Data for Specific Gage Analysis on the Patapsco River, 2010-2017

The U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with American Rivers and other partners, conducted a monitoring program beginning in 2010 to track river response to a series of dam removals on the Patapsco River intended to restore anadromous fish habitat in the watershed. Dam removals included the November 2010 removal of the Simkins dam, a 3.3 m tall and 66 m wide dam, with a reservoir sediment volume of ~67,000 cubic meters. As part of the dam removal monitoring program, three USGS streamgaging stations were established in late 2010 along the mainstem of the Patapsco River to estimate flow and suspended sediment-transport for constraining sediment budgets. USGS 01589000 Patapsco River at Hollofield, MD was reestablished 6 km upstream of the former Simkins dam at a gage location with flow records dating from 1944 and was intended as an upstream reference for the effects of the dam removal sediment pulse. USGS 01589025 Patapsco River near Catonsville, MD was newly constructed at a location ~ 0.5 km downriver of the Simkins dam and was installed to measure sediment released by the Simkins removal. USGS 01589035 Patapsco River near Elkridge, MD was constructed ~5.5 km downstream of the Simkins dam, ~4.2 km downstream of the Bloede dam, and at a lower-gradient reach of the lower Patapsco in the transition from the Piedmont physiographic province into the Coastal Plain. Data collected at the three USGS streamgages were then examined with Specific Stage Analysis, Specific Discharge Analysis, and Field Measurement Analysis, collectively termed Specific Gage Analyses, to track the sediment pulse and changes to river condition through time following the Simkins dam removal. This data release contains five tabular datasets covering the raw snapshot of data obtained from the National Water Information System (NWIS) at the three gages at unit-value (uv_data.csv) and daily-value (dv_data.csv) time scales, results of Specific Stage (Specific_Stage_results.csv) and Specific Discharge Analyses (Specific_Discharge_results.csv), and combined input and results of the Field Measurement Analysis (meas_data_analysis.csv). Data of surveyed field cross sections collected by collaborative research partners (NOAA_CrossSections_Combined.csv) are also provided as ground-truth validation for the Specific Gage Analyses.