Minnesota PROJECTS

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USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Surface Water Projects in Minnesota

MN001—USGS-cooperative stream gaging program:  The USGS operates over 100 continuous streamflow, 7 river stage, 12 lake stage, and 83 crest-stage gaging stations in Minnesota through cooperative agreements with State, Federal, local agencies.

MN00106—Basin characteristics: (USGS, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Minnesota Department Natural Resources)–The objective of this project is to create a hydrologically enhanced Digital Elevation Model for use in an automated basin characteristics program (drainage area, area of lakes and wetlands, stream length and stream slope) that will generate 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 year estimated peak-flows on unregulated streams in Minnesota. All data for this project will be available on the USGS Interactive Watershed web page and will be in compliance with the National Watershed Boundary Dataset Standards. Characteristics of the data produced by this project include  
watersheds are part of a nationally consistent digital data set, are nested subdivisions of established Cataloging Units, boundaries based on 1:24,000-scale topographic maps, and have attribute information to identify all upstream and downstream watersheds.

Stream-slope research: (USGS, Minnesota Department of Transportation)—The objective is to analyze the differences between the observed method of determining stream slope and an automated method using hydro enhanced Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Changes in processing and programming procedures will be evaluated for improvements in slope estimation and compatibility with the ArcHydro Data Model and StreamStats web based stream and watershed information.

MN013-Estimating peak flow on small streams in Minnesota: (USGS, Minnesota Department of Transportation) – Study objectives are to produce statistical equations that will be used to estimate the 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-year recurrence interval peak flows on unregulated small streams in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Transportation will use this information for efficient and cost-effective design of bridges, culverts, and roadway embankments. The peak flow estimates are also used for environmental analysis of streams, and sediment transport equations. A report outlining the methods and peak-flow equations was planned for fall 2007. Information used in this report allowed the USGS Water Science Center of Minnesota to implement StreamStats a new web based tool used to estimate high and low flows on unmeasured streams.

MN239—Crow River time of travel: As part of an overall plan for protecting and managing drinking water derived from rivers, the USGS in partnership with the cities of St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota, conducted a time of travel study on the Crow River, a tributary to the Mississippi River. Methods and results in the context of estimating travel times of accidental pollution spills will be published in a final report.
Abstract | Full Report