DEBRIS: A Computer Program
for Analyzing Channel Cross Sections
Patrick Deenihan
Thomas E. Lisle
P.0.Box 245
brkeley
California 94701
Research Note
PSW-396
& d m , Patti&; Lisle, Thomas E. 1988. k)GBNS: a computer program for aacalyzing
cbnrzal cross sectwm. Res. Nope PSW-396.
Berkeley, CA: Pacific SautAwest P m r and
ent Station, P m s t Senrice,
U.S.%ar$n&n% d Agriclalwe; 4 p
~
DEB- is a m m u - ~ v e nhtmcrive
,
cornp e rpmq ~ 0 1 m
in F
p1aHing survey
c vwiab1les a d depths of scour and
d e v e l e for use with t
k USDA
Forest Service's Data h e r d connpaea system,
with &e AOSNS v & g system. By using
menus, the cpmtor daes not need to h o w m y
Rehkval T e r n : channel surveys, c m s sections,
scour and fill, ampa pmgms, Dam General
urntilarive descriptions of the form
and hydraulics of stream channels
t invatiably involve surveying and
malgrzing cross sections wrpendicular to
the l d direction of flow. Cross sections
are most commonly surveyed with a selflevelling transit (level), rod, and tape or
soun&ed along a tape or agline strung
between stakes of known elevation.'
Cross =lions provide a multilude of
useful information for hydPologists, fishery biolo@sks,and land use planners. Incowmtion of eke water surfaceelevation
in a s m e y enables one to compute mem
depth, wid&, w e a d p ~ m e k rhydraulic
,
radius, and m w velocity (when stream
k h x g e is mmwed or hown from a
nwby ga@ng s~bon).Hy&aulic vwiables for other i m p m t stages such as
M u l l flow csanbe estimaredby h w i n g
a hokonM line across geomorq?hically
rmognimble &turns, such as the ups of
banks or f l d levels. RepateB
smeys of monumenM cross sections
rn be wed to follow c h n d changes
over %sons, years, or even d m d e ~ . ~
But because they are Wo-amensiond,
single cross s t i o n s m n a adqmtely
p m v e m m i n g h l data for m d chmnels, which commonly have Iwge longitudhd variations. Therefme,sets of seved
m s s sec~ons
sb:9ect&by sound smbiseicd
mpfing cri&&
must be used to ckwac@ h ethe naem con&tion and v a b i l i t y
of reaches of m o d s e m c-nds.
The
use of sm8ar&ed me&& of smeying
and analyzing cross sections and the large
number of cross sections needed for most
studies or monitoring programs make a
package of computer programs highly
desirable.
Until recently, application of data processing programs within the Forest Service
has been commonly limited to the site that
developed the program, because of the
wide variety of dab processing equipment
in use. For a remote user to access any
progrm, the user would have t~ pay the
@ansmissioncosts and possibly some user
and dara stomge fees. Add to this the
hidden costs of the various programs
needed to wmsfer the dara from one site to
another, and automabic dala processing
( M X )is mt as cost-effective as it should
be.
With the introduction of the Forest
Level Infomation System (FLIPS),better
resule and cost-effecf veness of ADP can
be gai.nedby sharing data processing techniques and grolgarns. Transmissioncosts
cm be greatly reduced by mnning shared
p m g m s on-site.
This note d e s c ~ kDEBRIS-a
s
menudriven, interacdve computer program
aa/hitEn in FOR
77 for recording
and p l o ~ sgm e y dab and for computing Ry&aulic v ~ b l e sand deplRs of
scour and HI. DEBRIS was developed for
use with the Data Generill system ernploy& by the Forest Service,U.S. Department of Agri~ulme.~
Installatiion and Use
DEBRIS can be used on any Data General MV series computer using the AOS/
VS operating system. A system manager
can install the program and driver macro
within the system without mdifying the
program. By using menus, the operalor
does not need to know any programming
language. Questions asked of the operator
while running DEBRIS are clear and
concise. If other than a Hewlett-Packard
7221A plotter, Printronix 300 graphics
printer, or Visual 500 graphics terminal
are used for plotting, a programmer is
required to write low-levelroutines. Afier
the data are entered, all the routines can be
run independently of the others. Data can
be either in the Meaic System or the U.S.
Customary System; the output can be in
either system.
names from the file list. DEBRIS is capable of processing from 1 to 10 surveys
from the same cross section.
Ploth'ng
The plotting routine cream a file with
the commands necessary to plot cross
sections. There are three types of plots. A
"quick plot" plots cross sectionswith keys
for survey dates Ifig. I ) . Quickplots can be
useful in detecting changes between surveys and checking the accuracy of the
input data. The "axes plot" also plots
horizontal and vertical axes (fig. 2). The
"heading plot" also includes the stream
name, cross section number, and the
DEBRIS signature (tig. 3). Plots can be
done on a Hewlelt-Packard 7221A 4-pen
plotter, a Printronix 300 graphics printer,
or a Visual 500 graphics terminal.
depth, wetted pePimew, and hy&aulic
radius. Xf values for m n i n g ' s ""n' md
slope are entered, the routine also computes discharge and mean velocity, or
conversely, if dis~hargeand slope are
entered,Manning's "n" and mean velocity
are computed. DEBlhBIS can perform
these calculations on up to four water
levels for each s m y of a cross section.
n the printer
These results can be ~ t t e to
t @g.
or terminal or saved in an o u ~ ufile
5).
C o ~ n p u ~ XI-P
n g eoordi~ates
This routine aansfoms the input data
into pairs of horizontal and vertical coordinates. These can be written at the terminal or saved in an ouput file that is suitable
for use in other progrms such as MINITAB, PRESEW, etc.
Scour and Fill
The scour and fill routine computes
A DEBRIS program p c h g e includes
Routines
cross-sectional area and mean depth of
a driver macro, and
scour, fill, and net scour/fill (fill minus the DEBRIS p
Entering DaCa
enbry and pro
a
user's
guide
scour) of a sequence of two surveys.
The routine for entering data creates a Results can be displayed on the terminal, execution. It is available from:
file list that containsthe names of (heinput saved in an oulput file to be used lam, or
as E.Lisle
files and a code for the method by which printed Ifig. 4).
USDA Forest Service
the data was collected, either sag-rape or
1700 Bayview Drive
rod and level. Each file c o n a s one sur- Hydrauk Vwkbles
Amta, CA 95521
vey. There are also options to append
&. (707)822-3691
A fourtb routine compuks the &(an=
more file names to the file list, to insert file from a datm to the water level, width of
names into the file list, and to remove F1e the water surface, mean depth, maxiinurn
Dis&nce from station (Feel)
Figure 2 4 m p l e of an "axes" plot with the
data plotted in U.S. customary units.
35
Prairie Greek
A
g
-E
34
.
)
.
.
E
3
-w
33
32
Q
B
2
-2
31
30
P
29
a,
>
0
a
28
Survey dales
(B
a,
0
27
r
0
.U)
-
-Ea
1211 0180
26
-- - --
25
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Distance from station (meters)
Figure 3--Sample of a "heading"plot with the
data plotted in metric units.
22
24
* * * DEBRIS REV. 5.0 SCOUR OUTPUT 4/14/1986 * * *
PRAIRIE CREEK
CROSS SECTION
01
SCOUR/FILL COMPUTATIONS FROM 10/17/80
scour=
fill=
net=
TO
12/10/80
sq. ft.
sq. ft.
sq. ft.
1.0422
14.920
-13.877
HORIZONTAL LIMITS OF COMPUTATION ARE .83
-
68.80
DATA TAKEN FROM FILES p001801017 AND p001801210
Figure 4--Sample of scour and fill output.
***
DEBRIS REV. 5.0 Hydraulic output 4/14/1986
***
PRAIRIE CREEK CROSS SECTION 01
survey
Date
Distance to Top width
(feet)
Water Level
Average
Depth
Maxium
Depth
Wetted Hydraulics
Area
(sq. ft) Perimete Radius
Slope
(%)
Nannings
N
Flow
Average
(CFS) Velocity
Figure 9-Sample of hydraulic variables
output.
ACKNOWLEDGMEWS
Dan Opals@. wraie the original DEBRIS program. J m e s A. Baldwin wrate the low level graphics routines for the WP 7221A ploaer, the Prinproh
300 line prinkr, and the Visual 500 graphics bemin d
END NOT= AND REFERENCES
'Ray, G.A.; Meghan, W. F. 1978. Measwkg
cross sections wiag a sag traps: a gsmralizad procedwe. Gen. Tech.Rep. INT47. Ogden, UT: Inter-
mounbin Forest and Range Experiment Station,
Forest Service, U.S. w m e n t of Agriculture;
12 p.
a h p o l d , LB.1973. River C ~ C ( R Mchange
I
with
n example. Geological h i e t y of America
Bulletin 84: Ii845-18m.
Vamum. N. 1984, eRme.1 Changes at cross
seaions in R d w d Creek, W o m i a . Tech. Rep.
prises are m e n t i m d solely for i om at ion. No
endorsement by the U.S. Departmart of Agriculture
is implid.
The Authors:
PATRICK DEENImN ae the t h e of this report
was a computer specialist with the Station's Timber/
Wildlife Research Unit with headqueers st Arcata,
W. He earned a B.S. (1982) degree in physics
f m Humboldr State Universiy, Arcata, Calif.
THOW%BSE. LISLE is a research hydrologist also
assigned to the Research Unit at Arcata. He holds
three degrees in geology-a
B.A., f m Cornell
College (1970); an MS., from the University of
Montana (1972); and a R.D., f m the Universityof
California at Berkeley, Calif (1976). He joined the
Forest Service in 1977.