Introduction
Water plays a central role in all activities within a watershed. The rain that falls on the ground flows through the river and sustains all forms of life. All physical and biological activities within a watershed are intimately connected to water. Therefore, the knowledge of its occurrence, distribution, movement and functions is indispensable in understanding a watershed and all the living beings therein.
Certain aspects of the water can be measured such as rainfall, streamflow and the accumulated snow on the ground. These data can be analyzed to understand various aspects of the water cycle (or hydrologic cycle) and their impacts on the watershed. Within the Rideau Valley Watershed, water level and stream flow, precipitation, snowpack and baseflow have been systematically recorded for many years.
The water flow in rivers, for most of the time, is usually taken for granted and poses no particular problem. However, its scarcity (droughts) or over-abundance (floods) can cause problems. Monitoring streamflow and precipitation allows water managers to identify risk-prone areas and better respond to drought or flood conditions. Some flood related information is available now in WIS. More information on both flood and drought conditions will be available in future as they are generated and compiled.
At present, only raw water level and streamflow data, reported in near-real time with the view of assessing flood/drought conditions, are presented in WIMS. In future, more useful statistical analyses based on collected raw data will be made available.
In this section, you will get an understanding of what particular data mean and be able to access datasets for the various monitoring sites in the watershed. Also, you will get an explanation of what engineered flood risk maps are and find out how to view them and get copies.
|
