New England Water Science Center Projects

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Long Island Sound Study (LISS), is investigating how excess nutrients and low dissolved oxygen affect the water-quality of the lower portion of the Norwalk River Harbor.

The natural environment and manmade infrastructure must be considered when characterizing hydrology and water quality in urban watersheds. This requirement is critical in stormwater management, which must account for how water flows above ground and underground through stormwater infrastructure. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is...

The USGS New England Water Science Center (WSC) is proud to provide science support to Tribal Nations as part of our Federal Trust Responsibility to honor the government-to-government relationships that the United States has with 574 Federally-recognized Tribes. Tribal Nations have ancestral ties with the environment. Natural resources are inextricably connected to sustenance, traditional...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, is investigating the presence of statistical associations between socioeconomic data (or proxy data) and the susceptibility of private wells to water quality or quantity concerns in New Hampshire.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center is expanding its scientific investigation to better understand the water resources at, and in the vicinity of, Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) and the potential impacts from historical base operations and other sources.

The U.S. Geological Survey, New England Water Science Center, in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is modeling seasonal nutrient loads to Long Island Sound (LIS). Nutrients that originate from within the 41,867-square-mile section of the LIS watershed that is north of the Sound include both point (specific) and nonpoint (widespread) sources. Dynamic modeling of the...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with Acadia National Park, is assessing the vulnerability of the park’s streams, culverts, and bridges to flood damage and erosion using design flows for selected high streamflow recurrence intervals to inform management decisions on infrastructure upgrades.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the National Park Service, is compiling and evaluating all known water resources, and documented infrastructure associated with these resources, within the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and contributing associated watersheds.

Characterizing hydrology and pollutant inputs in urban watersheds requires the consideration of both the natural and manmade environment. The Mystic River Basin is a highly urbanized, 76-square-mile watershed north of Boston, Massachusetts, that includes several underserved communities. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a watershed-scale web application of the Mystic River Basin to...

Existing highway-runoff data do not adequately address the informational needs of stormwater professionals in Connecticut because there have been relatively few studies of highway runoff in the Northeastern United States. Consequently, the U.S. Geological Survey, New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT), is conducting a 4-year project...

The U.S. Geological Survey New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), is evaluating how a type of porous pavement affects the discharge of suspended sediment in comparison to the asphalt surface commonly used on Massachusetts highways. The project will expand the understanding of highway runoff concentrations of suspended sediment...

The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), began a series of studies in 2019 to develop a web-based statewide hydraulic modeling tool to provide preliminary culvert designs for stream-crossing projects in Massachusetts.

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Recreation and Conservation, Office of Water Resources, began a study in 2019 to update the regional regression equations for estimating selected low-flow statistics at ungaged sites in Massachusetts.

The Cambridge Water Department supplies approximately 13 million gallons per day of drinking water to more than 100,000 customers. Raw water is obtained from a serial system of three primary storage reservoirs—Cambridge Reservoir (also known as the Hobbs Brook Reservoir), Stony Brook Reservoir, and Fresh Pond Reservoir—in parts of Cambridge, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Weston, Massachusetts...

Lake and impoundment levels are used for calculating a drought severity index.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), is investigating the effects of sea-level rise and climate change on the groundwater resources of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The Groundwater Index in the Massachusetts Drought Management Plan provides a general overview of groundwater levels relative to long-term groundwater levels in Massachusetts. The methods used to compute the Groundwater Index were revised for the 2019 version of the Drought Management Plan. The 2019 plan aligns the drought categories and specifies the drought status from select percentile ranges...

High-quality light detection and ranging (lidar) data from USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) has unlocked the potential to derive new and innovative hydrography datasets such as the USGS next generation 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) that can be used for many hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) modeling applications. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mapping partners require elevation and...

Current methods of flood-frequency analyses for flood insurance studies assume that the statistical distribution of data from past observations will continue unchanged in the future. This is known as the assumption of stationarity. This assumption allows scientists to estimate flood magnitude and frequency based on past records and the expectation that those estimates will represent current and...

The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are collaborating on a study to develop methods to estimate river flows from satellite observations.

Communities across Massachusetts may face potential consequences of climate change, ranging from more extreme rainfall to more pronounced and frequent droughts. Climate change could alter the state’s hydrology in potentially complex and unanticipated ways. Typical approaches for projecting hydrologic risk under climate change can misrepresent and underestimate the variability of climate and...