AbstractsEarth & Environmental Science

"In the study of a drainage basin which is to be utilized for water supply or water power, there is frequently a dearth or complete lack of runoff data, though precipitation data are almost always available. The Water Resources Branch of the United States Geological Survey maintains gaging stations on various streams and runoff records from these streams are available from their publications and offices. Many of these runoff records cover a considerable number of years, and are entirely sufficient for use in an analysis of any drainage basin covered by such data. Some of these gaging stations have not been in operation long enough for the records to be of direct use. Unfortunately the vast majority of small streams have no such gaging stations, so an engineer called on to investigate such a stream has little or no information on which to base his design. When this situation exists, the engineer has a natural tendency to overdesign the reservoir structure to such an extent that the project may be abandoned or may be more expensive than necessary. Although the lack of runoff records is common, the United States Weather Bureau has operated rain gages for many years in almost every locality. It is impractical for the Geological Survey to gage every stream or to anticipate 20 or 30 years in advance where runoff records will be needed. Therefore, there exists a need for a simple method of determining runoff from precipitation data with some degree of accuracy. The purpose of this study is to try to develop a method of supplying runoff records by using precipitation data" – Introduction, p. 1-2.