Julie Kiang
Science and Products
Transportation-Related Water Projects
The USGS has a long history of cooperative investigations with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state highway agencies to provide data and information to address various issues related to water resources and the Nation’s transportation infrastructure. These issues cover a wide spectrum and include items such as regional flow statistics, flood documentation, regional stream...
SWToolbox Software Information
USGS and EPA have combined their SWSTAT and DFLOW software programs into a new tool for the low flow anlaysis, the SWToolbox.
EPA National Low Flows
Low streamflow has great ecological importance as it defines the minimum extent (and carrying capacity) of in-stream habitat and affects biota composition and distribution, and species trophic structure.
Water availability for ungauged rivers: an integrative, multi-model approach to estimate water availability at ungauged rivers across the United States
There has been increasing attention placed on the need for water availability information at ungauged locations, particularly related to balancing human and ecological needs for water. Critical to assessing water availability is the necessity for daily streamflow time series; however, most of the rivers in the United States are ungauged. This proposal leverages over $1M currently allocated to...
Flood-frequency estimation for very low annual exceedance probabilities using historical, paleoflood, and regional information with consideration of nonstationarity
Streamflow estimates for floods with an annual exceedance probability of 0.001 or lower are needed to accurately portray risks to critical infrastructure, such as nuclear powerplants and large dams. However, extrapolating flood-frequency curves developed from at-site systematic streamflow records to very low annual exceedance probabilities (less...
Ryberg, Karen R.; Kolars, Kelsey A.; Kiang, Julie E.; Carr, Meredith L.Updating estimates of low-streamflow statistics to account for possible trends
Accurate estimators of streamflow statistics are critical to the design, planning, and management of water resources. Given increasing evidence of trends in low-streamflow, new approaches to estimating low-streamflow statistics are needed. Here we investigate simple approaches to select a recent subset of the low-flow record to update the commonly...
Blum, Annalise G.; Archfield, Stacey A.; Hirsch, Robert M.; Vogel, Richard M; Kiang, Julie E.; Dudley, RobertRegionalization of surface-water statistics using multiple linear regression
This report serves as a reference document in support of the regionalization of surface-water statistics using multiple linear regression. Streamflow statistics are quantitative characterizations of hydrology and are often derived from observed streamflow records. In the absence of observed streamflow records, as at unmonitored or ungaged...
Farmer, William H.; Kiang, Julie E.; Feaster, Toby D.; Eng, KenGuidelines for determining flood flow frequency—Bulletin 17C
Accurate estimates of flood frequency and magnitude are a key component of any effective nationwide flood risk management and flood damage abatement program. In addition to accuracy, methods for estimating flood risk must be uniformly and consistently applied because management of the Nation’s water and related land resources is a collaborative...
England, John F.; Cohn, Timothy A.; Faber, Beth A.; Stedinger, Jery R.; Thomas, Wilbert O.; Veilleux, Andrea G.; Kiang, Julie E.; Mason,, Robert R.GRACE storage change characteristics (2003–2016) over major surface basins and principal aquifers in the Conterminous United States
In this research, we characterized the changes in Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment’s (GRACE) monthly total water storage anomaly (TWSA) in 18 surface basins and 12 principal aquifers in the Conterminous United States (CONUS) over 2003–2016. Regions with high variability in storage were identified. Ten basins and 4 aquifers showed...
Velpuri, Naga Manohar; Senay, Gabriel; Driscoll, Jessica M.; Saxe, Samuel; Hay, Lauren E.; Farmer, William H.; Kiang, Julie E.A comparison of methods for streamflow uncertainty estimation
Streamflow time series are commonly derived from stage‐discharge rating curves, but the uncertainty of the rating curve and resulting streamflow series are poorly understood. While different methods to quantify uncertainty in the stage‐discharge relationship exist, there is limited understanding of how uncertainty estimates differ between methods...
Kiang, Julie E.; Gazoorian, Christopher L.; McMillan, Hillary; Coxon, Gemma; Le Coz, Jerome; Westerberg, Ida; Belleville, Arnaud; Sevrez, Damien; Sikorska, Anna; Petersen‐Øverleir, Asgeir; Reitan, Trond; Freer, Jim; Renard, Benjamin; Mansanarez, Valentin; Mason,, Robert R.Bias correction of simulated historical daily streamflow at ungauged locations by using independently estimated flow duration curves
In many simulations of historical daily streamflow distributional bias arising from the distributional properties of residuals has been noted. This bias often presents itself as an underestimation of high streamflow and an overestimation of low streamflow. Here, 1168 streamgages across the conterminous USA, having at least 14 ...
Farmer, William H.; Over, Thomas M.; Kiang, Julie E.Continuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use
Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS issued the first report on the...
Evenson, Eric J.; Jones, Sonya A.; Barber, Nancy L.; Barlow, Paul M.; Blodgett, David L.; Bruce, Breton W.; Douglas-Mankin, Kyle; Farmer, William H.; Fischer, Jeffrey M.; Hughes, William B.; Kennen, Jonathan; Kiang, Julie E.; Maupin, Molly A.; Reeves, Howard W.; Senay, Gabriel B.; Stanton, Jennifer S.; Wagner, Chad R.; Wilson, Jennifer T.SWToolbox: A surface-water tool-box for statistical analysis of streamflow time series
This report is a user guide for the low-flow analysis methods provided with version 1.0 of the Surface Water Toolbox (SWToolbox) computer program. The software combines functionality from two software programs—U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) SWSTAT and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) DFLOW. Both of these programs have been used primarily...
Kiang, Julie E.; Flynn, Kate; Zhai, Tong; Hummel, Paul; Granato, Gregory E.Improving predictions of hydrological low-flow indices in ungaged basins using machine learning
We compare the ability of eight machine-learning models (elastic net, gradient boosting, kernel-k-nearest neighbors, two variants of support vector machines, M5-cubist, random forest, and a meta-learning ensemble M5-cubist model) and four baseline models (ordinary kriging, a unit area discharge model, and two variants of censored regression)...
Worland, Scott C.; Farmer, William H.; Kiang, Julie E.Application of at-site peak-streamflow frequency analyses for very low annual exceedance probabilities
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has investigated statistical methods for probabilistic flood hazard assessment to provide guidance on very low annual exceedance probability (AEP) estimation of peak-streamflow frequency and the quantification of corresponding uncertainties using...
Asquith, William H.; Kiang, Julie E.; Cohn, Timothy A.How uncertainty analysis of streamflow data can reduce costs and promote robust decisions in water management applications
Streamflow data are used for important environmental and economic decisions, such as specifying and regulating minimum flows, managing water supplies, and planning for flood hazards. Despite significant uncertainty in most flow data, the flow series for these applications are often communicated and used without uncertainty information. In this...
McMilan, Hilary; Seibert, Jan; Petersen‐Øverleir, Asgeir; Lang, Michel; White, Paul; Snelder, Ton; Rutherford, Kit; Krueger, Tobias; Mason,, Robert R.; Kiang, Julie E.SWToolbox Software Information
USGS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have combined their SWSTAT and DFLOW software programs into a new tool for the low-flow anlaysis, the SWToolbox.