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Publications

This list of Water Resources Mission Area publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. A searchable database of all USGS publications can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.

Filter Total Items: 18419

Regional patterns of anthropogenic influences on streams and rivers in the conterminous United States, from the early 1970s to 2012

This paper introduces a dataset containing consistent time-series measurements of anthropogenic activities potentially affecting stream quality across the conterminous United States and summarizes the most noteworthy trends from 61 variables in 16 categories. Data include measures of atmospheric deposition, agricultural production, livestock, urbanization, irrigation, land use, nutrients from fer
Authors
James A. Falcone, Jennifer C. Murphy, Lori A. Sprague

Documentation of a Soil-Water-Balance Model to estimate recharge to Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Mesozoic Basin fractured-rock aquifers, Fauquier County, Virginia, 1996 through 2015

This report documents a Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model that was developed for an area covering the Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Mesozoic basin fractured-rock aquifers in Fauquier County, Virginia, for the calendar years 1996–2015. The SWB model includes an area of 1,498 square miles, divided into 1,076-square-foot (100-square-meter) grid cells on which daily groundwater recharge was estimated using e
Authors
Kurt J. McCoy, David E. Ladd

Hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin

Model estimated monthly water balance (WB) components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for 848 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8-digit hydrologic units located in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the MRB WB for water years 1901 through 2014. Results indicate the MRB can be divided int
Authors
Gregory J. McCabe, David M. Wolock

Operationalizing small unoccupied aircraft systems for rapid flood inundation mapping and event response

Small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (sUAS) offer the capability to collect rapid and accurate aerial survey data during flood response. The rapid collection of aerial flood data can potentially enable scientists to produce detailed geospatial products and related datasets in time for decisional support. A workflow for sUAS event response before, during, and after flood events is discussed.
Authors
Frank L. Engel, Rogelio Hernandez

Simulations of hydrology and water quality for irrigated fields near Yakima, Washington

Reliable tools are needed by farmers and managers to estimate and mitigate impacts of altered hydrology and degraded water quality downstream of agricultural areas. The Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD) (Webb and Parkhurst 2017) was used to simulate daily variations of hydrology and water quality for 5 square kilometers of irrigated fields draining to the DR2 Drain, southeast of Yak
Authors
Richard M. Webb

Cross-scale interactions dictate regional lake carbon flux and productivity response to future climate

Lakes support globally important food webs through algal productivity and contribute significantly to the global carbon cycle. However, predictions of how broad-scale lake carbon flux and productivity may respond to future climate are extremely limited. Here, we used an integrated modeling framework to project changes in lake-specific and regional primary productivity and carbon fluxes under 21st
Authors
Jacob Aaron Zwart, Zachary J Hanson, Jordan Read, Michael N. Fienen, Alan F. Hamlet, Diogo Bolster, Stuart E. Jones

Timescales of water-quality change in a karst aquifer, south-central Texas

Understanding the drivers and timescales over which groundwater quality changes informs groundwater management, use, and protection. To better understand timescales of water-quality change over short (daily to monthly) and long (seasonal to decadal) timescales, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Enhanced Trends Network (ETN) program instrumented and sampled thre
Authors
MaryLynn Musgrove, John E. Solder, Stephen P. Opsahl, Jennifer T. Wilson

Lithostratigraphic, geophysical, and hydrogeologic observations from a boring drilled to bedrock in glacial sediments near Nantucket Sound in East Falmouth, Massachusetts

In spring 2016, a 310-foot-deep boring (named MA–FSW 750) was drilled by the U.S. Geological Survey near Nantucket Sound in East Falmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the hydrogeology of the southern coast of western Cape Cod. Few borings that are drilled to bedrock exist in the area, and the study area was selected to fill a gap between comprehensive geologic datasets inland to the north and ma
Authors
Robert B. Hull, Carole D. Johnson, Byron D. Stone, Denis R. LeBlanc, Timothy D. McCobb, Stephanie N. Phillips, Katherine L. Pappas, John W. Lane

Hydrogeologic framework and delineation of transient areas contributing recharge and zones of contribution to selected wells in the upper Santa Fe Group aquifer, southeastern Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1900–2050

The Santa Fe Group aquifer is an important source of water to communities within the Middle Rio Grande Basin, including the Albuquerque-Rio Rancho metropolitan area and Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. In November 1999, Kirtland Air Force Base personnel observed fuel-stained soils at the Bulk Fuels Facility on the base. Subsequent pressure tests identified pipeline leaks. Fuels stored at the B
Authors
Nathan C. Myers, Paul J. Friesz

Geochemical characterization of iron and steel slag and its potential to remove phosphate and neutralize acid

Iron and steel slags from legacy and modern operations in the Chicago-Gary area of Illinois and Indiana, USA, are predominantly composed of Ca (10 - 44 wt. % CaO), Fe, (0.3 - 28 wt. % FeO), and Si (10 - 44 wt. % SiO2), with generally lesser amounts of Al (< 1 15 wt. % Al2O3), Mg (2 11 wt. % MgO), and Mn (0.3 9 wt. % MnO). Mineralogy is dominated by CaMgAl silicates, FeCa oxides, Ca-carbonates,
Authors
Nadine M. Piatak, Robert R. Seal, Darryl Andre Hoppe, Carlin J. Green, Paul M. Buszka

Baseline groundwater hydrology and water quality in and around Bluff, Utah

Southeastern Utah has a long history of oil and gas production. Two new hydrocarbon extraction wells have been proposed several miles northeast of the town of Bluff, Utah. In response to concern about the impacts of oil and gas extraction in the area on drinking-water quality, this study provides groundwater quality and hydrologic baseline data obtained before drilling the new hydrocarbon extracti
Authors
Olivia L. Miller

South Atlantic Water Science Center Strategic Science Plan: 2019–23

Executive SummaryThe South Atlantic Water Science Center Strategic Science Planning Team has developed a unified strategic science plan to guide the science vision of the South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) in response to the merging of the Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina Water Science Centers. This plan proposes a path forward to keep SAWSC science activities relevant to the m
Authors
Thomas F. Cuffney, Ana M. Garcia, Arthur J. Horowitz, Jacob H. LaFontaine, James E. Landmeyer, Anna M. McKee, Kristen B. McSwain, Jaime A. Painter, John M. Shelton, Christopher A. Smith