Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Conference Papers

Browse almost 5,000 conference papers authored by our scientists and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.

Filter Total Items: 5326

Convergance experiments with a hydrodynamic model of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina

A two-demensional, depth-averaged, finite-difference, flow/transport model, SIM2D, is being used to simulate tidal circulation and transport in the Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, estuarine system. Models of a subregion of the Port Royal Sound system have been derived from an earlier-developed model of the entire system having a grid size of 600 ft. The submodels were implemented with grid sizes
Authors
J. K. Lee, R.W. Schaffranek, R.A. Baltzer

Criteria for a sediment data set

The transport of sediment through a hydrologic system or basin is an extremely complex phenomenon. Many factors affect this movement. Criteria are established for an 'ultimate' or complete sediment data set, and guidelines are given for the collection of alluvial data. The paper describes what parameters need to be measured and stored to obtain a complete sediment and hydraulic data set that could
Authors
Douglas G. Glysson

Data-collection program for Pamlico River Estuary model calibration and validation

An investigation is being conducted to collect and interpret continuous records relating to the flow characteristics of the Pamlico River Estuary, North Carolina, and to calibrate and validate a numerical model of estuarine hydrodynamics. The study reach is 50 kilometers long and ranges in width from 330 meters at the upstream boundary to 6.4 kilometers at the downstream end. Water levels are reco
Authors
Jerad D. Bales

Debris is not a cheese: litter in coastal Louisiana

An 18-month study of six Louisiana beaches determined the extent, composition, and possible sources of beach litter. Data showed that from 2590 to 23,154 items may be encountered along any one-mile stretch of Louisiana beach, depending upon location and season, and that densities of litter ranged from 5 to 28 items per 100 m2. Plastics constituted 47% of the total, followed by polystyrene at 16% a
Authors
Dianne M. Lindstedt, Joseph C. Holmes

Depositional aspects and a guide to Paleocene coal-bearing sequences, Powder River Basin

The Paleocene coal-bearing sequences in the northern Powder River Basin are contained in the Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation and include anomalously thick (54 m) subbituminous coals. These thick coals have been the target of exploration and development for the past few decades. For the past decade, these coals have also been the object of depositional modeling studies [Law, 1976; G
Authors
Romeo M. Flores, Peter D. Warwick, Timothy A. Moore

Effect of climate change on watershed runoff

This paper examines forecasts of changes in watershed runoff in the Delaware River basin that result from a range of predicted effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on future precipitation, temperature, and stomatal resistance of plants. A deterministic hydrologic model, TOPMODEL, was driven with stochastic inputs of temperature and precipitation to derive the forecasts. Results in
Authors
D. M. Wolock, M. A. Ayers, L.E. Hay, G. J. McCabe

Effect of flow conditions on stream reaeration coefficients

Contrary to the findings of previous studies of channel-controlled stream reaches, it was found that, in four reaches of a small stream characterized by a series of pools and riffles, reaeration coefficients decrease with decreasing discharge. In the reach with the most pool-and-riffle development, the measured reaeration coefficient under low-flow conditions was 86 percent less than its value dur
Authors
James L. Smoot

Effects of runoff changes and sea level rise on salinity in the Delaware River estuary

The objective of this study is to investigate changes in the spatial distribution of salt in the Delaware Estuary resulting from climate induced changes in freshwater inflows and in the position of mean sea level. The approach adopted for this study is composed of two parts: An analysis of existing physical data in order to derive a basic understanding of the salt dynamics, and numerical simulatio
Authors
Roy A. Walters

Effects of vegetation on floods at four Arizona sites

Four examples show the effect of vegetation on stage, discharge or frequency of floods. An 8-year growth of trees on the streambed at site 1 increased channel roughness enough to cause the average water surface elevations that were computed for 10-year and 100-year floods to be 0.49 and 0.91 meters higher than those for a channel without vegetation. A 6-year growth of vegetation and sediment depos
Authors
B.N. Aldridge

Estimating urban flood-frequency characteristics

Methods in use by the U.S. Geological Survey to estimate flood-frequency characteristics for urban watersheds are compared with estimates based on the Soil Conservation Service TR-55 model. Data from four small urban watersheds in Georgia are used in the flood-peak and hydrograph comparisons.
Authors
M.E. Jennings, J.B. Atkins, E. J. Inman

Exploration computer applications to primary dispersion halos: Kougarok tin prospect, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, USA

Computer processing and high resolution graphics display of geochemical data were used to quickly, accurately, and efficiently obtain important decision-making information for tin (cassiterite) exploration, Seward Peninsula, Alaska (USA). Primary geochemical dispersion patterns were determined for tin-bearing intrusive granite phases of Late Cretaceous age with exploration bedrock lithogeochemistr
Authors
Jeffrey C. Reid

Extraction of terrain features from digital elevation models

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are being used to determine variable inputs for hydrologic models in the Delaware River basin. Recently developed software for analysis of DEMs has been applied to watershed and streamline delineation. The results compare favorably with similar delineations taken from topographic maps. Additionally, output from this software has been used to extract other hydrologic
Authors
Curtis V. Price, David M. Wolock, Mark A. Ayers