June 8, 2021
Did you know that StreamStats has the ability to incorporate storm drains and culverts in the application? Data processing methods use vectors representing storm drains and culverts and enforce flow directions and "sinks" in the digital elevation model to represent more realistic stream and storm drain connectivity. Users can then delineate a basin which incorporates upstream areas that flow through storm drains (figure 1, below) or delineate a basin showing only direct surface runoff (figure 2, below). The first use of storm drains in StreamStats was developed for the urban areas of St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis as described by Southard and others (2011) in a USGS Scientific Investigations Report. A second urban application is being developed for the Mystic River basin in Massachusetts and following screenshots are from a small pilot region of the Mystic River project. If you're interested in partnering with USGS to develop a local urban application please reach out to your USGS Water Science Center contact or send an email to the StreamStats help email and we'll put you in touch with your WSC.
Figure 1: Delineation on a stream (blue lines) which show the entire basins that contributes to that point through storm drains (orange lines).
Figure 2: Delineation on a stream (blue lines) which show only the direct overland contribution to the stream (does not include flow through storm drains or culverts).