Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) are monitoring stations that track the amount of water in streams and rivers across the Nation and that meet one or more strategic, long-term Federal information needs. FPS are strategically positioned across the Nation to serve, in part, as a “backbone” of 4,758 eligible sites for the larger USGS streamgaging network of 11,531 sites (2021) that is operated by the USGS in cooperation with over 1,800 Federal, State, tribal, and local agencies or organizations.
This Federal-interest streamgaging network (FPS) was originally conceived in 1999 and was previously known as the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP). It is supported by the Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program.
In 2021, the USGS operated approximately 3,640 streamgages that were identified as meeting one or more of the following strategic Federal priorities and responsibilities:
- forecast floods, droughts and other streamflow;
- support water-quality assessments of major rivers and estuaries;
- support interstate and international compacts, court decrees, treaties and other border water agreements;
- track streamflow in major rivers and contributions from key basins to the next downstream basin, estuary, ocean or the Great Lakes; and
- describe long-term trends in streamflow at sentinel sites that typify major ecoregions and river basins, including trends related to population, land use, water use and climate.
Examples Illustrating Federal Priority Streamgages Meeting Diverse Needs:
Managing Flood Risk to Save Lives and Property
Flooding is the leading cause of Presidential disaster declarations. USGS streamflow data and 3D-elevation data support flood risk management by contributing to flood insurance rate maps, flood documentation studies, and flood-inundation map libraries. Streamflow data also are used by the National Weather Service (NWS) for computing accurate river forecasts—critical for saving lives and property. As an example, the NWS used data from USGS streamgage 07066000 on Jacks Fork at Eminence, MO, to help prepare a river forecast during record flooding in Missouri in April 2017. USACE, NOAA, NWS and FEMA also depended on USGS streamflow data during the 2017 hurricane season. Explore the USGS Flood Event Viewer.
Evaluating Effects of Nutrient Management
Conservation practices are needed to improve water quality in the Mississippi River basin. The Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watershed Initiative (MRBI) helps producers and landowners implement voluntary conservation practices, while sustaining agricultural profitability. Streamflow and nitrate concentration data are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural-nutrient management activities in the basin. USGS streamgage 03321500 on the Green River at Lock 1 at Spottsville, KY, is one of several “super gages” that provide such data. Learn more.
Informing Dam Operation for a Shared Water Supply
Osoyoos Lake straddles Washington State, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, and is important for agriculture, recreation, domestic supply and migratory salmon runs. The International Osoyoos Lake Board of Control supervises operation of a dam near the outlet of Osoyoos Lake that is used to maintain lake levels in accordance with an international water-sharing agreement. The Board relies upon daily flow and lake-level data to support their decision-making. USGS streamgage 12442500 on the Similkameen River near Nighthawk, WA, provides the required streamflow data.
Informing Transportation Infrastructure Investments
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires water data to address issues related to the Nation’s transportation infrastructure. Bridge scour—erosion of a streambed around a bridge foundation caused by flooding—is the leading cause of bridge failure. FHWA provides design and implementation guidelines for bridge-scour countermeasures. USGS is investigating the effectiveness of these countermeasures for FHWA. Flood histories recorded by streamgages, such as 02358789 on the Chipola River at Marianna, FL, are crucial to this work. Learn more about USGS investigations for highway agencies.
Projecting Streamflow to Anticipate Future Water Quality
The health of the Chesapeake Bay is largely driven by streamflow and associated water pollutants. USGS measures streamflow in small streams and major rivers throughout the watershed and uses the data to estimate streamflow to the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Program is concerned that observed increases in precipitation might affect streamflow and thus attainment of required water-quality improvements. Long-term record (> 80 yrs) at streamgages, such as 01541000 on the West Branch Susquehanna River at Bower, PA, were used to examine the relation between precipitation and streamflow.
Resources
- Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) Mapper
- Original National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) Plan
Below are data or web applications associated with Federal Priority Streamgages.
WaterWatch (surface water)
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
WaterNow
The USGS WaterNow service lets users receive current conditions for USGS water-data-collection stations on demand via email or cell-phone text message. The user sends an email or text message containing a USGS current-conditions gaging site number, and will quickly receive a reply with the station's most recent data for one or more of its monitored parameters.
Below are data or web applications associated with Federal Priority Streamgages.
National Water Dashboard (NWD)
The National Water Dashboard (NWD) is a mobile, interactive tool that provides real-time information on water levels, weather, and flood forecasts - all in one place on a computer, smartphone, or other mobile device. The NWD presents real-time stream, lake and reservoir, precipitation, and groundwater data from more than 13,500 USGS observation stations across the country.
WaterAlert
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service provides notifications to your email or phone for changes in water conditions based on thresholds you choose.
NWIS Current Water Data for the Nation (Real-Time Data)
The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.
WaterWatch (surface water)
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) Mapper
This mapper identifies USGS Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS). FPS are monitoring stations that track the amount of water in streams and rivers across the Nation to meet long-term federal information needs. They are strategically positioned to serve as a backbone for the larger National Streamflow Network that is operated in cooperation with over 1,200 federal, state, tribal, and local agencies.
StreamStats Application
StreamStats provides access to spatial analytical tools that are useful for water-resources planning and management, and for engineering and design purposes. The map-based user interface can be used to delineate drainage areas, get basin characteristics and estimates of flow statistics, and more. Available information varies from state to state.
USGS Water Services
This site serves USGS water data (streamflow, groundwater, water quality, site information, and statistics) via automated means using web services and extensible markup language (XML), as well as other popular media types. Services are invoked with the REST protocol. These services designed for high fault tolerance and very high availability.
Endangered, Discontinued, and Rescued Streamgages Mapper
This mapper identifies USGS streamgages that are in danger of being discontinued or converted to a reduced level of service due to lack of funding, gages that already have been discontinued, and gages that have been ‘rescued’ by a new funding source.
StreamStats Batch Processing Tool
This tool produces shapefiles that contain the delineated basins, basin characteristics, and flow statistics for multiple sites requested at once by users. Before this tool can be used, the the points of interest will likely need to be edited in GIS so that they are coincident with the stream grid used by StreamStats for delineations and saved to a shapefile.
StreamStats Web Services
The StreamStats application uses data web services that were created for it. When in use, the application manages interactions between the user and the services. However, the web services can be directly accessed using the StreamStats Service API documented here or consumed by a custom client application using HTTP protocols.
NWIS Mapper
This mapper provides access to over 1.5 million sites contained in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), including sites where surface-water, groundwater, springs, and atmospheric data has been collected.
- Overview
Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) are monitoring stations that track the amount of water in streams and rivers across the Nation and that meet one or more strategic, long-term Federal information needs. FPS are strategically positioned across the Nation to serve, in part, as a “backbone” of 4,758 eligible sites for the larger USGS streamgaging network of 11,531 sites (2021) that is operated by the USGS in cooperation with over 1,800 Federal, State, tribal, and local agencies or organizations.
This Federal-interest streamgaging network (FPS) was originally conceived in 1999 and was previously known as the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP). It is supported by the Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program.
In 2021, the USGS operated approximately 3,640 streamgages that were identified as meeting one or more of the following strategic Federal priorities and responsibilities:
- forecast floods, droughts and other streamflow;
- support water-quality assessments of major rivers and estuaries;
- support interstate and international compacts, court decrees, treaties and other border water agreements;
- track streamflow in major rivers and contributions from key basins to the next downstream basin, estuary, ocean or the Great Lakes; and
- describe long-term trends in streamflow at sentinel sites that typify major ecoregions and river basins, including trends related to population, land use, water use and climate.
USGS hydrologic technician Christopher Rowden verifies the accuracy of streamgage information at the Jacks Fork River at Eminence, Missouri. (Credit: Jarrett Ellis, USGS) Examples Illustrating Federal Priority Streamgages Meeting Diverse Needs:
Managing Flood Risk to Save Lives and Property
Flooding is the leading cause of Presidential disaster declarations. USGS streamflow data and 3D-elevation data support flood risk management by contributing to flood insurance rate maps, flood documentation studies, and flood-inundation map libraries. Streamflow data also are used by the National Weather Service (NWS) for computing accurate river forecasts—critical for saving lives and property. As an example, the NWS used data from USGS streamgage 07066000 on Jacks Fork at Eminence, MO, to help prepare a river forecast during record flooding in Missouri in April 2017. USACE, NOAA, NWS and FEMA also depended on USGS streamflow data during the 2017 hurricane season. Explore the USGS Flood Event Viewer.
Evaluating Effects of Nutrient Management
Conservation practices are needed to improve water quality in the Mississippi River basin. The Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watershed Initiative (MRBI) helps producers and landowners implement voluntary conservation practices, while sustaining agricultural profitability. Streamflow and nitrate concentration data are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural-nutrient management activities in the basin. USGS streamgage 03321500 on the Green River at Lock 1 at Spottsville, KY, is one of several “super gages” that provide such data. Learn more.
Informing Dam Operation for a Shared Water Supply
Osoyoos Lake straddles Washington State, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, and is important for agriculture, recreation, domestic supply and migratory salmon runs. The International Osoyoos Lake Board of Control supervises operation of a dam near the outlet of Osoyoos Lake that is used to maintain lake levels in accordance with an international water-sharing agreement. The Board relies upon daily flow and lake-level data to support their decision-making. USGS streamgage 12442500 on the Similkameen River near Nighthawk, WA, provides the required streamflow data.
Coast Fork Willamette River and gage house at State Highway 58 near Goshen, Oregon, above flood stage on December 18, 2015. Informing Transportation Infrastructure Investments
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires water data to address issues related to the Nation’s transportation infrastructure. Bridge scour—erosion of a streambed around a bridge foundation caused by flooding—is the leading cause of bridge failure. FHWA provides design and implementation guidelines for bridge-scour countermeasures. USGS is investigating the effectiveness of these countermeasures for FHWA. Flood histories recorded by streamgages, such as 02358789 on the Chipola River at Marianna, FL, are crucial to this work. Learn more about USGS investigations for highway agencies.
Projecting Streamflow to Anticipate Future Water Quality
The health of the Chesapeake Bay is largely driven by streamflow and associated water pollutants. USGS measures streamflow in small streams and major rivers throughout the watershed and uses the data to estimate streamflow to the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Program is concerned that observed increases in precipitation might affect streamflow and thus attainment of required water-quality improvements. Long-term record (> 80 yrs) at streamgages, such as 01541000 on the West Branch Susquehanna River at Bower, PA, were used to examine the relation between precipitation and streamflow.
Resources
- Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) Mapper
- Original National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) Plan
The Federal Priorities Streamgages (FPS) Mapper presents data and information about the USGS FPS Network. - Data
Below are data or web applications associated with Federal Priority Streamgages.
WaterWatch (surface water)
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
WaterNow
The USGS WaterNow service lets users receive current conditions for USGS water-data-collection stations on demand via email or cell-phone text message. The user sends an email or text message containing a USGS current-conditions gaging site number, and will quickly receive a reply with the station's most recent data for one or more of its monitored parameters.
- Publications
- Web Tools
Below are data or web applications associated with Federal Priority Streamgages.
National Water Dashboard (NWD)
The National Water Dashboard (NWD) is a mobile, interactive tool that provides real-time information on water levels, weather, and flood forecasts - all in one place on a computer, smartphone, or other mobile device. The NWD presents real-time stream, lake and reservoir, precipitation, and groundwater data from more than 13,500 USGS observation stations across the country.
ByWater Resources Mission Area, Alaska Science Center, Arizona Water Science Center, California Water Science Center, Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center (CFWSC), Central Midwest Water Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Dakota Water Science Center, Idaho Water Science Center, Kansas Water Science Center, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Water Science Center, Nebraska Water Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, New England Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Pacific Islands Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center, Washington Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF)WaterAlert
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service provides notifications to your email or phone for changes in water conditions based on thresholds you choose.
ByWater Resources Mission Area, Kansas Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF), National Water Quality LaboratoryNWIS Current Water Data for the Nation (Real-Time Data)
The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.
WaterWatch (surface water)
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS) Mapper
This mapper identifies USGS Federal Priority Streamgages (FPS). FPS are monitoring stations that track the amount of water in streams and rivers across the Nation to meet long-term federal information needs. They are strategically positioned to serve as a backbone for the larger National Streamflow Network that is operated in cooperation with over 1,200 federal, state, tribal, and local agencies.
StreamStats Application
StreamStats provides access to spatial analytical tools that are useful for water-resources planning and management, and for engineering and design purposes. The map-based user interface can be used to delineate drainage areas, get basin characteristics and estimates of flow statistics, and more. Available information varies from state to state.
ByWater Resources Mission Area, New England Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Pacific Islands Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science CenterUSGS Water Services
This site serves USGS water data (streamflow, groundwater, water quality, site information, and statistics) via automated means using web services and extensible markup language (XML), as well as other popular media types. Services are invoked with the REST protocol. These services designed for high fault tolerance and very high availability.
Endangered, Discontinued, and Rescued Streamgages Mapper
This mapper identifies USGS streamgages that are in danger of being discontinued or converted to a reduced level of service due to lack of funding, gages that already have been discontinued, and gages that have been ‘rescued’ by a new funding source.
StreamStats Batch Processing Tool
This tool produces shapefiles that contain the delineated basins, basin characteristics, and flow statistics for multiple sites requested at once by users. Before this tool can be used, the the points of interest will likely need to be edited in GIS so that they are coincident with the stream grid used by StreamStats for delineations and saved to a shapefile.
StreamStats Web Services
The StreamStats application uses data web services that were created for it. When in use, the application manages interactions between the user and the services. However, the web services can be directly accessed using the StreamStats Service API documented here or consumed by a custom client application using HTTP protocols.
NWIS Mapper
This mapper provides access to over 1.5 million sites contained in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), including sites where surface-water, groundwater, springs, and atmospheric data has been collected.