Understanding the Raritan HUC-08 Hydrologic Dynamics and Flow Responses Using an Integrated ArcGIS/USGS National Map Modeling and

Geospatial Analysis Framework Professor Monica A. Mazurek and

Civil Engineering Senior Undergraduates in Elements of Hydrology, Spring 2019Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

Contact: mmazurek@rutgers.edu

Presented at: Resilience and the Raritan,June 7, 2019, Rutgers University,

Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering

Raritan HUC-08

Lower Hudson-Long Island HUC-040203

02030105

Raritan HUC-08

Create Geospatial Mapping, Data Assimilation and Analysis Tools Using ESRI ArcGIS Desktop

Enabled by Rutgers University site license for ArcGIS Advanced Desktop with support from School of Engineering and Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering for modern computer classroom, Weeks Hall Room 404.

Multi-tiered attribute layers created from USGS The National Map (Geodatabases for NHDHR-HUC 0203, 0202, 0204), ESRI Online ArcGIS basemaps, and ESRI Live Steam Gauges Feature Service. Map layers and other Raritan HUC-08 maps and geodatabases saved as map packages in Elements of Hydrology group and posted in Rutgers ESRI Cloud.

Query Merged Map Layers to Select Live Stream Gauges in Raritan HUC-08

There are 75 Live Stream Gauges (USGS and NOAA NWS) and 39 HUC-12 subbasins in the Raritan HUC-08. NHDHR geodatabase data at the HUC-12 scale was used to find hydrologic flow networks

Hydrologic changes in flow characteristics in the Raritan Subbasin Hydrologic Unit Code-08 (HUC-08) are attributable to complex interactions within drainage areas. Weather, climate, landuse, soil type, and geophysical characteristics, are key factors influencing surface water resources in New Jersey over time. Increasingly, geosystems-based mapping and analysis tools such as ArcGIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA) and datasets from federal agencies (USGS, NOAA, USDA) are available to the research community to build integrative hydrologic network and modeling approaches aimed at understanding how and why surface flow is changing over time spans of interest.

Analysis Approach & Results:Live Stream Gauge Records as time-series data to better understand how weather, climate and precipitation (Essential Climate Variable) are recorded by an individual gauge in our HUC12.

Can we use Annual Discharge time-series data from Gauge USGS 01403060 Raritan River below Calco Dam at Bound Brook NJ, as a surrogate indicator of climate change over period of record 1903-2017 (R^2=0.0064)?

Example for HUC12=020301050506, a subwatershed unit for Raritan HUC-08 (02030105)

FID StationID StationURL StageURL Organization

25917 US01403060 http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/nwisman/?site_no=01403060

http://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/iv/?sites=01403060&parameterCd=00065&format=waterml,2.0

USGS

Live Stream Gauge Link for“USGS 01403060 Raritan River below Calco Dam at Bound Brook NJ”

The hypothesis students tested using the above described modeling, analysis, and datasets was,

Select “Annual Statistics” time series as data product, units as “Discharge, cubicfeet per second”

The hypothesis for this gauge was proven false. This result was consistent with all time-series data evaluated by the students for their individual HUC-12 within a NJ HUC-04. Based on the analyses of the surface water gauge discharge, runoff alone cannot explain historical trends of subwatershed response in New Jersey.