Missouri StreamStats—St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis urban application

To address a major limitation of the functionality of the Missouri statewide StreamStats application in the urban areas of St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis, Missouri, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, defined watershed boundaries and hydrography for the study area using high-resolution 3-meter digital elevation data derived from light detection and ranging sources, high-resolution 6-inch imagery, and storm sewer network geospatial data. The combined sanitary sewers, a part of the storm sewer network, were integrated into the open channel hydrography and elevation data using a new Arc Hydro stormwater tool developed to facilitate the incorporation of the combined sanitary sewer network into the StreamStats application.

The combined sanitary sewer network was edited for connectivity and flow direction before integration into the Missouri-St. Louis StreamStats application. Inlet structures in the geospatial data were defined as HydroJunction features that allow for stormwater runoff to enter the combined sanitary sewer network. An Arc Hydro stormwater processing workflow and a sewershed delineation tool were developed to integrate the combined sanitary sewer network with the hydrographic dataset and digital elevation model in the study area.

The StreamStats application developed for the study area provides various data exploration tools that can be used to examine the spatial data and to obtain general descriptive information and flow statistics at streamgages in the study area. Watersheds and sewersheds can be delineated and basin characteristics can be determined at any point on the open channel network or the combined sanitary sewer network in the study area. Peak-flow statistics can be computed at any point on the open channel network. A report summarizing the results is generated by the StreamStats application and can be downloaded and used in other software.

The Missouri-St. Louis StreamStats application is limited to the area inside St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis and excludes locations on the main stem of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec Rivers. The limitations of the Missouri-St. Louis StreamStats application include possible inaccuracies using regression equations for peak-flow statistics developed assuming natural flow conditions and topographically derived watersheds determined from a coarser resolution of data than is used in this application. Additionally, published regression equations for peak-flow statistics did not incorporate any pipe flow or sewershed delineations when they were developed, which limits the applicability of peak-flow statistics to basins based on primarily topographic delineation. Inaccuracies in resolution, completeness, location, or attribution of geospatial elevation data, hydrographic data, derived stream lines, derived watershed boundaries, and combined sanitary sewer data can limit the accuracy and functionality of the Missouri-St. Louis StreamStats application.