Rivers & Streamflow
Rivers on TerraPulse are organized into the streamgauge Locationdex — one slot per
gauging station, each a fixed monitoring point that has actually measured the flow and
level of a river, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. No estimates, no forecasts.
The dexes
The network lives in a single Locationdex, one slot per gauging station. Counts are live and grow as stations come online:
| Dex | Holds | Stations |
|---|---|---|
streamgauge | USGS river and stream gauging stations | 9,478 |
That is 9,478 gauging stations across the United States, each a real, sited instrument reporting the water it measures.
Provenance
Every station traces to the USGS — its national network of streamgauges and Water Services feed, which report river discharge and stage at fixed sites across the country, many updating every 15 minutes. Both sources are registered against the dex, so any record on TerraPulse carries a direct line back to the originating USGS gauge.
What’s in a record
Each station slot carries:
- Site — station number and name
- Location — latitude, longitude, and the drainage basin it sits in
- Discharge — river flow in cubic feet per second
- Gage height — water level in feet
- Stream order — where known, its position in the river network
- Reporting cadence — how often the site transmits