WRRC Seminar - Surface-water availability during low-flow conditions

April 17, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Watanabe 112

Surface-water availability during low-flow conditions: Case study in Anahola Stream, Kaua‘i, and Hawai‘i statewide application

Presented by Chui Ling Cheng Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Islands Water Science Center

Surface-water uses during low-flow conditions greatly influence water availability for ecosystems, aquatic biota, and people. To sustainably manage Hawai‘i’s water resources for current and future needs, reliable estimates of natural streamflow are needed to quantify surface-water availability in Hawai‘i. Because the cost of maintaining continuous-record stream-gaging stations on all streams is prohibitive, cost-effective methods for estimating the low-flow characteristics are needed. Record-augmentation techniques are commonly used to estimate long-term discharges at sites with short-term record or partial-record streamflow data. The first part of the presentation will focus on a case study that applied record-augmentation techniques for characterizing natural low-flow availability in Anahola Stream, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i. Additional discharge measurements were collected during the study period that were used to determine the presence of gaining and losing reaches in the stream. Regionalization techniques provide estimates of low-flow duration discharges based on data collected at gaged streams in similar hydrologic settings.These estimates can be used to characterize streamflow availability for streams where gaging-station streamflow data do not currently exist. The second part of the presentation will focus on a recent U.S. Geological Survey proposal that applies regional regression techniques for estimating low-flow characteristics at Hawaiian streams with no existing streamflow data. Chui Ling Cheng received her Master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa in 2007. For three years, she was on the staff at the Hawai‘i State Department of Land and Natural Resources, Commission on Water Resource Management. Her work involved water policy issues, in particular, establishing instream-flow standards in the east Maui area. Currently, she is a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Islands Water Science Center. Her research covers mainly surface-water hydrology.


Event Sponsor
Water Resources Research Center, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Philip Moravcik, 956-3097, morav@hawaii.edu

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