Recovery of Historic Surface-Water Quantity Data of the Helmand River
The objective of this subtask is to recover all surface-water record data associated with past and present surface-water gaging stations in the Helmand River Basin.
Specific objectives are to:
- Obtain station description documentation.
- Obtain daily flow values.
- Obtain stage/discharge ratings.
- Digitize daily flow values.
- Conduct QA/QC and develop stream flow characteristics.
- Serve stream-flow data via NWIS on the Afghan web site.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has provided the surface-water data of 42 stations in PDF and DSS formats for the period 1961-80. Available records for the period prior to 1961 have been retrieved from USGS archives. A total of 49 stations in the Helmand River Basin are known to have some record. Records are digitized and readied for loading into a database (NWIS). Twenty-one stations have been entered into NWIS and are available to the public. These stations all have 10 or more years of record. A link to NWIS (http://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/nwis_gagingstations.php) has been provided to the public. USGS hydrologists developed initial tables and graphs and began writing a report that discusses surface-water volumes and peaks for eleven selected stations within the Helmand Basin.
