Chapter 4 of Water Control Manuals

In an earlier post, I provided an overview of the Corps of Engineers guidance used in reservoir operations and in the development of water control manuals.

Overview of Water Control Manuals

In this post, I provide an overview of the contents of Chapter 4 in water control manuals.

Chapter 4 describes the watershed characteristics.

Pertinent information in this chapter includes:

• Drainage area
• Topography
• Geology and soils
• Reservoir sedimentation data
• Historic climate data including mean, maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall
• Historical floods
• Travel times
• Pertinent information for stream gages and water quality gages
• Population and economic data

Various figures are included in Chapter 4 of the water control manual including rating curves at downstream gages.  A portion of such a curve is shown below.

The recommended sections in Chapter 4 are as follows:

Chapter 4 - Watershed Characteristics

4-01  General Characteristics
4-02  Topography
4-03  Geology and Soils
4-04  Sediment
4-05  Climate
4-06  Storms and Floods
4-07  Runoff Characteristics
4-08  Water Quality
4-09  Channel and Floodway Characteristics
4-10  Upstream Structures
4-11  Downstream Structures
4-12  Economic Data
                Population
                Agriculture
                Industry
                Flood Damages