Rundall, Jeremiah B., authorParsons, Benjamin E., authorEmerman, Steven H., authorJorgensen, Michael R., authorColorado State University, publisher2020-02-192020-02-192015https://hdl.handle.net/10217/201076http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/2010762015 annual AGU hydrology days was held at Colorado State University on March 23 - March 25, 2015.Includes bibliographical references.The objective of this research is to classify rivers based upon generic gage height-discharge rating curves so as to reduce the number of measurements required for rating curve development. The first step has been classification according to the uniqueness of the gage height-discharge relationship. The USGS National Water Information System database of 3.68 million pairs of gage height vs. discharge measurements at 61,240 gaging stations was imported into a Python-driven data manipulation script, resulting in 15,153 gaging stations after removal of incomplete and inconsistent data. At each gaging station, the linear relationship ZlnGH = mZlnQ = b was determined, where ZlnGH and ZlnQ are the Z-scores of the logarithms of gage height and discharge, respectively. Each linear relationship was converted into a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation equal to m and its standard error, respectively. Summation of the normal distributions showed a single peak at m = 0.991, where m = 1 indicates a unique gage height-discharge relationship. There are no gaging stations with m > 1, equivalent to no gaging stations with variation in discharge without variation in gage height. Over 30% of gaging stations had m < 0.9, indicating significant variation in gage height without variation in discharge. Based on 209 gaging stations in Utah, extreme independence of gage height from discharge (m < 0.6) can be avoiding by not locating gaging stations close to either the upstream or downstream confluence (within 10% of the reach), which precludes the effects of flood waves and reverse flow.born digitalproceedings (reports)engCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.Text