Publications
The following list of California Water Science Center publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1738
Evaluation of Water Year 2011 Glen Canyon Dam Flow Release Scenarios on Downstream Sand Storage along the Colorado River in Arizona
This report describes numerical modeling simulations of sand transport and sand budgets for reaches of the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. Two hypothetical Water Year 2011 annual release volumes were each evaluated with six hypothetical operational scenarios. The six operational scenarios include the current operation, scenarios with modifications to the monthly distribution of releases, and
Authors
Scott Wright, Paul E. Grams
Groundwater-quality data in the South Coast Range-Coastal study unit, 2008: Results from the California GAMA Program
Groundwater quality in the approximately 766-square-mile South Coast Range–Coastal (SCRC) study unit was investigated from May to December 2008, as part of the Priority Basins Project of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA Priority Basins Project was developed in response to legislative mandates (Supplemental Report of the 1999 Budget Act 1999-00 Fiscal Year;
Authors
Timothy M. Mathany, Carmen A. Burton, Michael Land, Kenneth Belitz
Availability of Groundwater Data for California, Water Year 2009
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, obtains a large amount of data pertaining to the groundwater resources of California each water year (October 1-September 30). These data constitute a valuable database for developing an improved understanding of the water resources of the State.
This Fact Sheet serves as an index to groundwater data for Water Y
Authors
Mary Ray
California's BAY-DELTA: USGS Science Supports Decision Making
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are in the forefront of the effort to understand what causes changes in the hydrology, the ecology and the water quality of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the San Francisco Bay estuary. Their scientific findings play a crucial role in how agencies manage the Bay-Delta on a daily basis.
Authors
James Nickles, Kimberly Taylor, Roger Fujii
Development of a three-dimensional model of sedimentary texture in valley-fill deposits of Central Valley, California, USA
A three-dimensional (3D) texture model was developed to help characterize the aquifer system of Central Valley, California (USA), for a groundwater flow model. The 52,000-km2 Central Valley aquifer system consists of heterogeneous valley-fill deposits. The texture model was developed by compiling and analyzing approximately 8,500 drillers’ logs, describing lithologies up to 950 m below land surfac
Authors
Claudia C. Faunt, Kenneth Belitz, Randall T. Hanson
Depth-dependent sampling to identify short-circuit pathways to public-supply wells in multiple aquifer settings in the United States
Depth-dependent water-quality and borehole flow data were used to determine where and how contamination enters public-supply wells (PSWs) at study sites in different principal aquifers of the United States. At each of three study sites, depth-dependent samples and wellbore flow data were collected from multiple depths in selected PSWs under pumping conditions. The chemistry of these depth-dependen
Authors
Matthew K. Landon, Bryant C. Jurgens, Brian G. Katz, Sandra M. Eberts, Karen R. Burow, Christy A. Crandall
Optimal pump and recharge management model for nitrate removal in the Warren groundwater basin, California
The town of Yucca Valley located in the southwest part of the Mojave Desert in southern California relies on groundwater pumping from the Warren groundwater basin as its sole source of water supply. This significant dependency has resulted in a large imbalance between groundwater pumpage and natural recharge, causing groundwater levels in the basin to decline more than 90 m from the late 1940s to
Authors
Yung-Chia Chiu, Tracy Nishikawa, William W.‐G. Yeh
Field Surveys of Rare Plants on Santa Cruz Island, California, 2003-2006: Historical Records and Current Distributions
Santa Cruz Island is the largest of the northern Channel Islands located off the coast of California. It is owned and managed as a conservation reserve by The Nature Conservancy and the Channel Islands National Park. The island is home to nine plant taxa listed in 1997 as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, because of declines related to nearly 150 years of ranching
Authors
A. Kathryn McEachern, Katherine A. Chess, Ken Niessen
Method for Estimating Annual Atrazine Use for Counties in the Conterminous United States, 1992-2007
A method was developed to estimate annual atrazine use during 1992 to 2007 on sixteen crops and four agricultural land uses. For each year, atrazine use was estimated for all counties in the conterminous United States (except California) by combining (1) proprietary data from the Doane Marketing Research-Kynetec (DMRK) AgroTrak database on the mass of atrazine applied to agricultural crops, (2) co
Authors
Gail P. Thelin, Wesley W. Stone
Groundwater Quality in the Central Eastside San Joaquin Valley, California
The Central Eastside study unit is located in California's San Joaquin Valley. The 1,695 square mile study unit includes three groundwater subbasins: Modesto, Turlock, and Merced (California Department of Water Resources, 2003). The primary water-bearing units consist of discontinuous lenses of gravel, sand, silt, and clay, which are derived largely from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east. Pu
Authors
Kenneth Belitz, Matthew K. Landon
Status and understanding of groundwater quality in the central-eastside San Joaquin Basin, 2006: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Groundwater quality in the approximately 1,695-square-mile Central Eastside San Joaquin Basin (Central Eastside) study unit was investigated as part of the Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA PBP was developed in response to the California Groundwater Quality Monitoring Act of 2001, and is being conducted by the California Stat
Authors
Matthew K. Landon, Kenneth Belitz, Bryant C. Jurgens, Justin T. Kulongoski, Tyler D. Johnson
Distribution and trends in reference evapotranspiration in the North China plain
The distribution and trends in reference evapotranspiration (ET(o)) are extremely important to water resources planning for agriculture, and it is widely believed that rates of ET(o) will increase with global warming. This is a big concern in China, where water deficits are common in the North China Plain (NCP). In this study, Penman-Monteith reference evapotranspiration at 26 meteorological stati
Authors
Z. W. Song, Hailin Zhang, Richard L. Snyder, Frank Anderson, F. Chen