USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

Bob Hirsch- Changes to the USGS Streamgaging Program

Dr. Robert Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (1994-2008), talks with Jody Eimers about the changes in the USGS streamgaging program over the last 20 years.

Bob Hirsch:

The single most important change in our stream gaging program has been the advent of real time data delivered nationally and freely on the internet. The availability of the stream gaging, not only the current information but also the long-term historical information has opened up tremendous capabilities for scientists, for the public, the interested parties to know what is going on in the rivers.

Another change that has been very important is the way that we make our measurements. We have moved farther and farther from mechanical systems that can easily fail to electronic systems like acoustic technology that measures the velocity of water in the cross sections of the river without any moving parts and we can do it much more swiftly and much more accurately than we could before. So, there has been a tremendous transformation of the technology of our stream gages so that we can deliver this real time data in a very timely manner to people nationwide.

For example, rowers who come to this boathouse they know how to find on the internet, the information not only about the flow of the river, which is critical to the navigability of the river for their rowing but also about the temperature of the river because that's a critical safety issue to them. If the water temperature is too low, it is really unsafe for them to go out without extra protective equipment.

A lot of the important issues of water quality are best – the most important measurements are at times of storm events when water flow is rising rapidly and then declining. And, getting a large number of samples during those events is extremely informative. Today we are beginning to move forward with an ability to measure those things remotely by sensors that are literally located in the water and can measure the water quality without having to send someone out into the field. I think we will always need to have people going into the field to collect the very best samples that we can use to calibrate our measurements.

But, we need much more rapid information about water quality to understand the very rapid changes that occur. We need these so we can assess our success or lack of success in controlling these water quality problems around the nation.

Jody Eimers:

A lot of our advances both with serving data on the internet and our technological advances in stream gaging have originated with those people out in the offices throughout the country.

Bob Hirsch :

That's a great point and I love telling this story about an individual in the U.S.G.S. who was very savvy about the computers and when people like me had not even really heard about the World Wide Web, this is back around 1990, this guy was reading about it and he went into his boss in his local office, happens to be Helena, Montana and he said to his boss, he says,

"I think we could put our stream flow data in real time up on computers and that people at home who are connected to the internet can see them, which will help them prepare for floods and help them know about when to go kayaking or fly fishing. It will help all sorts of people who need this information, including the public utilities that need to draw the water."

"His boss said, "I don't even know what you're talking about, about this World Wide Web thing. But you're a smart guy, take a couple weeks and figure out if you can do it." "

"Well, he succeeded in doing it and then they brought out the local TV station and did a little story about how you can get this information. And he said a couple weeks later, he was in a fly-fishing shop somewhere in Montana, and he saw printouts from our web page on the bulletin board there and it said, oh the flow on the Missouri River at such and such a location is this and that is great for fly-fishing."

"Suddenly all the fly fisherman, the kayakers, the emergency managers, and the ranchers all knew what was happening with stream flow. We realized we had a tremendous new capability to assimilate information and from there it grew organically and then we began to organize on a national basis to have a single interface, so that anybody, anywhere in the country could go and look at the data. So, you can be coming from one part of the country to another part of the country and you would know exactly how to find the data that you needed. "

"To me when I look back at my tenure, having helped this process along it is one of the greatest things that I feel a sense of accomplishment about that we are now able to deliver this kind of information to people."

[End of Audio]

Duration: 5:46 minutes