Closer Look at the Baseflow Correlation Method
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12, Issue 2
Abstract
In 2003, Reilly and Kroll examined the baseflow correlation method at river sites throughout the United States. The current study reexamines Reilly and Kroll’s baseflow correlation experiment by investigating the use of different performance metrics, experimental parameters, and model assumptions that were not investigated by Reilly and Kroll. The goal of this study is to provide additional guidance on how to implement the baseflow correlation method in practice. The results confirm that baseflow measurements should be obtained during low flow seasons and as far as possible from runoff events. When one has only five baseflow measurements at the low-flow partial-record site, the correlation coefficient between baseflows at gauged and low-flow partial-record sites should be at least 0.9; when the number of baseflow measurements is 10 or more, the method performs adequately if the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.6. The performance of the baseflow correlation method improves as the number of baseflow measurements increases, but levels off dramatically when one has more than 10 measurements.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to acknowledge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDR825888), the U.S. Geological Survey State Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Program (Grant No. UNSPECIFIED2003NY33G), and the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) Program (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDNYR-2005-03897) which provided financial assistance to this research. This research has not been subjected to any EPA, USGS, or USDA review, and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of those agencies, and no official endorsement should be inferred. The writers would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided comments that improved this manuscript.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12 • Issue 2 • March 2007
Pages: 190 - 196
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 1, 2005
Accepted: May 16, 2006
Published online: Mar 1, 2007
Published in print: Mar 2007
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