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At least 1,549 records · Page 86Linked to original sources
USGS1988

Federal microcomputer software for urban hydrology

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, availability, and general use of selected urban hydrology microcomputer software developed by: U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The discussion is limited to software used for design and planning for urban stormwater flows.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1988

Predicting tidal currents in San Francisco Bay using a spectral model

This paper describes the formulation of a spectral (or frequency based) model which solves the linearized shallow water equations. To account for highly variable basin bathymetry, spectral solutions are obtained using the finite element method which allows the strategic placement of the computation points in the specific areas of interest or in areas where the gradients of the dependent variables are expected to be large. Model results are compared with data using simple statistics to judge overall model performance in the San Francisco Bay estuary. Once the model is calibrated and verified, prediction of the tides and tidal currents in San Francisco Bay is accomplished by applying astronomical tides (harmonic constants deduced from field data) at the prediction time along the model boundaries.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1988

Calibration of water-velocity meters

The U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, as part of its responsibility to appraise the quantity of water resources in the United States, maintains facilities for the calibration of water-velocity meters at the Gulf Coast Hydroscience Center's Hydraulic Laboratory Facility, NSTL, Mississippi. These meters are used in hydrologic studies by the Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Energy, state agencies, universities, and others in the public and private sector. This paper describes calibration facilities, types of water-velocity meters calibrated, and calibration standards, methods and results.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

ESTIMATION OF URBAN STORM-RUNOFF LOADS.

The United States was divided into three regions, on the basis of mean annual rainfall, to decrease the variability in storm-runoff constituent loads and to improve regression relations with basin and climatic characteristics. Multiple-regression analyses, in progress, are being refined to determine the best regression models for each of the storm-runoff constituent loads in each of the three regions. These techniques, when finalized, can be used to estimate storm-runoff constituent loads for gaged and ungaged urban watersheds. The preliminary standard errors of estimate for five constituents examined to date ranged from 54 to 223 percent, and the coefficients of determination (r**2) ranged from 0. 39 to 0. 94. Total storm rainfall and total contributing drainage area appear to be the most significant independent variables in the regression models. This paper is a progress report on preliminary results of estimating storm-runoff constituent loads for ungaged watersheds.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

LIMESTONE AND MARBLE DISSOLUTION BY ACID RAIN: AN ONSITE WEATHERING EXPERIMENT.

In this paper the authors describe an experimental research program, conducted in conjunction with the National Acidic Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), to quantify acid-rain damage to commercial and cultural carbonate-rock resources. Initial results of this experiment show that carbonate-rock dissolution and associated surface recession increase with increasing acid deposition to the rock surface. A statistically significant linear relation has been found between carbonate-rock surface-recession rate and hydrogen ion loading to the rock surface.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

STRONG-MOTION INSTRUMENTATION OF STRUCTURES IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA AND ELSEWHERE.

Instrumentation of structures is part of earthquake hazard mitigation program of many institutions, including the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS Strong-Motion Instrumentation of Structures Program is designed to complement other programs and to implement its own, within budget and other constraints. This paper reviews the overall national effort, cites examples of structures implemented and describes progress made to date. A recent example of instrumentation of an eight-story building in Charleston, South Carolina is documented.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

ANALYSIS OF THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY STREAMGAGING NETWORK.

This paper summarizes the results from the first 3 years of a 5-year cost-effectiveness study of the U. S. Geological Survey streamgaging network. The objective of the study is to define and document the most cost-effective means of furnishing streamflow information. In the first step of this study, data uses were identified for 3,493 continuous-record stations currently being operated in 32 States. In the second step, evaluation of alternative methods of providing streamflow information, flow-routing models, and regression models were developed for estimating daily flows at 251 stations of the 3,493 stations analyzed. In the third step of the analysis, relationships were developed between the accuracy of the streamflow records and the operating budget. The existing streamgaging networks in four Districts were further analyzed to determine the impacts that satellite telemetry would have on the cost effectiveness. Satellite telemetry was not found to be cost effective on the basis of hydrologic-data collection alone, given present cost of equipment and operation.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

VISCOPLASTIC FLUID MODEL FOR DEBRIS FLOW ROUTING.

This paper describes how a generalized viscoplastic fluid model, which was developed based on non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, can be successfully applied to routing a debris flow down a channel. The one-dimensional dynamic equations developed for unsteady clear-water flow can be used for debris flow routing if the flow parameters, such as the momentum (or energy) correction factor and the resistance coefficient, can be accurately evaluated. The writer's generalized viscoplastic fluid model can be used to express such flow parameters in terms of the rheological parameters for debris flow in wide channels. A preliminary analysis of the theoretical solutions reveals the importance of the flow behavior index and the so-called modified Froude number for uniformly progressive flow in snout profile modeling.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1986

PERFORMANCE OF AN EARTHQUAKE EXCITED ROOF DIAPHRAGM.

The objective of this paper is to study the earthquake performance of the roof diaphragm of the West Valley College gymnasium in Saratoga, California through a complete set of acceleration records obtained during the 24 April 1984 Morgan Hill Earthquake (M equals 6. 1). The roof diaphragm of the 112 ft. multiplied by 144 ft. rectangular, symmetric gymnasium consists of 3/8 in. plywood over tongue-and-groove sheathing attached to steel trusses supported by reinforced concrete columns and walls. Three sensors placed in the direction of each of the axes of the diaphragm facilitate the evaluation of in-plane deformation of the diaphragm. Other sensors placed at ground level measure vertical and horizontal motion of the building floor, and consequently allow the calculation of the relative motion of the diaphragm with respect to the ground level.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

High-resolution two dimensional advective transport

The paper describes a two-dimensional high-resolution scheme for advective transport that is based on a Eulerian-Lagrangian method with a flux limiter. The scheme is applied to the problem of pure-advection of a rotated Gaussian hill and shown to preserve the monotonicity property of the governing conservation law.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Recent progress on hydrodynamic modeling of San Francisco Bay, California

A hydrodynamic modeling study of the effects of freshwater inflow on circulation and mixing in San Francisco Bay has been underway since 1985. This paper describes the multidimensional hydrodynamic models being used on the study and review recent progress with their applications. Particular modeling considerations for San Francisco Bay and future modeling plans are discussed.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Regionalization of flood characteristics

Regionalization procedures are used to transfer flood characteristics from gaged to ungaged locations. These procedures are an extension of the gaging network that allows planners and designers to make estimates of flood frequency at ungaged sites of interest. The U.S. Geological Survey has a long time involvement in the development of these regionalization procedures. This paper describes the evolution of these regionalization procedures from the index-flood procedure used in the 1940's to the multiple regression procedure based on generalized least squares that is currently being used.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1987

DISTRIBUTED GROUND-WATER DATA BASE OF THE U. S. G. S.

During the past 20 years, the ground-water data base of the U. S. Geological Survey has evolved from paper files in local offices, to a national data base on a central mainframe computer, to a distributed data base on a network of 49 minicomputers throughout the United States. Users in local offices have easy, inexpensive access to the distributed data base. The distributed data base has caused some problems in data management but has increased the overall quality of the data base.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1987

NONHOMOGENEOUS TERMS IN THE UNSTEADY FLOW EQUATIONS: MODELING ASPECTS.

A study is in progress to identify the relative significance, effects, and benefits attributable to the use of one-dimensional, unsteady, open-channel, flow-simulation models employing a variety of nonhomogeneous terms in their equation formulations. Nonhomogeneous terms being analyzed include those representing bed slope, frictional resistance, nonprismatic channel geometry, lateral flow, and (surface) wind stress. After an initial theoretical discussion, the results of a set of numerical experiments are presented that demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships and intercomparisons achieved by neglect or improper treatment of important nonhomogeneous terms. Preliminary results of this study are discussed and presented in this paper, both in the form of qualitative considerations and quantitative tabular findings. These results are expected to yield a definitive set of guidelines and suggestions useful to model engineers.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Simulated water-quality changes in detention basins

A study has begun to simulate movement of stormflow through detention basins at four locations in the Irondequoit Creek watershed and determine the effect on peak flow and water quality. Two types of basins were simulated for each site - a temporary-storage basin, which impounds water during high flows, and a maximum-storage basin, which maintains a permanent pool of water. This paper describes the simulated stormflow attenuation and suspended-sediment removal by both types of basins at the four sites. It also examines the effect of particle-size distribution on sediment removal in both types of basins; the relation of suspended-sediment loads to adsorbed phosphorus, lead, and zinc loads; and the effect that these basins could have on the transport of suspended constituents to Irondequoit Bay, to which Irondequoit Creek is the only large tributary.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Structural marsh management research priorities

The paper presents a prioritized list of research issues related to structural marsh management developed by a multidisciplinary panel of regulatory agency representatives, landowners, and scientists. More than 75 issues were identified concerning landscape changes, influence on ecological processes (i.e., hydrologic, biologic, and edaphic factors), habitat quality, cumulative impacts, and management approach. These issues were prioritized and organized around six basic questions regulatory personnel must try to answer for each marsh management plan application. The six questions deal with the influence of marsh management on, in order of most immediate need, marsh loss and health, fisheries, wildlife, habitat change, water quality, and cumulative effects.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Some significant records from instrumented structures in California - USGS program

The main objective in seismic instrumentation of structures is to facilitate response studies that lead to improved understanding of the dynamic behavior and the potential for damage to structures under seismic loading. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to review the status of the programs for strong-motion instrumentation of structures in the United States and discuss various procedures and instrumentation schemes designed to best acquire response data from buildings and (2) to discuss preliminary results derived from recorded response data obtained from a well-instrumented structure during the recent Whittier Narrows earthquake of October 1, 1987 (M3 = 5.6).

Conference Paper↗
USGS1989

Statistical frequency analysis of flood records

The U.S. Geological Survey, like other Federal agencies, uses Hydrology Subcommittee Bulletin 17 for guidance in statistical frequency analysis of flood records. This paper describes the formal statistical and computational aspects of the Bulletin 17 methodology. The methodology includes provisions for dealing with high and low out-liers, historic peaks, and other anomalous flood data. If these options are inadequate, alternative procedures may be used if properly documented.

Conference Paper↗