Developing the hydrological dependency structure between streamgage and reservoir networks

Reliable operation of physical infrastructures such as reservoirs, dikes, nuclear power plants positioned along a river network depends on monitoring riverine conditions and infrastructure interdependency with the river network, especially during hydrologic extremes. Developing this cascading interdependency between the riverine conditions and infrastructures for a large watershed is challenging, as conventional tools (e.g., watershed delineation) do not provide the relative topographic information on infrastructures along the river network. Here, we present a generic geo-processing tool that systematically combines three geospatial layers: topographic information from the National Hydrographic Dataset (NHDPlusV2), streamgages from the USGS National Water Information System, and reservoirs from the National Inventory of Dams, to develop the interdependency between reservoirs and streamgages along the river network for upper and lower Colorado River Basin (CRB) resulting in River and Infrastructure Connectivity Network (RICON) that shows the said interdependency as a concise edge list for the CRB. Another contribution of this study is an algorithm for developing the cascading interdependency between infrastructure and riverine networks to support their management and operation.