A new tool is now available to help water managers, land-use planners and many others in mitigating the impact of floods on Pennsylvania residents. Pennsylvania StreamStats, originally released last year by the U.S. Geological Survey, now allows users to obtain flood-flow statistics quickly and easily anywhere in the state.

 

“What used to take hours can now be done accurately in minutes,” explained Marla Stuckey, USGS Hydrologist and StreamStats project lead in Pennsylvania.

 

With this web-based application, users can select locations of interest from an interactive map or enter latitude and longitude to delineate watersheds, determine their characteristics, and obtain stream-flow statistics from regression equations, including flood-flows.

 

Flood-flow statistics commonly used in flood-related projects include the flood-flows occurring, on average, once in 2, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 years.

 

“Intense rainfall during the past several years has resulted in severe flooding in parts of the state, particularly in the Delaware and North Branch Susquehanna River basins in June 2006. So it was very important to get the latest and most up to date flood-flow statistics on the interactive web page,” said Mark Roland, USGS Hydrologist in Pennsylvania.

 

Flood-flow statistics are used by engineers, planners, and hydrologists in many projects. Bridge, dam, and flood-control structure designs, flood insurance studies, and flood-plain management all require accurate flood-flow statistics, which until now, typically were compiled in a time-consuming process over many hours.

 

Watershed characteristics and statistics are used by water resource professionals, but they are also of interest to watershed organizations and the general public. Using Pennsylvania StreamStats, users can determine a watershed’s drainage area in square miles, mean annual precipitation in inches, mean basin elevation in feet, and percentage of carbonate bedrock, forests, urban area, or water storage area in the watershed.

 

“The Pennsylvania Association of Floodplain Managers applauds USGS for their continued commitment to provide high quality data to the citizens of Pennsylvania. Having these statistics available at the click of a button will save time and money allowing for more efficient and effective management of the Commonwealth's floodplains.” said Fran Jones, PAFPM Chairperson, GIS/Data Systems Supervisor, Lycoming County Planning and Community Development.

 

Pennsylvania StreamStats is available online. Information on the method and sources used to obtain the basin and peak-flow streamflow characteristics can also be found online.