Water Availability

Upper Midwest Water Science Center uses acoustic meters for making streamflow measurements. Wading measurements are done using a modified top setting wading rod equipped with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV). Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) are used when measurement depths are too deep to wade. ADCP measurements can either be made with a tether or cableway or deployed on a manned...

The USGS Upper Midwest Water Science Center cooperates with local and state agencies to collect and maintain groundwater data across the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In Michigan, the USGS and local partners actively monitor 90 wells. Of the 90 wells, 22 are continuously monitored with 3 of those continuously monitored sites displayed in near real-time. All current and historical...

Data on low-flow characteristics are used by water-resources managers for a variety of purposes, including water-supply planning, making decisions about wastewater-discharge and water withdrawal permits, and evaluating in-stream flow requirements. The Michigan low-flow network currently consists of seven sites where streamflow is typically measured only during low-flow periods. In addition to...

TSPROC (Time Series PROCessor) is a software package designed to assist in the calibration of models by editing and distilling time series datasets into more meaningful observations to be used in the optimization objective function. The software performs calculations on time-series data associated with surface-water models, including calculation of flow volumes, transformation by means of basic...

Streamflow data are needed at many sites on a daily basis for forecasting flow conditions and flooding, water-management decisions, assessing water availability, managing water quality, and meeting legal requirements. The USGS has been measuring streamflow in Wisconsin since 1906 with nearly 1,000 active and discontinued gages.

A summary of USGS resources and data related to drought hazards in Wisconsin.

USGS initiated the Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program to understand the processes controlling water, energy, and biogeochemical fluxes over a range of temporal and spatial scales, and the effects of atmospheric and climatic variables. Trout Lake is one of five small, geographically and ecologically diverse watersheds representing a range of hydrologic and climatic conditions.

The Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model has been developed to allow estimates of potential recharge to be made quickly and easily. The code calculates components of the water balance at a daily time-step by means of a modified version of the Thornthwaite-Mather soil-moisture-balance approach.