[Scico-list] Resource on Environment, Real-Time Data from Stream Gaging Stations

[Kamal, Sue]

Hi,
Here's a new resource from Colorado by  Joseph Kerski at USGS.
Nancy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph J Kerski" <jjkerski at usgs.gov>
To: "Joseph J Kerski" <jjkerski at usgs.gov>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:41 PM
Subject: Earth Day - new book : Essentials of the Environment

> Just in time for Earth Day 2005, I would like to tell you that my new
> book,The Essentials of the Environment, has just been published.
>
> Rest assured that I made certain that there were a good many linkages to
> earth science, physical and cultural geography as well as GPS, RS, and
GIS,
> and I hope you find it useful in teaching about geographical and
> environmental issues.  See below for details.
>
> Essentials of the Environment
> Joseph Kerski, Simon Ross
> 2005
> 352 pages
> ISBN  0340816325
>
> Price:  $18.70 on amazon.com
>
> Environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, nuclear waste,
> water resources, food and famine have a high public as well as political
> profile. The role that humans may have played in causing some of these
> problems, as well as some of the things we could do to reduce their
impact,
> are also topics of major interest. The Essentials of the Environment
> presents a fascinating insight into these subjects and many more,
providing
> general information and informed discussion enhanced by international case
> studies. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs and figures
> and comprehensive cross-references guide the reader to related issues.
> Important technical details are presented in stand-alone boxes and guides
> to further resources are included for the reader wishing to delve further
> into particular issues.
>
> Anyone concerned about their environment will find this an essential
> reference addressing all the key issues from oil spills to global warming
> to genetic engineering. It will also be an excellent course companion for
> students for physical geography and the environment.
>
> Highly accessible overview of all the key environmental issues
> Everything you need to know about the environment in a single book
> Easy to use A-Z structure with extensive cross-references
> Attractive two colour design with illustrations incorporated throughout
>
> More information on:
> http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Title.aspx?isbn=0340816325

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Joseph J. Kerski, Ph.D.
> Geographer:  Education/GIS
> US Geological Survey
> Building 810 - Entrance W-5 - Room 3000
> Box 25046 - MS 507
> Denver CO  80225-0046 USA
> jjkerski at usgs.gov
> Voice 303-202-4315
> Fax    303-202-4137
> http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/public/outreach/
>  USGS:  Science for a Changing World
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Dear Educators, 

This will be one more in my string of Earth Day-related emails; another earth science educational possibility I wanted to share with you. 
Something always available, and that many of you probably know about, is the online, real-time (and past) data from stream gaging stations throughout the U.S. You can access data from any of the many stream gages, either in a watershed near you or anywhere in the country, and get streamflow data that is posted to the internet within minutes of real time when it is measured. 

The snowfall that we had the previous weekend (April 10) provides an especially good example to view. One could readily adapt this to a lot of exercises that a class could do, to learn about the dynamics of a river. Let me use this week's data from the snowstorm (and subsequent snowmelt the next day) as an example. And for certain gaging stations (the only I'll choose as an example), you can view not only stream level and volume of flow, but also water temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and pH; and you and students can see how these things change during the course of the run-off from a rain or snow storm. 

The most detailed data (a continuous, minute-by-minute graph of stream level data) is stored and displayed for up to the past 31 days, so you can go to our website and view, print, or download this data, and time between now and 31 days after the date you are interested in. (After that, data are still available, but they may just have hourly or daily data points.) 

There are several ways to get to the online data. If you go to our USGS home page, <http://www.usgs.gov>, and click on the state of Colorado on the U.S. map, the first of the list of choices that comes up will be "Real-time Water Data". Click on that. 

You'll see a map of Colorado, with colored dots representing gaging stations, and whether stream flow is above or below normal. You can either point the cursor at the dots until you get one you want, or click on the top choice on the right, "Colorado Statewide Streamflow Table". P.S., as I would mention later, the second choice below this is "Colorado Statewide Precipitation Table", and if you come back & click later on this, it will give you a precipitation record for the area you can choose, which is just what you'd like to have, to compare flow in the rivers with timing of precipitation. 

If you click on "Streamflow Table" instead of the map, when the next page comes up, don't worry about the several question boxes, you'd don't really have to fill anything in them, just wait until the whole page loads and you'll see a list of all the stream gages in Colorado, grouped by drainage basins. Scroll down to the Upper South Platte (for the one I want to show you) and select: 06711565 
<http://waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/uv/?site_no=06711565&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060> 
South Platte River at Englewood, CO
which should be the last one in that section of the list. (There is a second nearby gage station listed at Englewood, too, but it does not have as many kinds of data.) Click on this one, and you'll see graphs of Discharge (flow volume, in cubic feet per second) and Gage Height in feet (river level, though the zero level is arbitrary; 2.40 feet does not necessarily mean that the average depth of the river is really 2.4 feet), for the past 7 (really, 8) days. You'll see that the graphs also give minimum, mean, and maximum average flows for the past 22 years. 

But there's more. Back above the graphs, you can change the number of days displayed from 7, to up to 31 days. (Separate places on the web sites can get you older data, from the past year to the past X years.) Today (April 21) as I write this, if I select 11 or 12 days, I get the full display from the April 10-11 rain/snow event, up to the present. And, in the "Available Parameters" box, instead of highlighting just "Discharge" and "Gage Height", you can scroll down and also highlight "Temperature", "Specific Cond", "Dissolved Oxygen", and "pH". Then click "Get Data". 

If you know a bit about hydrology and aquatic chemistry, you'll know something about what these various graphs show. Or you can look it up, or have your students try to figure it out. I think these graphs show all KINDS of neat things! And as I mentioned above, you can compare the precipitation data for a nearby rain gauge station. Rather than going on any further* (any of you are welcome to email me if you'd like to discuss comments or questions about what the data show), I'll just suggest some questions/problems that students could work on: 

*I'll just explain one thing. Conductance (electrical conductivity) measures the amount of dissolved ions (ionic salts) in the water. In the units given, the specific conductance is approximately equal to 2x the concentration of dissolved salts in parts per million; i.e., conductance of 500 = 250 parts per million of dissolved salts. 1000 ppm is considered the maximum desirable ionic salt content for drinking water. 

Questions for students: 

What were the highest, and lowest, water flows during this period of time? 

How do they compare to the normal average flow for this time of year? 

How high did the South Platte river rise, above its lowest level that week? 

How many cubic feet of water does your bathtub at home hold? (estimate this from its size). For the lowest (and highest) flows of the river last week, how long would it take the South Platte river to fill your bathtub? Or, how many bathtubs could the river fill, every minute or every second? 

The (volume) flow of a river is equal to it's width x depth x speed of flow (feet x feet x feet/second = cubic feet per second). If the channel of the South Platte where these measurement were made, is 50 feet wide and 1 foot deep, how fast would it be flowing at its greatest and its lowest flow rates that week? If you get those speeds in feet per minute, convert them to miles per hour. Can you walk or run as fast as the river flows? 

Compare the Precipitation graph (once you find one) to the stream flow graphs. How does the day and time when the most precipitation fell, compare to the day and time when the river rose most? What factors could cause these two not to be the same? Would it make a difference if the precipitation fell as snow, or rain? 

Why does the temperature graph vary so much? 

What time of day does the water temperature reach its maximum? Its minimum? [You can print out an expanded chart for just one or two days, to show this better.] 

How did the maximum temperature reached on April 10 and April 11, compare with the other days? Why? How about April 15? 

You could go to a National Weather Service website and find and compare the air temperature on these same days, to the water temperatures. 

What did the conductivity do when the stream level started to rise? Why is the pattern so complicated? What do you think the conductivity of snow or rain is? What kinds of things can happen to snow or rain, between the time they fall and the time that the water might drain off into the river? 

What is dissolved oxygen? Why is it important to aquatic life? How is affected by plants living in the river? By animals? Why is it different day vs. night? Which day shows a dissolved oxygen pattern different than the rest? Why? 

What is pH? What time of day is it highest? Lowest? What do you think goes on in the water that might affect the pH during the course of each day? What is "neutral" pH? What range of pH is acceptable for fish to live in? What factors can cause pH to become higher, or lower? Is the South Platte River in a safe range? 

What kinds of human structures and activities affect the water in the river? What kinds of natural or human causes affect the river's level, temperature, or chemical composition? Are these "good" effects or "bad" effects? How do we decide which is which? 

If you were a rain drop or a snowflake falling somewhere in Colorado, what kinds of things could happen to you between the time you fell and the time you were carried into this or another river? What kind of path would you follow? What kinds of natural or man-made places or obstacles, would have you have to pass through? Would this be fun, or not? One could write a story about what happens to a raindrop along the path of its journey. 

Where does the water in the South Platte River go, after it flows through Englewood? Where is Englewood, relative to the rest of Denver? Can you follow the whole course the water would take, on a map of Colorado? Where does the river go after that? 

Happy Earth Day! 

P.S., if you want to find other gaging stations elsewhere in Colorado that, like the one in Englewood, measure more parameters than just stream flow, go back to the main page with the colored dot map of the State of Colorado. Instead of selecting "Colorado Statewide Streamflow Table", scroll down further and click on "Colorado Statewide Water-quality Table". You'll see that there are 40 sites in Colorado that measure something other than just streamflow; only a few do the complete suite of pH, DO, etc. There are 273 total sites that measure streamflow. 

******************************************
Peter J. Modreski
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado
Central Region Office of Communications
Events and Community Relations - Geologic Outreach & Education
USGS, MS 150
Box 25046, Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225-0046
tel. 303-202-4766, fax 303-202-4767
email pmodreski at usgs.gov
SCIENCE FOR A CHANGING WORLD
http://www.usgs.gov http://ask.usgs.gov
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