Characteristics of U.S. Geological Survey Discharge Measurements for Water Year 1990

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Resources Division makes ten of thousands of stream discharge measurements each year throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The majority of the measurements requires the use of point velocity instrumentation. Interest in new instrumentation technology and the performance of in-use instrumentation prompted a survey of current-meter usage and discharge measurement data for water year 1990. This paper is a summary of survey results: the velocity, discharge and depth ranges measured; the types of meters used; and the measurement problems encountered