Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br /> <br />as possible. With a finite budget for the network, the indiviciual stream <br /> <br />gages compete, in the mind of the manager of the network, for the available <br /> <br />manpower and money. The manager's decision then becomes the allocation <br /> <br />of the funds such that uncertainties at the individual station are reciuced <br /> <br />as much as possible without doing undue harm to the other stream-gaging <br /> <br />records. <br /> <br />Efficient allocation of the stream-gaging budget. <br /> <br /> <br />Ideally, the total uncertainty in the network could be minimized <br /> <br /> <br />if funds were adjusted among gages such that the rate of change of <br /> <br /> <br />uncertainty with increased funding would be equal at all gages. However, <br /> <br />funds are allocated in countable units of varying magnitudes so that <br /> <br />derivatives with resrect to funding do not exist. For example, a hydro- <br /> <br />grapher does not make two-thirds of a trip to a stream gage or one-sixteenth <br /> <br />of a discharge measurement in order to attain a particular cost of operation. <br /> <br />Therefore, the budget is expended in integer multiples of unit costs of <br /> <br />travel and unit costs of a station visit. <br /> <br />Other aspects of the problem are also integer valued. For example, <br /> <br />neither the hydrographer nor the field vehicle are available in less than <br /> <br />unit increments. However, for the purpose of this study it is assumed that <br /> <br />the time that a hydrographer and his vehicle are used in the network are <br /> <br />divisable. Any unused time is assumed to be spent on duties not pertaining <br /> <br />to the network. <br /> <br />The problem is further confounded by the fact that the hydrographer <br /> <br />does not always take the same route to arrive at the stream gage. The <br /> <br />routing depends on the combination of stream gages and perhaps even other <br /> <br />activities that the hydrographer must attend on a particular trip. Thus <br /> <br />8 <br />