ArcView ArcView Tutorial 4: The Instream Flow Reservation Process

 

Data Analysis

A. IFR Data Analysis using SAS

USGS streamflow data are acquired using the following steps:

  1. Look up the waterbody in Alaska Index: Streamflow, Lake Levels, and Water-Quality Records to September 10, 1988. They are listed by both gage number and name. Copy the page with the gage information (make sure you get all pages and file in the reservation folder).

  2. Reference the Internet and download all available data using the USGS site http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis-w/AK/.  Fill in the gage number and click "Retrieve data". Click on "Historical Streamflow Daily Values".  When the years of reference appear, note all record years for the gage. If there are multiple years of record, change the input fields to include all years and select "Tab delimited" and "Date Format yyyy.mm.dd".  File; Save as site #.dta (i.e. 15735000.dta) to the Qstat/19XX/rivername folder you created for the reservation. This file represents all full-year data for the gage.

  3. Look at the years of record available for the gage and reference the USGS document "Water Resources Data Alaska Water Year 19XX" the last year data was available. Make a hard copy of the last full year of record and add it to the reservation file folder. This information will tell you about the history of the gage; for instance, if there have been diversions, if the gage has been washed out, etc. Example in Notebook.

  4. Using the saved USGS streamflow data file (*.dta), statistical analyses are conducted using SAS. Copy site#.dta to H:\BIO\CE_AEB\. Open site#.dta file (use notepad), and look for errors (e.g. deleting any lines AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE not starting with #, see example).  Within the same directory (H:\ BIO\CE_AEB\) find the shortcut file called if1998.sas which is an automated SAS program. Edit the file with notepad and follow the instructions on the first page. Look at Appendix 3 for an example of this document and what to edit (it is at the bottom of the page). Remember that you have to save every time!!!!! 

  5. Double click the if1998.lnk shortcut    to run the SAS module. SAS will output data into a newly created sub-directory (named with the site #), including  graphs automatically printed to your default printer. Make sure you make copies of these graphs as they are difficult to reproduce without re-running the entire SAS module.

  6. Open the gagenumber.log file within this directory with notepad and search for errors or warnings using the find command (Ctrl-f). If errors are found, document them and send the list and the log file as attachment to Allen Bingham by email.

  7. Now open the Word documents in the site# folder. In Explorer, you can select all of them by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each document.  Hit "Enter" to open all of them at once after they are selected. You will format them with the "format word macro" Ctrl-Alt-I. Instructions for creating this macro can be found in Appendix 8. This macro deletes the first blank page, changes font to courier new, and sets font size to 7.  Note: font size 7 is usually not shown in the dropdown menu so simply click your mouse in the text box and type it in.  By default these files will be saved in text (*.txt) format and need to be changed to word documents (*.doc), so use the File; Save as: command.  Do this for each document and print them out. Make a copy of each, putting one in the brown folder and one in a clean copy folder.

  8. Reprinting the graphs that are outputted by SAS is difficult; probably the easiest way is with the replot.sas file; see Appendix 6 for instructions.  The difficulty of this process makes it important to copy the hydrographs after the initial printing.

B. Tennant Analysis

Using data from the SAS output and provided by CE, you will now fill in the t_10rvr.xlt spreadsheet. You can do this one on the computer. When you open it you will note that several of the cells on the first two sheets have red triangles in the upper right corners. Hold the cursor over these and they will tell you what information to input into the cells. This will automatically build the charts on sheets three and four. The "Instream Flow Requirements" data on the second sheet will come from Christopher when he conducts his analysis. The only other thing you need to do is add a title to the charts and make sure that the axes are formatted as per the examples in the appendices.  Save the file as 10_karluk.xls.

 

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