THE NATIONAL BASIN DELINEATION PROJECT

The National Basin Delineation Project (NBDP) was undertaken by the National Severe Storms Laboratory to define flash-flood-scale basin boundaries for the country in support of the National Weather Service (NWS) Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) system. FFMP-averaged basin rainfall calcul...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2005-10, Vol.86 (10), p.1443-1452
Main Authors: Arthur, Ami T., Cox, Gina M., Kuhnert, Nathan R., Slayter, David L., Howard, Kenneth W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basins
Bodies of water
Boundaries
Coastal zone
Datasets
Elevation
Flash floods
Floods
Geographic information systems
Geological surveys
Instruments
Radar
Rain
Remote sensing
Scale models
Streams
Structural basins
Topographical elevation
Watershed hydrology
Weather forecasting
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The National Basin Delineation Project (NBDP) was undertaken by the National Severe Storms Laboratory to define flash-flood-scale basin boundaries for the country in support of the National Weather Service (NWS) Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) system. FFMP-averaged basin rainfall calculations allow NWS forecasters to monitor precipitation in flash-flood-scale basins, improving their ability to make accurate and timely flash-flood-warning decisions. The NBDP was accomplished through a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (EDC). The one-arc-second (approximately 30 m)-resolution digital terrain data in the EDC's National Elevation Dataset provided the basis for derivation of the following digital maps using a geographic information system: 1) a grid of hydrologically conditioned elevation values (all grid cells have a definned flow direction), 2) a grid of flow direction indicating which of eight directions water will travel based on slope, 3) a grid of flow accumulation containing a count of the number of upstream grid cells contributing flow to each grid cell, 4) synthetic streamlines derived from the flow accumulation grid, and 5) flash-flood-scale basin boundaries. Special techniques were applied in coastal areas and closed basins (basins with no outflow) to ensure the accuracy of derived basins and streams. Codifying each basin with a unique identifier and including hydrologic connectivity information produced a versatile, seamless dataset for use in FFMP and other national applications.
ISSN:0003-0007
1520-0477
DOI:10.1175/BAMS-86-10-1443