Talk:Stream gauge

Gage -> gauge
I propose changing the article to "stream gauge" because "gauge" is used throughout the British english-speaking world, and from my experience in most American english-speaking cases too. To illustrate, here are numbers of records brought up by Web of Science searches (which search words in titles or abstracts of articles in peer reviewed journals): Daniel Collins 16:03, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
 * "stream gage" = 13
 * "stream gauge" = 21
 * "gage" + "discharge" = 38
 * "gauge" + "discharge" = 226
 * "gage" + ("river" or "channel" or "stream") = 88
 * "gauge" + ("river" or "channel" or "stream") = 802

gage vs gauge
If anything, I think it should be cross-listed with both spellings. Most agencies in the United States use the spelling "gage" and not "gauge". For example, both the USGS and Corps of Engineers use this spelling in all their data dissemination, as does the Bureau of Reclamation. The majority of people who use Wikipedia for their definitions are not academics but rather interested citizenry or non-water types who will often have been to a USGS web site for real-time streamflow data and want to know more about how this data is collected. They will refer to it in a Wikepedia search as "gage" not "gauge". As to the origin of this derivation of the spelling....Around 1892, F.H. Newell (first USGS Chief Hydraulic Engineer and first Director of what is now the Bureau of Reclamation) is purported to be the person responsible for the USGS adopting the spelling of “gage” instead of “gauge”. Newell reasoned that “gage” was the Saxon spelling before the Norman influence added a ‘u’ to the spelling. Robert Follansbee (“A History of the Water Resources Branch, U.S. Geological Survey: Volume I, From Predecessor Surveys to June 30, 1919”, 1994) speculated that Newell may have been also influenced by the adoption of “gage” by the Standard Dictionary (1893).

Robert Holmes 130.11.160.14 20:59, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposed merger of Gauging station and this article
Both this article and the gauging station article appear to be referring to the same thing. As I understand it, the term gauging station is the most widely used term in the UK. The gauging station article is a stub and I am proposing to move any unique information from there to this article. The gauging station article would be replaced with a redirect to here. Mertbiol (talk) 12:36, 21 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Merge completed Mertbiol (talk) 10:46, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

locale category
Not my article, but this doesn't seem to fit the locale_(geography) category, either by definition or by comparison. Should that category be removed? Brennalhughes (talk) 07:21, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

Rating curve shift, temporary shift, and override
The article misses an important standard operating procedure that is followed by the Water Survey of Canada (and perhaps USGS) and is not widely known to end users who use the streamflow data or from other geographical locations. I would summarize this in the following which can be added to the article:

The relationship between stage and streamflow may change over time due to the changes in the natural cross-section of rivers, and therefore, rating curves are re-adjusted over time if needed. Either a new rating curve should be created or base rating curves should be shifted to accommodate new stage and streamflow measurements. In addition to the change of rating curves over time, shorter-term changes such as backwater, vegetation growth, or ice may result in stage and streamflow relationships to depart from established rating curves. Some institutions such as the Water Survey of Canada, WSC, uses temporary shift to adjust the rating curves over the stage axis to accommodate the temporary changes. In addition, override methods are used to further correct the streamflow that may not follow the rating curve strictly.

--ShervanGharari (talk) 22:13, 29 August 2023 (UTC)