DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL, DYNAMIC RESERVOIR-SEDIMENTATION DATABASE

Abstract

The importance of dependable, long-term water supplies, coupled with the need to quantify rates of capacity loss of the Nation's reservoirs due to sediment deposition, were the most compelling reasons for developing the REServoir-SEDimentation survey information (RESSED) database and website. Created under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on Water Information's Subcommittee on Sedimentation by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the RESSED database is the most comprehensive compilation of data from reservoir bathymetric and dry-basin surveys in the United States. As of March 2010, the database, which contains data compiled on the 1950s vintage Soil Conservation Service's Form SCS-34 data sheets, contained results from 6,616 surveys on 1,823 reservoirs in the United States and two surveys on one reservoir in Puerto Rico. The data span the period 1755-1997, with 95 percent of the surveys performed from 1930-1990. The reservoir surface areas range from sub-hectare-scale farm ponds to 658 km 2 Lake Powell. The data in the RESSED database can be useful for a number of purposes, including calculating changes in reservoir-storage characteristics, quantifying sediment budgets, and estimating erosion rates in a reservoir's watershed.