Geology topics

Mason

Publications and source records attributed to Mason.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2024

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2015 - November 30, 2016

Executive Summary A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 ( New Jersey v. New York , 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from reservoirs owned by New York City to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master provide reports to the Court not less frequently than annually. This report is the 63rd annual report of the River Master of the Delaware River. The report covers the 2016 River Master report year, which is the period from December 1, 2015, to November 30, 2016. During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 38.6 inches or 87 percent of the long-term average. Combined storage remained high (above 80 percent of combined capacity) for much of the year and did not decline below 80 percent of combined capacity until August 2016. The lowest combined storage was 106.406 billion gallons or 39 percent of combined capacity on November 28, 2016. Delaware River Basin Commission Resolution 2016–07 necessitated a basinwide drought watch on November 23, 2016. The drought watch continued through the remainder of the 2016 report year. Delaware River Master operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program. New York City and New Jersey fully complied with the terms of the Decree and, during drought watch conditions, with the Delaware River Basin Commission Resolution 2016–07 terms. Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and New Jersey fully complied with the Decree. The reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the flow objective for the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey, on 126 days during the report year. Interim Excess Release Quantity and conservation releases, designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs, were also made during the report year. Water quality in the Delaware River estuary between the streamgages at Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at several locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four sites.

Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylv↗

USGS2024

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2013–November 30, 2014

Executive Summary A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 ( New Jersey v. New York , 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from specific reservoirs owned by New York City to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master provide reports to the Court, not less frequently than annually. This report is the 61st annual report of the River Master of the Delaware River. The report covers the 2014 River Master report year, which is the period from December 1, 2013, to November 30, 2014. During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 42.40 inches or 95 percent of the long-term average. On December 1, 2013, combined useable storage in New York’s Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs in the upper Delaware River Basin was 200.133 billion gallons or 73.9 percent of the combined capacity of 270.8 billion gallons. The reservoirs were at about 99.7 percent of usable capacity on May 31, 2014. Combined storage in the Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs decreased below 80 percent of combined capacity in late August. The lowest combined storage was 151.730 billion gallons or 56 percent of combined capacity on November 24, 2014. Delaware River Master operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program. Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and the State of New Jersey fully complied with the Decree. Reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the flow objective for the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey, on 94 days during the report year. Interim Excess Release Quantity and conservation releases, designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs, were also made during the report year. Water quality in the Delaware River estuary between streamgages at Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at several locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four locations.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania↗

USGS2023

A conceptual workflow for projecting future riverine and coastal flood hazards to support the federal flood risk management standard

In 2021, the reinstatement of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) required federally funded projects to recognize potential increases in flood hazards over their service lives due to climate change or local anthropogenic perturbations. Recognizing that the state of the science had advanced since the implementation guidelines for this standard were published in 2015 (WRC, 2015, Appendix H), an interagency state-of-the-science review committee conceptualized a workflow to guide the mapping and risk communication of projected future flood hazards in both riverine and coastal settings. This five-element workflow connects climate, hydrologic, and hydraulic models, incorporates land and water management impacts and ongoing geomorphic changes, and can be tailored to the unique nature of different agency needs and resources. These conceptual workflows also provide a basis for a Climate-Informed Science Approach (CISA) implementation roadmap that identifies incremental steps for addressing the research and data gaps elucidated in our review. Many of these incremental steps present opportunities for interagency collaboration that would facilitate the rollout of the FFRMS in diverse riverine and coastal settings of the United States. We conduct case-study thought experiments to evaluate the implementation of the riverine and coastal workflows at three different locations in the United States: central Indiana, Galveston, Texas, and a small coastal community in western Alaska (Shaktoolik). Our thought experiments consider different project horizons, data availability, failure consequences, technical training requirements, and computational resources.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2022

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2012–November 30, 2013

A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master will furnish reports to the Court, not less frequently than annually. This report is the 60th annual report of the River Master of the Delaware River. It covers the 2013 River Master report year, the period from December 1, 2012 to November 30, 2013. During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 44.50 inches or 100 percent of the long-term average. Combined storage in the Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs remained high until October 2013 when it decreased below 80 percent combined capacity. The lowest combined storage of the report year was 70.2 percent of combined capacity on November 26, 2013. Delaware River Master operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program. Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and New Jersey were in full compliance with the Decree. Reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the Montague flow objective for the Delaware River at the Montague, New Jersey streamgage on 71 days during the report year. Interim Excess Release Quantity and conservation releases, designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs, were also made during the report year. An agreement was signed on July 16, 2013 to temporarily increase releases to provide thermal protection below Cannonsville Reservoir. The quality of water in the Delaware River estuary between streamgages at Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at several locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four sites.

Delaware, New Jesey, New York, Pennsylvania↗

USGS2022

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2011–November 30, 2012

A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master will furnish reports to the Court, not less frequently than annually. This report is the 59th annual report of the River Master of the Delaware River. It covers the 2012 River Master report year, the period from December 1, 2011 to November 30, 2012. During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 43.35 inches or 97 percent of the long-term average. Combined storage in the Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs remained high through late May, declined from then until mid-September, decreasing below 80 percent of combined capacity in late August, increased in late October, and decreased slightly in November 2012. Delaware River Master operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program. Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and New Jersey were in full compliance with the Decree. Reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the flow objective for the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey, on 52 days during the report year. Interim Excess Release Quantity and conservation releases, designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs, were also made during the report year. An agreement was signed on October 25, 2012, to increase discharge mitigation releases from the Neversink Reservoir due to potential impacts from Hurricane Sandy. The quality of water in the Delaware River estuary between Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at various locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four sites.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania↗

USGS2021

U.S. Geological Survey wildland fire science strategic plan, 2021–26

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wildland Fire Science Strategic Plan defines critical, core fire science capabilities for understanding fire-related and fire-responsive earth system processes and patterns, and informing management decision making. Developed by USGS fire scientists and executive leadership, and informed by conversations with external stakeholders, the Strategic Plan is aligned with the needs of the fire science stakeholder community–fire, land, natural resource, and emergency managers from Federal, State, Tribal, and community organizations, as well as members of the scientific community. The Strategic Plan is composed of four integrated priorities, each with associated goals and specific strategies for accomplishing the goals: Priority 1: Produce state-of-the-art, actionable fire science; Priority 2: Engage stakeholders in science production and science delivery; Priority 3: Effectively communicate USGS fire science capacity, products, and information to a broad audience; and Priority 4: Enhance USGS organizational structure and advance support for fire science. The priorities of this Strategic Plan define the USGS’s commitment to producing and delivering cutting edge fire science, information, and decision-support tools in support of national, regional, and local priorities and stakeholder needs.

Circular↗

USGS2017

Engaging the user community for advancing societal applications of the Surface Water Ocean Topography mission

Scheduled for launch in 2021, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will be a truly unique mission that will provide high-temporal-frequency maps of surface water extents and elevation variations of global water bodies (lakes/reservoirs, rivers, estuaries, oceans, and sea ice) at higher spatial resolution than is available with current technologies (Biancamaria et al. 2016; Alsdorf et al. 2007). The primary instrument on SWOT is based on a Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIN), which uses radar interferometery technology. The satellite will fly two radar antennas at either end of a 10-m (33 ft) mast, allowing it to measure the elevation of the surface along a 120-km (75 mi)-wide swath below. The availability of high-frequency and high-resolution maps of elevations and extents for surface water bodies and oceans will present unique opportunities to address numerous societally relevant challenges around the globe (Srinivasan et al. 2015). These opportunities may include such diverse and far-ranging applications as fisheries management, flood inundation mapping/risk mitigation/forecasting, wildlife conservation, global data assimilation for improving forecast of ocean tides and weather, reservoir management, climate change impacts and adaptation, and river discharge estimation, among others. Although SWOT is a research mission and not scheduled for launch for another 4 years, there is a need to build engagement within the application community now and to explore how best to advance the societal relevance and benefits of the SWOT mission from concept to reality. The SWOT Applications Working Group organized a workshop on 5–6 April 2017 at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) headquarters in Reston, Virginia. The goal of the workshop was to understand and communicate how the applications community can use SWOT data to address problems of profound societal relevance.

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society↗

USGS2016

Rating curve uncertainty: A comparison of estimation methods

The USGS is engaged in both internal development and collaborative efforts to evaluate existing methods for characterizing the uncertainty of streamflow measurements (gaugings), stage-discharge relations (ratings), and, ultimately, the streamflow records derived from them. This paper provides a brief overview of two candidate methods that may be used to characterize the uncertainty of ratings, and illustrates the results of their application to the ratings of the two USGS streamgages.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2016

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2008–November 30, 2009

A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In addition, the Decree authorizes diversions of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master will furnish reports to the Court, not less frequently than annually. This report is the 56th Annual Report of the River Master of the Delaware River. It covers the 2009 River Master report year, the period from December 1, 2008, to November 30, 2009. During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 50.89 inches (in.) or 116 percent of the long-term average. Combined storage in Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs remained high throughout the year and did not decline below 80 percent of combined capacity at any time. Delaware River operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP). Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and New Jersey were in full compliance with the Decree. Reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the flow objective for the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey, on 25 days during the report year. Releases were made at conservation rates—rates designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs—on all other days. During the report year, New York City and New Jersey complied fully with the terms of the Decree, and directives and requests of the River Master. As part of a long-term program, the quality of water in the Delaware Estuary between Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at various locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four sites. In addition, selected water-quality data were collected at 22 sites on a monthly basis. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) collects monthly samples from March through October at 22 sites between Biles Channel and South Brown Shoal. Samples were collected and analyzed by the State of Delaware for the DRBC. At each site, water samples were collected at a single point near the center of the channel near the surface and analyzed for selected physical properties, and chemical and biological constituents including routine chemical substances, nutrients and bacteria. These consist of analyses of field measurements and laboratory determinations.

Delaware River↗

USGS2014

Estimating magnitude and frequency of floods using the PeakFQ 7.0 program

Flood-frequency analysis provides information about the magnitude and frequency of flood discharges based on records of annual maximum instantaneous peak discharges collected at streamgages. The information is essential for defining flood-hazard areas, for managing floodplains, and for designing bridges, culverts, dams, levees, and other flood-control structures. Bulletin 17B (B17B) of the Interagency Advisory Committee on Water Data (IACWD; 1982) codifies the standard methodology for conducting flood-frequency studies in the United States. B17B specifies that annual peak-flow data are to be fit to a log-Pearson Type III distribution. Specific methods are also prescribed for improving skew estimates using regional skew information, tests for high and low outliers, adjustments for low outliers and zero flows, and procedures for incorporating historical flood information. The authors of B17B identified various needs for methodological improvement and recommended additional study. In response to these needs, the Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI, successor to IACWD; http://acwi.gov/ , Subcommittee on Hydrology (SOH), Hydrologic Frequency Analysis Work Group (HFAWG), has recommended modest changes to B17B. These changes include adoption of a generalized method-of-moments estimator denoted the Expected Moments Algorithm (EMA) (Cohn and others, 1997) and a generalized version of the Grubbs-Beck test for low outliers (Cohn and others, 2013). The SOH requested that the USGS implement these changes in a user-friendly, publicly accessible program.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2014

The USGS at Embudo, New Mexico: 125 years of systematic streamgaging in the United States

John Wesley Powell, second Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, had a vision for the Western United States. In the late 1800s, Powell explored the West as head of the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. He devoted a large part of “Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States with a more detailed account of the land of Utah with maps,” his 1878 report to the General Land Office on the lands west of the 100th meridian, to the feasibility of “reclaiming” large portions of this arid land. Powell recognized that the availability of water was key to the wise settlement of the region. He proposed to inventory all streams in the West to evaluate the potential for irrigation. The essential first step was to gage the flows of the rivers and streams. A few cities in the Eastern United States had established primitive streamgages as early as the 1870s to acquire data needed for the design of their water supply systems. Their methods generally used constructed channels and dams to enable accurate gaging. These methods were not feasible in the West, and certainly not on the vast scale and extreme range of flows common to western streams. New, more flexible techniques were needed. A site was chosen where these methods could be worked out and developed in a practical setting.

New Mexico↗

USGS2014

Using science to strengthen our Nation's resilience to tomorrow's challenges: understanding and preparing for coastal impacts

Hurricane Sandy caused unprecedented damage across some of the most densely populated coastal areas of the northeastern United States. The costly, landscape-altering destruction left in the wake of this storm is a stark reminder of our Nation’s need to become more resilient as we inevitably face future coastal hazards. As our Nation recovers from this devastating natural disaster, it is clear that accurate scientific information is essential as we seek to identify and develop strategies to address trends in coastal landscape change and reduce our future vulnerability to major storm events. To address this need, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) received $43.2 million in supplemental appropriations from the Department of the Interior (DOI) to conduct the scientific research needed to guide response, recovery, and rebuilding activities and to develop effective strategies for protecting coastal communities and resources in the future. This fact sheet describes how the USGS is combining interdisciplinary science with state-of-the-art technologies to achieve a comprehensive understanding of coastal change caused by Hurricane Sandy. By assessing coastal change impacts through research and by developing tools that enhance our science capabilities, support coastal stakeholders, and facilitate effective decision making, we continue to build a greater understanding of the processes at work across our Nation’s complex coastal environment—from wetlands, estuaries, barrier islands, and nearshore marine areas to infrastructure and human communities. This improved understanding will increase our resilience as we prepare for future short-term, extreme events as well as long-term coastal change.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2014

Assessing inundation hazards to nuclear powerplant sites using geologically extended histories of riverine floods, tsunamis, and storm surges

Most nuclear powerplants in the United States are near rivers, large lakes, or oceans. As evident from the Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, disaster of 2011, these water bodies pose inundation threats. Geologic records can extend knowledge of rare hazards from flooding, storm surges, and tsunamis. This knowledge can aid in assessing the safety of critical structures such as dams and energy plants, for which even remotely possible hazards are pertinent. Quantitative analysis of inundation from geologic records perhaps is most developed for and applied to riverine flood hazards, but because of recent natural disasters, geologic investigations also are now used widely for understanding tsunami hazards and coastal storm surges. Layered sedimentary deposits commonly give the most complete geologic record of large floods, storm surges, and tsunamis. Sedimentary layers may be preserved for hundreds or thousands of years in suitable depositional environments, thereby providing an archive of rare, high-magnitude events. All inundation hazards discussed in this report—riverine floods, tsunamis, and storm surges—have had long records extracted from sedimentary sequences, many specifically for hazard assessment. Geologic records commonly are imprecise, so most hazard assessments benefit from evaluation of many sites and rigorous uncertainty assessment. Despite uncertainties, geologic records commonly can improve knowledge of the types and magnitudes of hazards threatening specific sites or regions. New statistical tools and approaches can efficiently incorporate geologic information into frequency assessments. These tools are most developed for riverine flood hazards, but are to some degree transferable to other episodic natural phenomena such as tsunamis and storm surges. Even with these efficient statistical approaches for examining geologic records, systematic landscape changes may reduce the applicability of retrospective assessments. These non-stationarity issues (such as climate change, sea‑level rise, land-use, dams and flow regulation) may all affect the validity of using past experience—no matter how complete the record—to assess future likelihoods. These issues require site-specific consideration for nearly all hazard assessments drawn from geologic evidence. A screening of the 104 nuclear powerplants in the United States licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (at 64 sites) indicates several sites for which paleoflood studies likely would provide additional flood-frequency information. Two sites—Duane Arnold, Iowa, on the Cedar River; and David-Besse, Ohio, on the Toussaint River—have geologic conditions suitable for creating and preserving stratigraphic records of flooding and few upstream dams that may complicate flood-frequency analysis. One site—Crystal River, Florida1, on the Withlacoochee River and only 4 kilometers from the coast—has high potential as a candidate for assessing riverine and marine inundation hazards. Several sites on the Mississippi River have high geologic potential, but upstream dams almost certainly now regulate peak flows. Nevertheless, studies on the Mississippi River to evaluate long-term flood frequency may provide results applicable to a wide spectrum of regional hazard issues. Several sites in the southeastern United States have high geologic potential, and studies at these sites also may be helpful in evaluating hazards from outburst floods from landslide dams (river blockages formed by mass movements), which may be a regional hazard. For all these sites, closer investigation and field reconnaissance would be needed to confirm suitable deposits and settings for a complete paleoflood analysis. Similar screenings may help identify high-potential sites for geologic investigations of tsunami and storm-surge hazards.

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2012

Calculating weighted estimates of peak streamflow statistics

According to the Federal guidelines for flood-frequency estimation, the uncertainty of peak streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent annual exceedance probability (AEP) flow at a streamgage, can be reduced by combining the at-site estimate with the regional regression estimate to obtain a weighted estimate of the flow statistic. The procedure assumes the estimates are independent, which is reasonable in most practical situations. The purpose of this publication is to describe and make available a method for calculating a weighted estimate from the uncertainty or variance of the two independent estimates.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2010

USGS perspectives on an integrated approach to watershed and coastal management

The writers discuss three critically important steps necessary for achieving the goal for improved integrated approaches on watershed and coastal protection and management. These steps involve modernization of monitoring networks, creation of common data and web services infrastructures, and development of modeling, assessment, and research tools. Long-term monitoring is needed for tracking the effectiveness approaches for controlling land-based sources of nutrients, contaminants, and invasive species. The integration of mapping and monitoring with conceptual and mathematical models, and multidisciplinary assessments is important in making well-informed decisions. Moreover, a better integrated data network is essential for mapping, statistical, and modeling applications, and timely dissemination of data and information products to a broad community of users.

Marine Technology Society Journal↗

USGS2009

Mapping Hurricane Rita inland storm tide

Flood‐inundation data are most useful for decision makers when presented in the context of maps of affected communities and (or) areas. But because the data are scarce and rarely cover the full extent of the flooding, interpolation and extrapolation of the information are needed. Many geographic information systems provide various interpolation tools, but these tools often ignore the effects of the topographic and hydraulic features that influence flooding. A barrier mapping method was developed to improve maps of storm tide produced by Hurricane Rita. Maps were developed for the maximum storm tide and at 3‐h intervals from midnight (00:00 hours) through noon (12:00 hours) on 24 September 2005. The improved maps depict storm‐tide elevations and the extent of flooding. The extent of storm‐tide inundation from the improved maximum storm‐tide map was compared with the extent of flood inundation from a map prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The boundaries from these two maps generally compared quite well especially along the Calcasieu River. Also a cross‐section profile that parallels the Louisiana coast was developed from the maximum storm‐tide map and included FEMA high‐water marks.

Louisiana↗

USGS2008

Monitoring inland storm surge and flooding from Hurricane Ike in Texas and Louisiana, September 2008

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) deployed a temporary monitoring network of 117 pressure transducers (sensors) at 65 sites over an area of about 5,000 square miles to record the timing, areal extent, and magnitude of inland hurricane storm surge and coastal flooding generated by Hurricane Ike, which struck southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana September 12-13, 2008. Fifty-six sites were in Texas and nine were in Louisiana. Sites were categorized as surge, riverine, or beach/wave on the basis of proximity to the Gulf Coast. One-hundred five sensors from 59 sites (fig. 1) were recovered; 12 sensors from six sites either were lost during the storm or were not retrieved. All 59 sites (41 surge, 10 riverine, 8 beach/wave) had sensors to record water pressure (fig. 2), which is expressed as water level in feet above North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88), and 46 sites had an additional sensor to record barometric pressure, expressed in pounds per square inch. Figure 3 shows an example of water level and barometric pressure over time recorded by sensors during the storm.

Louisiana, Texas↗

USGS2008

Monitoring Inland Storm Surge and Flooding From Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana, September 2008

On August 29-31, 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) deployed a mobile monitoring network consisting of 124 pressure transducers (sensors) (figs. 1, 2) at 80 sites over an area of about 4,200 square miles to record the timing, extent, and magnitude of inland hurricane storm surge and coastal flooding generated by Hurricane Gustav, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana on September 1. One-hundred twenty-one sensors from 61 sites (fig. 3) were recovered. Thirty-seven sites from which sensors were recovered were in the New Orleans area, and the remaining 24 sites were distributed throughout southeastern Louisiana. Sites were categorized as surge (21), riverine flooding (18), anthropogenic (affected by the operation of gates or pumps) (17), or mixed/uncertain on the basis of field observations and the appearance of the water-level data (5).

Open-File Report↗