Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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Figure 4-12.
Finney Wildlife Area in southwestern Kansas, United States. Originally designed for a much larger lake,
upstream ground-water pumping has reduced spring l ows, and diversion of surface water has rendered this artii cial
“lake” into a wetland wildlife area. A. During rare wet years, a tiny puddle of water is held behind this dam (see
Color Plate 4-12A). Asterisk indicates position of the outlet tower. Kite airphoto by J.S. Aber. B. No surface water is
present during dry years, which are common. View from dam and outlet tower; photo by J.S. Aber.
4.3 Floods and fl ooding
gauging stations and collects water-resource
data on large rivers and smaller streams at
approximately 1½ million sites throughout the
country (see Fig. 3-26); many of these are auto-
mated with real-time and historical data avail-
able online. Flooding is an entirely natural event
that takes place on most streams every few
years.
Flooding becomes a hazard when high
water leads to human casualties, damage to
structures, and impairment of human land use.
From large rivers to small creeks, streams l ow
into, through or out of nearly all types of palus-
trine wetlands. Thus, stream l ow is intimately
connected with wetland hydrology. Because
most streams and rivers l ood, many wetlands
are subject to l ooding. In fact, l ooding is a
universal phenomenon which may occur in all
climatic regimes and any size or type of drain-
age basin. The U.S. Geological Survey operates
