River Coefficients : Observed Data

Following is the appearance of the Observed Data tab of the River Coefficients dialog:

Following is a description of the parameters associated with Observed Data. Refer to the main River Coefficients page for information on other categories of coefficients. To save the changes made when closing this dialog, click OK. To ignore changes, click Cancel.

Observed Hydrology File is the source of stream flow and depth data used for this river segment. Click on the Select button to choose a data file. Note that there is an option of choosing an Observed River Hydrology file (*.ORH) or an Observed Lake Hydrology file (*.OLH). If an assigned observed file is found to not apply to the river segment, use the Clear button to assign no observed data file.

Observed Chemistry File is the source of water quality data used for this river segment. Click on the Select button to choose a data file. Note that there is an option of choosing an Observed River Chemistry file (*.ORC) or an Observed Lake Chemistry file (*.OLC). If an assigned observed file is found to not apply to the river segment, use the Clear button to assign no observed data file.

If a sufficient amount of hydrology and water quality data are available for a location, the observed data can be used as model input. If this option is selected, the simulated flow and water quality are discarded and the observed data are used to characterize the hydrology and water quality at the specified location. To use this feature, click on the checkbox next to Override simulated flow and water quality with observed values. Specify a Maximum Interpolation Period for both hydrology and water quality. The number of days entered determines whether WARMF will estimate discharge and water quality constituents by interpolating between two observations or use the monthly average value. Monthly averages are calculated using either the observed data collected during the Simulation Period or the Entire Data Record. WARMF will adjust the values for parameters with limited or no observations to match the observed Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, or pH data. The user can indicate the relative importance of these Adjustment Priorities by ranking these three parameters using the numbers 1, 2, and 3, with 1 indicating the highest priority.

When the Apply Changes To Selected Rivers button is checked, changes made to the coefficients of the river being edited will be made to all selected rivers. When the Apply Changes To All Rivers button is checked, changes made to the coefficients of the river being edited will be made to all rivers.

See also…

Reservoir Observed Data
Viewing Simulation Results and Observed Data