Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
amount of rainfall increases. If it rains long enough, the whole basin contributes.
But, I mean there's stuff like that in the paper that never did get much recognition.
Q ..
You think that was your best piece of work?
A ..
That's what I thought, yes.
Q ..
But your real reputation you think stands with the synthetic unit graph?
A ..
That really established me, I guess. As I say, it was translated into a lot of other
languages and people when I'd go to these meetings, people would know who I was.
I think I mentioned once before that they were surprised how young I was.
Q ..
That's a delightful story. It really is. Let me ask you. Now, that's in your career
as a hydrologist. What about your time in the Corps of Engineers? Was it one of
those manuals, the engineering manuals, you think? One of those things on
reservoir regulation? What do you think was your major contribution in the Corps
of Engineers itself?
A ..
Well, it would have been the reservoir operation procedure. In addition to the
manual, a number of procedures for special operations were sent out in Engineer
Letters. Some items went out as directives.
Q ..
Circulars?
Circulars or letters. I think we mentioned before if you have a certain amount of
A
flood control space, and when you get a certain flood, there's always a question,
"Should I use it all now or save some space for the next flood?" In other words,
after you filled up, why you can make things worse, than if you hadn't built the darn
because the reservoir area speeds the flood water through faster than it would have
been in a state of nature. So you can make things worse.
So I developed a procedure that you could sort of take care of that situation of
knowing how much space you should save. In most projects, there's some surcharge
storage available before you have to pass the inflow. It was mostly how to use up
this surcharge storage and still be prepared for a more severe event if it happened.
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