LiveFreeWeb appEarth & Climate

River Pulse, Coast to Headwaters

Read hydrologic shifts quickly across rivers, rainfall, and coastal conditions.

Read streamflow, tide, and rainfall together. The interface is best for directional interpretation and situational awareness, not for replacing watershed-specific engineering models.

waterhydrologycoastal

Primary decision

Is hydrologic stress building locally, and what is driving it?

Built for

  • water analysts
  • coastal planners
  • resilience teams

Outputs

  • river and tide status view
  • rainfall-linked surge context
  • catchment response snapshots

Data footprint

  • USGS streamflow
  • NOAA tide data
  • rainfall and watershed context

River Pulse, Coast to Headwaters

Blend streamflow, tide, and rainfall to explain hydrologic surges and catchment response

liveuser-facing

Understanding River Hydrology

💧 Flow Measurements

  • Discharge (cfs): Volume of water flowing past a point per second
  • Gage Height: Water level relative to an established datum
  • Stage: Water surface elevation above a reference point
  • Flow Velocity: Speed of water movement downstream

🌊 Tidal Influence

  • Tidal Rivers: Rivers where ocean tides affect flow patterns
  • Backwater Effect: Upstream water levels influenced by downstream conditions
  • Salt Wedge: Saltwater intrusion into freshwater systems
  • Tidal Bore: Wave of tidal water traveling upstream

Flow Conditions Guide

flood
Above flood stage
Potential property damage
high
Above normal flow
Increased erosion potential
normal
Normal seasonal flow
Healthy ecosystem conditions
low
Below normal flow
Stress on aquatic life
drought
Critically low flow
Emergency water restrictions

Currently showing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta • Live USGS and NOAA data

Live Hydrologic Conditions

Data from USGS NWIS and NOAA CO-OPS • Updated every 15 minutes

Use a known USGS site id or choose a monitored gauge from the quick list.

Discharge (cfs)
Awaiting live series
Gage height
Awaiting live series
Tide (m)
Awaiting live series

Live USGS IV data paired with NOAA tide levels for the last ~72 hours.

Understanding Catchment Response

⛈️ Precipitation Response

  • Lag Time: Delay between rainfall and peak flow at gauge
  • Runoff Coefficient: Fraction of rainfall that becomes streamflow
  • Base Flow: Sustained flow from groundwater contributions
  • Storm Hydrograph: Flow pattern during and after precipitation events

🏞️ Landscape Factors

  • Urbanization: Increased runoff and faster response times
  • Forest Cover: Reduces peak flows and increases infiltration
  • Soil Type: Clay vs sand affects water retention and flow timing
  • Topography: Steep slopes increase runoff velocity

⚠️ Flood Safety Reminders

Flood Stages

  • Action Stage: Minor flooding begins, prepare for evacuation
  • Minor Flood: Minimal property damage, roads may close
  • Moderate Flood: Significant property damage likely
  • Major Flood: Extensive property damage, life-threatening conditions

Safety Guidelines

  • • Never attempt to walk or drive through flooded roads
  • • Turn Around, Don't Drown - 6 inches can knock you down
  • • Stay informed with local emergency alerts and warnings
  • • Have an evacuation plan and emergency kit ready

Live Data Sources

USGS NWIS: National Water Information System with real-time streamflow data

Measurements: Discharge, gage height, water temperature, and water quality parameters

NOAA CO-OPS: Tidal and coastal water level measurements

Coverage: Water levels, currents, and meteorological conditions at coastal and Great Lakes stations

Operating brief

Use this like a real decision surface, not a static demo

Read streamflow, tide, and rainfall together. The interface is best for directional interpretation and situational awareness, not for replacing watershed-specific engineering models.

  • Explain river surges with tide and rainfall context in one place
  • Support flood-preparedness briefings with transparent source data
  • Compare coastal and inland drivers before escalation decisions

Outputs

  • river and tide status view
  • rainfall-linked surge context
  • catchment response snapshots

Source inputs

  • USGS streamflow
  • NOAA tide data
  • rainfall and watershed context

Interactive tools designed and built by Terry Chen

Each tool in this section is part of Terry Chen's public portfolio. Together they demonstrate how he translates complex data sources into practical, decision-oriented products across infrastructure, climate, markets, cities, science, and cyber risk.

  • Earthquake Detector: Real-time earthquake monitoring with space-weather context and event replay. This tool demonstrates geospatial risk monitoring, scientific interfaces, and anomaly detection and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Live Biodiversity Spotlight: Track unusual species activity and regional biodiversity shifts from live observations. This tool demonstrates ecological monitoring, anomaly detection, and public-facing scientific storytelling and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Live Grid Carbon and Congestion Atlas: Map electricity carbon intensity with live road congestion for demand shifting and EV charging timing. This tool demonstrates energy systems analytics, geospatial decision support, and infrastructure intelligence and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Extreme Events Dashboard, Atmosphere to Magnetosphere: Unify severe weather alerts, earthquakes, wildfires, and space weather with a coordinated map and timeline. This tool demonstrates multi-source event monitoring, real-time coordination, and resilience analytics and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • River Pulse, Coast to Headwaters: Blend streamflow, tide, and rainfall to explain hydrologic surges and catchment response. This tool demonstrates hydrologic monitoring, environmental intelligence, and sensor-driven dashboards and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Star to Street Skywatch: Correlate light pollution and aurora visibility with space weather, clouds, and urban lighting proxies. This tool demonstrates space-weather analysis, environmental visualization, and exploratory data products and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Heat Risk Planner: Combine apparent temperature, humidity, UV, and AQI to find lower-burden movement windows in a city. This tool demonstrates heat-risk planning, weather interpretation, and public-facing environmental operations and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Fires and Forests Now: Layer active fire detections with land cover and protected areas, and add wind-aware ember previews. This tool demonstrates wildfire monitoring, environmental risk, and geospatial emergency awareness and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Sea and Sky Conditions for Sailors: Coastal dashboard combining buoy data, tide levels, and wind forecasts for trip planning and safety. This tool demonstrates maritime safety, coastal weather interpretation, and operational dashboards and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Global Bikeshare Reliability Monitor: Quantify station reliability across networks, highlight empties and fullness, and surface rebalancing needs. This tool demonstrates mobility analytics, operational reliability, and urban systems design and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Transit Delay Anatomy: Explain delay patterns using GTFS Realtime and incidents, infer dwell, and locate bottlenecks. This tool demonstrates transport analytics, incident correlation, and public operations diagnostics and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • OpenAQ Exposure Explorer: Estimate personal exposure along candidate routes, choose cleaner paths, and manage daily exposure budget. This tool demonstrates air-quality analytics, route optimization, and health-oriented decision support and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Air Quality Watchlist: Compare live AQI baselines across major cities using a consistent forecast source and PM2.5 context. This tool demonstrates air-quality monitoring, comparative city intelligence, and health-oriented dashboard design and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • City Service Heat: Blend 311 requests, crime incidents, and closures into an anomaly lens with privacy-aware binning. This tool demonstrates urban operations, privacy-aware analytics, and civic systems monitoring and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Markets in Motion, Macro Tape Reader: Fuse macro series with FX and crypto ticks to visualize regime shifts and cross market rhythm. This tool demonstrates market intelligence, cross-asset analytics, and high-frequency data storytelling and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Clinical Trials Landscape Today: Summarize recruiting studies by condition, site, and sponsor, and join them to adverse event signals. This tool demonstrates health data intelligence, knowledge synthesis, and evidence navigation and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Trial Site Matcher: Search live studies by condition, then identify sponsor concentration, phase mix, and repeated locations quickly. This tool demonstrates clinical intelligence, study landscape scanning, and evidence-oriented health interfaces and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Science in the Moment: Live discovery feed of new papers and their citation context, with topic maps and influence trails. This tool demonstrates research intelligence, bibliometrics, and knowledge discovery interfaces and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Research Frontier Radar: Scan a scientific frontier live to surface the strongest venues, topics, and papers worth opening next. This tool demonstrates research discovery, frontier scanning, and scholarly signal interpretation and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Vulnerability Feed and Patch Urgency: Rank today’s CVEs by exploit status and vendor impact, then track burn-down of exposure over time. This tool demonstrates cybersecurity operations, risk prioritization, and vulnerability management and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.
  • Patch Window Planner: Use severity, recency, and exploit-like cues to rank a patch queue before it overwhelms operations. This tool demonstrates security prioritization, patch governance, and operational risk communication and reinforces Terry Chen's position as a cross-domain builder working across environmental intelligence, market analytics, civic systems, cybersecurity, and research discovery.