Missouri River Basin Water Accounting System

by Tsong C. Wei, Corps of Engineers, Omaha, NE, USA,
Warren J. Mellema, Corps of Engineers, Omaha, NE, USA,
Donald L. Ohnstad, Corps of Engineers, Omaha, NE, USA,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Engineering Hydrology

Abstract:

A water accounting system was developed for the Missouri River Basin to establish an accurate and acceptable base of information describing water availability and uses, and to provide a system to evaluate the effects and impacts of using additional quantities of water. The system was based on a depletion concept which presumes that the flow at any point in a stream reflects the combination of the surface flow and ground water flow modified by water uses through either man's activities or natural processes upstream of that point in the stream. These water uses are regarded as a streamflow depletion. When the natural depletion remains unchanged, streamflow simply becomes a function of depletions from human activities. By identifying historic depletions and level of human activities or depletors such as population, number of industries, irrigation acreages, and other water consumptive use activities over time, it is possible to evaluate likely effects of additional development on water availability.

Subject Headings: Water resources | Rivers and streams | Water management | Streamflow | Basins | Groundwater flow | Water flow | Missouri River

Services: Buy this book/Buy this article

 

Return to search