Chapter 3

Historical Analysis

Outline:

• Why the need for historical analysis?
  1. Monitoring only occurs over a short period, whereas hydrological processes may occur over long periods.
  2. Things that appear as they do now may have been totally different in the past.
  3. Episodic disturbances may be important but may not be observed during the proposed field monitoring campaign.
  4. Impact of present human uses may depend on historic uses.
  5. Identification of historic pathways provide indications of future pathways.
• Objective of historical analysis
  1. Understand the underlying problem.
  2. Establish realistic goals for proposed/future field work.
  3. Select appropriate study framework and measurement techniques.
• Drainage basin delineation- click here for example
• Overview of Homework #1
• Data Sources for carrying out historical analysis

Textbook reading:

• Chapter 6

Other reading:

• none.
• Here are some useful references:
  • 1) Kondolf, G.M., and M. Larson. 1995. Historical channel analysis and its application to riparian and aquatic habitat restoration. Aquatic Conservation 5:109-126.
  • 2) Alexander, R.B., Slack, J.R., Ludtke, A.S., Fitzgerald, K.K., Schertz, T.L. 1998. Data from selected U.S. Geological Survey national stream water quality monitoring networks.Water Resources Research 34:9:2401-2405.
• Paper topographic maps can also be purchased in Sacramento at the following stores:
  • Recreation Equipment, Inc., 1790 Expo Pkwy (916-924-8900)
  • California Surveying Drafting Supply Inc., 4733 Auburn Blvd (916-344-0232)

Related web links:

• Example of historical analysis
  • Is historical analysis used in government? EPA Watershed Analysis and Management (WAM) framework uses it
  • Is historical analysis used in the consulting and non-profit sector? The San Francisco Estuary Institute has an entire division dedicated to historical ecology
  • Here is an example of a scientific approach to historical analysis done to investigate centennial to millenia watershed sediment fluxes
  • Check out this movie of Population growth in the San Francisco Bay area
  • Check out these graphics showing the historic spread of urbanization over the landscape in Baltimore, MD, the larger Baltimore-Washington, DC metropolitan region, or Chicago, IL.
    Notice the radial lines that indicate the construction of major pathways out of the city. These spurred "satellite" urban development in the region.
• Hydrology Data Sources:
  • Instead of compiling a complete listing of everything out there on the web, I present the most important web sites for hydrology in general and as related to this class in particular.
  • Federal GovernmentGIS & Map Data
    
    • National Map Viewer and Download Platform- zoom in on study site and get any and all publicly available data at the national level
    • USGS San Fransisco Bay Area Regional Database-includes historical digitized topo maps (DRGs), digital elevation data (DEMs), and other historical files that may not be available on the National Map Viewer.
    
    Hydrological Data
    
    • Water Resources of the U.S.- This is the motherlode for all data hydrological at the national level.
    • National Climatic Data Center- THis is the place for weather and climate data, including historical precipitation records at the national level.
    
    State and Local Government
    • Cal-Atlas Geospatial Clearinghouse.
    • California Data Exchange Center- access point to DWR's operational hydrological data.
    Others
  • Dreamflows- real-time streamflow data for the western U.S. including site not available through any other means 

Video Podcast: Historical Analysis

This 38-minute presentation explains the different styles of hydrological behavior revealed through historical analysis as well as several different approaches to getting at this.

• 640 x 480 (480p) format that balances speed and quality. (543 MB file)
• 1920 x 1280 (HD) format that provides larges size and best quality. (4.6 GB file)

Last Chapter  :  Next Chapter