Voice reporting should satisfy at least five requirements. Information 

 should be: (a) available in near-real time (for example, refresh rate of 

 15 min); (b) given in engineering units (presently, feet); (c) referenced to 

 chart datum; (d) easily repeated by telephonic or radio command, without 

 having to redial; and (e) obtainable the day after original interrogation for 

 verification and archival in project files. 



Voice reporting may be by telephone (land line or cellular) or by radio. 

 However, provision should be made to allow priority access by the 

 TCOON Steering Committee agencies, as distinguished from possible 

 access by other agencies and the general public. 



Training of Galveston District Personnel 



A training program and materials should be developed for CESWG 

 Area Office and other personnel who will require the real-time and 

 archived data. The training would include such topics as review of tidal 

 datums and relations to District project low- water datums (see next 

 section), review of previous datums used by CESWG and their relation to 

 present-day datums, elements of the forces producing water-level change, 

 properties of water-level change along the coast, practical aspects of 

 communication with the gauges, and use of the WWW with associated 

 data downloading and printing of graphs and tables. Without orientation 

 and special training of its personnel, the CESWG will not obtain 

 maximum benefit from participation in the TCOON. 



Project Low-Water Datums 



Much of the inland coastal waters of Texas, which are traversed by 

 several hundred miles of maintained navigable channels, experiences 

 water-level variations that are not well quantified by traditional NOS 

 methods of datum determination. Seasonal changes in water level as well 

 as wind setup and setdown can obscure or dominate tidal induced water- 

 level signals. As a result, water level drops considerably below chart 

 datum (mllw, mlw, or msl, depending on the chart) for considerable time 

 (order of several days). 



Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 47 



