Namjeong Choi
Frank L. Engel
2019
<html><body><p class="BodyText">Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States. The Medina River in Bandera County, Texas, is in the Edwards Plateau, where high-intensity rain rates and steep terrain frequently contribute to severe flash flooding capable of causing loss of life and property. For example, the July 5, 2002, flood claimed a total of 12 lives in the central Texas area. The estimated peak discharge during this flood at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow-gaging station 08178880 Medina River at Bandera, Tex., was 159,000 cubic feet per second (corresponding to a stage or gage height of 38.91 feet), causing significant flooding in Bandera near Mud Creek and farther downstream.</p><p class="BodyText">In 2018, the USGS, in cooperation with the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District and the Texas Water Development Board, developed a flood early-warning toolset to enhance the communication of flood risk and provide emergency management with additional information to improve flood response and mitigation. This toolset consists of a continuous streamflow-gage monitoring network, a well-calibrated hydraulic model of the Medina River, and a flood-inundation mapper application for the study area. A library of flood-inundation maps tied to the National Weather Service river stage forecast capability is included with the toolset.</p></body></html>
application/pdf
10.3133/fs20193043
en
U.S. Geological Survey
Flood warning toolset for the Medina River in Bandera County, Texas
reports