Texas Water Data for Emergency Management
Emergency managers often have urgent needs for situational awareness, impact assessment, and management of recovery or mitigation activities.
Collecting and delivering information where and when it is needed requires advanced planning. The USGS Texas Water Science Center (TXWSC) can monitor water conditions anywhere but we must have the equipment in place before the event.
The TXWSC can provide technical assistance for flow statistics, flood frequency calculations, emergency flow measurements, monitoring and sampling of chemical spills, time of travel, characterization of floods, forensic determination of flow dynamics, and discharge at ungaged locations.
WATER DATA COLLECTION
Streamgages
The USGS collects and distributes real-time streamflow data for over 8,100 streamgages that support local decision making and National Weather Service river forecast capabilities. During major floods, we deploy field crews to measure flood flows and water quality at streamgages and other locations of interest (such as breached levees, chemical spills, etc.). Where no streamgage already exists, a rapid-gage can be deployed before the permanent gage can be installed.
Data are available at http://waterdata.usgs.gov and alerts and situational awareness are available through http://water.usgs.gov/wateralert/and http://waterwatch.usgs.gov
Rapid-Deployment Gage
During an emergency, you may not have a streamgage where you need one. The needs may include flood control reservoir operation, flood forecasting, flood fight operations, road closure, and emergency management, including evacuations. To meet this need, USGS developed, built, and maintains a cache of rapid-deployment streamgages (RDG) that can be installed to collect and transmit near real-time stage data, often within hours of a recognized need. They can be installed quickly and with minimal impacts to bridges and structures.
Data for RDGs are also available at http://waterdata.usgs.gov and alerts are available through http://water.usgs.gov/wateralert/ when they are operational.
Non-Transmitting Sensors
If additional data is needed for calibration of models or documenting flood peaks, we can install small water-level and temperature sensors in extensive, temporary networks that provide dozens to hundreds of observation sites along a river or coast line. These have been widely used to document storm-tide flooding.
More information is available at http://water.usgs.gov/floods/
High-Water Mark Campaign
If the flood peak was not documented by other sensors or inundation mapping is desired, the USGS marks, surveys and stores HWMs in a national database. These studies are not completed for every flood, but where the communities and other agencies gather to support the flood documentation effort.
WATER DATA COMMUNICATION
Social Media
During the 2015 flooding in Texas, many people throughout the state were without power and relied on social media to get the latest information about current water conditions.
With the help of Twitter, the Texas Water Science Center developed two fully-autonomous feeds to distribute water level and precipitation data: USGS TX FloodWatch (@USGS_TexasFlood) and USGS TX RainWatch (@USGS_TexasRain). The FloodWatch feed automatically sends out tweets anytime one of about 300 selected USGS streamgages throughout the state rises above the NWS-defined flood level, and delivers information within minutes. The RainWatch feed tweets when rainfall exceeds a rate of 0.4 inches per hour.
Emergency managers often have urgent needs for situational awareness, impact assessment, and management of recovery or mitigation activities.
Collecting and delivering information where and when it is needed requires advanced planning. The USGS Texas Water Science Center (TXWSC) can monitor water conditions anywhere but we must have the equipment in place before the event.
The TXWSC can provide technical assistance for flow statistics, flood frequency calculations, emergency flow measurements, monitoring and sampling of chemical spills, time of travel, characterization of floods, forensic determination of flow dynamics, and discharge at ungaged locations.
WATER DATA COLLECTION
Streamgages
The USGS collects and distributes real-time streamflow data for over 8,100 streamgages that support local decision making and National Weather Service river forecast capabilities. During major floods, we deploy field crews to measure flood flows and water quality at streamgages and other locations of interest (such as breached levees, chemical spills, etc.). Where no streamgage already exists, a rapid-gage can be deployed before the permanent gage can be installed.
Data are available at http://waterdata.usgs.gov and alerts and situational awareness are available through http://water.usgs.gov/wateralert/and http://waterwatch.usgs.gov
Rapid-Deployment Gage
During an emergency, you may not have a streamgage where you need one. The needs may include flood control reservoir operation, flood forecasting, flood fight operations, road closure, and emergency management, including evacuations. To meet this need, USGS developed, built, and maintains a cache of rapid-deployment streamgages (RDG) that can be installed to collect and transmit near real-time stage data, often within hours of a recognized need. They can be installed quickly and with minimal impacts to bridges and structures.
Data for RDGs are also available at http://waterdata.usgs.gov and alerts are available through http://water.usgs.gov/wateralert/ when they are operational.
Non-Transmitting Sensors
If additional data is needed for calibration of models or documenting flood peaks, we can install small water-level and temperature sensors in extensive, temporary networks that provide dozens to hundreds of observation sites along a river or coast line. These have been widely used to document storm-tide flooding.
More information is available at http://water.usgs.gov/floods/
High-Water Mark Campaign
If the flood peak was not documented by other sensors or inundation mapping is desired, the USGS marks, surveys and stores HWMs in a national database. These studies are not completed for every flood, but where the communities and other agencies gather to support the flood documentation effort.
WATER DATA COMMUNICATION
Social Media
During the 2015 flooding in Texas, many people throughout the state were without power and relied on social media to get the latest information about current water conditions.
With the help of Twitter, the Texas Water Science Center developed two fully-autonomous feeds to distribute water level and precipitation data: USGS TX FloodWatch (@USGS_TexasFlood) and USGS TX RainWatch (@USGS_TexasRain). The FloodWatch feed automatically sends out tweets anytime one of about 300 selected USGS streamgages throughout the state rises above the NWS-defined flood level, and delivers information within minutes. The RainWatch feed tweets when rainfall exceeds a rate of 0.4 inches per hour.