information that is needed to address data limitations. Factors such as estimation methodology affect data quality. Some updates to method codes assigned in 2015 and assignment of method codes to earlier compilation datasets for all categories would provide much needed metadata for users of the data. Improvements in data documentation describing sources of information and estimation methods and additional metadata information from agencies and entities that furnish water-use data, would enable a more complete understanding and depiction of water-use patterns and trends. Additional metadata are needed for users of the data to better understand the water-use data and interpret changes in water use across the United States and with time.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2006

Digital database of recently active traces of the Hayward Fault, California

The purpose of this map is to show the location of and evidence for recent movement on active fault traces within the Hayward Fault Zone, California. The mapped traces represent the integration of the following three different types of data: (1) geomorphic expression, (2) creep (aseismic fault slip),and (3) trench exposures. This publication is a major revision of an earlier map (Lienkaemper, 1992), which both brings up to date the evidence for faulting and makes it available formatted both as a digital database for use within a geographic information system (GIS) and for broader public access interactively using widely available viewing software. The pamphlet describes in detail the types of scientific observations used to make the map, gives references pertaining to the fault and the evidence of faulting, and provides guidance for use of and limitations of the map. [Last revised Nov. 2008, a minor update for 2007 LiDAR and recent trench investigations; see version history below.]

California↗
USGS1979

Bibliographic supplement to USGS Bulletin 1426; 1975 to June 1979

This bibliography is a supplement to U.S. Geological Survey Bulletins 1426 (Bergquist, 1976) and 1263 (Heath and Tabacchi, 1968). The titles listed result from work undertaken in cooperation with national agencies partly through technical assistance projects under the auspices of the Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State; partly under reimbursable assistance projects with other governments on behalf of the Department of State; partly under assistance projects sponsored by international organizations; and partly under scientific exchange projects supported by U.S. agencies such as the National Science Foundation. This report includes titles published during the period 1975 through June 1979, but is not necessarily complete, as an exhaustive search was not made; however, it is being released in open file in order to make the data available to the public on an interim basis. Seven geographic regions and 71 countries are represented. A few titles published prior to 1975 have been found that are not included in Bulletins 1263 or 1426. Only reports authored solely or in part by USGS members, or jointly by USGS and counterpart staff members, are listed. The reports are listed alphabetically by author, under the appropriate country; reports of wider scope are given under the continent or geographic region, for example, Africa, Central and South America, or CENTO region. Reports not classifiable by geographic location are listed separately under the heading "General." All references to reports on water resources and hydrology were provided by J. R. Jones or R. M. Beall, USGS. The reports and maps are available only through the listed source. Copies of articles published in scientific journals or by other governments or agencies cannot be ordered from the USGS. Instructions for ordering publications of the USGS follow.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2022

Estimating allowable take for an increasing bald eagle population in the United States

Effectively managing take of wildlife resulting from human activities poses a major challenge for applied conservation. Demographic data essential to decisions regarding take are often expensive to collect and are either not available or based on limited studies for many species. Therefore, modeling approaches that efficiently integrate available information are important to improving the scientific basis for sustainable take thresholds. We used the prescribed take level (PTL) framework to estimate allowable take for bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) in the conterminous United States. We developed an integrated population model (IPM) that incorporates multiple sources of information and then use the model output as the scientific basis for components of the PTL framework. Our IPM is structured to identify key parameters needed for the PTL and to quantify uncertainties in those parameters at the scale at which the United States Fish and Wildlife Service manages take. Our IPM indicated that mean survival of birds >1 year old was high and precise (0.91, 95% CI = 0.90–0.92), whereas mean survival of first-year eagles was lower and more variable (0.69, 95% CI = 0.62–0.78). We assumed that density dependence influenced recruitment by affecting the probability of breeding, which was highly imprecise and estimated to have declined from approximately 0.988 (95% CI = 0.985–0.993) to 0.66 (95% CI = 0.34–0.99) between 1994 and 2018. We sampled values from the posterior distributions of the IPM for use in the PTL and estimated that allowable take (e.g., permitted take for energy development, incidental collisions with human made structures, or removal of nests for development) ranged from approximately 12,000 to 20,000 individual eagles depending on risk tolerance and form of density dependence at the scale of the conterminous United States excluding the Southwest. Model-based thresholds for allowable take can be inaccurate if the assumptions of the underlying framework are not met, if the influence of permitted take is under-estimated, or if undetected population declines occur from other sources. Continued monitoring and use of the IPM and PTL frameworks to identify key uncertainties in bald eagle population dynamics and management of allowable take can mitigate this potential bias, especially where improved information could reduce the risk of permitting non-sustainable take.

Journal of Wildlife Management↗
USGS2011

Testing earthquake source inversion methodologies

Source Inversion Validation Workshop; Palm Springs, California, 11-12 September 2010; Nowadays earthquake source inversions are routinely performed after large earthquakes and represent a key connection between recorded seismic and geodetic data and the complex rupture process at depth. The resulting earthquake source models quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of ruptures. They are also used to provide a rapid assessment of the severity of an earthquake and to estimate losses. However, because of uncertainties in the data, assumed fault geometry and velocity structure, and chosen rupture parameterization, it is not clear which features of these source models are robust. Improved understanding of the uncertainty and reliability of earthquake source inversions will allow the scientific community to use the robust features of kinematic inversions to more thoroughly investigate the complexity of the rupture process and to better constrain other earthquakerelated computations, such as ground motion simulations and static stress change calculations.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗
USGS2001

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 1002 area, petroleum assessment, 1998, including economic analysis

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (1980) established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In section 1002 of that act, Congress deferred a decision regarding future management of the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain ("1002 area") in recognition of the area’s potentially enormous oil and gas resources and its importance as wildlife habitat. A report on the resources (including petroleum) of the 1002 area was submitted in 1987 to Congress by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Since completion of that report, numerous wells have been drilled and oil fields discovered near ANWR, new geologic and geophysical data have become available, seismic processing and interpretation capabilities have improved, and the economics of North Slope oil development have changed significantly. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) commonly is asked to provide the Federal Government with timely scientific information in support of decisions regarding land management, environmental quality, and economic and strategic policy. To do so, the USGS must anticipate issues most likely to be the focus of policymakers in the future. Anticipating the need for scientific information and considering the decade-old perspective of the petroleum resource estimates included in the 1987 Report to Congress, the USGS has reexamined the geology of the ANWR 1002 area and has prepared a new petroleum resource assessment.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1976

Ground-water quality at the site of a proposed deep-well injection system for treated wastewater, West Palm Beach, Florida

The U.S. Geological Survey collected scientific and technical information before, during, and after construction of a deep test well at the location of a future regional waste-water treatment plant to be built for the city of West Palm Beach, Florida. Data from the test well will be used by the city in the design of a proposed deep-well injection system for disposal of effluent from the treatment plant. Shallow wells in the vicinity of the drilling site were inventoried and sampled to provide a data base for detecting changes in ground water quality during construction and later operation of the deep wells. In addition, 16 small-diameter monitor wells, ranging in depth from 10 to 162 feet, were drilled at the test site. During the drilling of the deep test well, water samples were collected weekly from the 16 monitor wells for determination of chloride content and specific conductance. Evidence of small spills of salt water were found in monitor wells ranging in depth from 10 to 40 feet. Efforts to remove the salt water from the shallow unconfined aquifer by pumping were undertaken by the drilling contractor at the request of the city of West Palm Beach. The affected area is small and there has been a reduction of chloride concentration.

Florida↗
USGS2022

Modflow-setup: Robust automation of groundwater model construction

In an age of both big data and increasing strain on water resources, sound management decisions often rely on numerical models. Numerical models provide a physics-based framework for assimilating and making sense of information that by itself only provides a limited description of the hydrologic system. Often, numerical models are the best option for quantifying even intuitively obvious connections between human activities and water resource impacts. However, despite many recent advances in model data assimilation and uncertainty quantification, the process of constructing numerical models remains laborious, expensive, and opaque, often precluding their use in decision making. Modflow-setup aims to provide rapid and consistent construction of MODFLOW groundwater models through robust and repeatable automation. Common model construction tasks are distilled in an open-source, online code base that is tested and extensible through collaborative version control. Input to Modflow-setup consists of a single configuration file that summarizes the workflow for building a model, including source data, construction options, and output packages. Source data providing model structure and parameter information including shapefiles, rasters, NetCDF files, tables, and other (geolocated) sources to MODFLOW models are read in and mapped to the model discretization, using Flopy and other general open-source scientific Python libraries. In a few minutes, an external array-based MODFLOW model amenable to parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification is produced. This paper describes the core functionality of Modflow-setup, including a worked example of a MODFLOW 6 model for evaluating pumping impacts to a lake in central Wisconsin, United States.

Wisconsin↗
USGS2017

Can we save large carnivores without losing large carnivore science?

Large carnivores are depicted to shape entire ecosystems through top-down processes. Studies describing these processes are often used to support interventionist wildlife management practices, including carnivore reintroduction or lethal control programs. Unfortunately, there is an increasing tendency to ignore, disregard or devalue fundamental principles of the scientific method when communicating the reliability of current evidence for the ecological roles that large carnivores may play, eroding public confidence in large carnivore science and scientists. Here, we discuss six interrelated issues that currently undermine the reliability of the available literature on the ecological roles of large carnivores: (1) the overall paucity of available data, (2) reliability of carnivore population sampling techniques, (3) general disregard for alternative hypotheses to top-down forcing, (4) lack of applied science studies, (5) frequent use of logical fallacies, and (6) generalisation of results from relatively pristine systems to those substantially altered by humans. We first describe how widespread these issues are, and given this, show, for example, that evidence for the roles of wolves ( Canis lupus ) and dingoes ( Canis lupus dingo ) in initiating trophic cascades is not as strong as is often claimed. Managers and policy makers should exercise caution when relying on this literature to inform wildlife management decisions. We emphasise the value of manipulative experiments and discuss the role of scientific knowledge in the decision-making process. We hope that the issues we raise here prompt deeper consideration of actual evidence, leading towards an improvement in both the rigour and communication of large carnivore science.

Food Webs↗
USGS2010

Flood-inundation maps for a 15-mile reach of the Kalamazoo River from Marshall to Battle Creek, Michigan

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 15-mile reach of the Kalamazoo River from Marshall to Battle Creek, Michigan, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help guide remediation efforts following a crude-oil spill on July 25, 2010. The spill happened on Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, during a flood. The floodwaters transported the spilled oil down the Kalamazoo River and deposited oil in impoundments and on the surfaces of islands and flood plains. Six flood-inundation maps were constructed corresponding to the flood stage (884.09 feet) coincident with the oil spill on July 25, 2010, as well as for floods with annual exceedance probabilities of 0.2, 1, 2, 4, and 10 percent. Streamflow at the USGS streamgage at Marshall, Michigan (USGS site ID 04103500), was used to calculate the flood probabilities. From August 13 to 18, 2010, 35 channel cross sections, 17 bridges and 1 dam were surveyed. These data were used to construct a water-surface profile for the July 25, 2010, flood by use of a one-dimensional step-backwater model. The calibrated model was used to estimate water-surface profiles for other flood probabilities. The resulting six flood-inundation maps were created with a geographic information system by combining flood profiles with a 1.2-foot vertical and 10-foot horizontal resolution digital elevation model derived from Light Detection and Ranging data.

Michigan↗