Hydrologic Modeling

Potential changes in air temperature and precipitation due to changes in climate may result in more variable or smaller snow packs and earlier snowmelt in the southern Sierra Nevada in upcoming years. These conditions are likely to result in increased difficulty in planning reservoir operations for hydroelectric power and water availability during springtime snowmelt in this region. Reservoir...

Groundwater pumpage for agricultural and municipal supply has resulted in water-level declines of more than 200 ft in some parts of the Antelope Valley groundwater basin and land subsidence of more than 6 ft in some areas. Future urban growth, increased agricultural demand, and limits on the supply of imported water will continue to increase the demand for groundwater.

The primary objective of this study is to expand our current understanding of how to manage rice production in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in a manner that minimizes loads of water quality contaminants to Delta waters.

The study develops a greater understanding of the hydrology of the Big Bear Valley ground-water basin and allows the Big Bear Valley Community Services District to better manage and utilize the resource. The study will address the effects of urbanization and suburbanization on water resources and the effects of climate on water resources, issues 1 and 7 from the Strategic Directions for the Water...

The Central and West Coast groundwater basins provide nearly a third of the water supply to 43 cities in southern Los Angeles County. Over 250,000 afy are pumped from the basins for municipal and industrial use. To properly manage the ground-water resource and to ensure its future availability, it is necessary to identify and manage threats to the drinking water aquifers from surface contamination...

Reservoirs in the Yuba River Basin are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) as part of the Feather-Yuba Forecast Coordinated Operations Program, and play an important role in flood management, water quality, and the health of fisheries as far downstream as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The basin has been developed for hydropower and irrigation diversions, so that measured...

Two key hydrologic issues in all coastal aquifer systems are the delineation and the management of the renewable water resources. The proper development and management of the renewable resources helps to minimize ground-water mining of the lower aquifer systems, and minimizes overdraft and seawater intrusion of the upper aquifer system while maximizing the sustainable yield of the renewable water...

The Basin Characterization Model (BCM) is a simple grid-based model that calculates the water balance for any time step or spatial scale by using climate inputs, precipitation, minimum and maximum air temperature. The BCM can translate fine-scale maps of climate trends and projections into the hydrologic consequences, to permit evaluation of the impacts to water availability at regional, watershed...

This study will provide an analysis tool for forecasting seasonal and longer term streamflow variations, and for evaluating climate and land cover variations in the Kings River Basin. This study will directly or indirectly address several water-resource issues identified in the USGS Science Strategy document (USGS, 2007): drinking water availability, the suitability of aquatic habitat for biota...

The objective of this study is to provide downscaled ensemble projections of climate and hydrology for the next century for the state of California with specific application to the San Francisco Bay Area.

The USGS has a long history of collecting water-level data in the Antelope Valley groundwater basin. Previous water-level contour maps for Antelope Valley were published by the USGS in cooperation with the Antelope Valley – East Kern Water Agency as Open-File Reports 80-1222, 86-498 and 98-4022 using water-level data collected in 1979, 1984 and 1996, respectively. An updated water-level contour...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Dos Palmas Oasis complex on the northeastern side of the Salton Sea for the maintainence of threatened and endangered species. This Oasis complex represents a rare area of riparian/wetland habitat in the midst of an extremely arid desert region. Anthropogenic development of water resources during the 1900s depleted natural groundwater supplies...