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: 18418
Urbanization of grasslands in the Denver area affects streamflow responses to rainfall events
A thorough understanding of how urbanization affects stream hydrology is crucial for effective and sustainable water management, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of changes in streamflow response to rainfall events across a rural to urban gradient in the semi-arid area of Denver, Colorado. We used 8 years of April to October instantaneous str
Authors
Stacy Wilson, Aditi S. Bhaskar, Benjamin Choat, Stephanie K. Kampf, Timothy Green, Kristina G. Hopkins
Evaluation of the Bushy Park Reservoir three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water-quality model, South Carolina, 2012–15
The Bushy Park Reservoir is a relatively shallow impoundment in southeastern South Carolina. The reservoir, located under a semi-tropical climate, is the principal water supply for the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding areas including the Bushy Park Industrial Complex. Although there was an adequate supply of freshwater in the reservoir in 2022, water-quality concerns are pre
Authors
Erik A. Smith, Madhu Akasapu-Smith, Matthew D. Petkewich, Paul A. Conrads
Assessing the impact of chloride deicer application in the Siskiyou Pass, southern Oregon
Chloride deicers have been applied by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to Interstate Route 5 (I–5) from the Oregon-California border north to mile marker 10 for several years in the high-elevation area known as the Siskiyou Pass. Magnesium chloride (MgCl2) and sodium chloride (NaCl) are applied to keep the interstate highway safe for drivers and allow for efficient transport of goods
Authors
Adam J. Stonewall, Matthew C. Yates, Gregory E. Granato
HydroBench: Jupyter supported reproducible hydrological model benchmarking and diagnostic tool
Evaluating whether hydrological models are right for the right reasons demands reproducible model benchmarking and diagnostics that evaluate not just statistical predictive model performance but also internal processes. Such model benchmarking and diagnostic efforts will benefit from standardized methods and ready-to-use toolkits. Using the Jupyter platform, this work presents HydroBench, a model-
Authors
Edom Moges, Benjamin Ruddell, Liang Zhang, Jessica M. Driscoll, Parker A. Norton, Fernando Perez, Laurel Larsen
Modflow-setup: Robust automation of groundwater model construction
In an age of both big data and increasing strain on water resources, sound management decisions often rely on numerical models. Numerical models provide a physics-based framework for assimilating and making sense of information that by itself only provides a limited description of the hydrologic system. Often, numerical models are the best option for quantifying even intuitively obvious connection
Authors
Andrew T. Leaf, Michael N. Fienen
Attribution of monotonic trends and change points in peak streamflow across the conterminous United States using a multiple working hypotheses framework, 1941–2015 and 1966–2015
The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of leading flood-frequency analysis studies. These studies play a critical role in the assessment of risk, protection of lives, and planning and design of flood protection infrastructure. Standard flood-frequency analysis is based on the assumption of stationarity—that is, that the distribution of floods at a given site varies around a particular mean
Prioritizing pesticides of potential concern and identifying potential mixture effects in Great Lakes tributaries using passive samplers
To help meet the objectives of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with regard to increasing knowledge about toxic substances, 223 pesticides and pesticide transformation products were monitored in 15 Great Lakes tributaries using polar organic chemical integrative samplers. A screening-level assessment of their potential for biological effects was conducted by computing toxicity quotients (TQs
Authors
Luke C. Loken, Steven R. Corsi, David Alvarez, Gerald T. Ankley, Austin K. Baldwin, Bradley D. Blackwell, Laura A. DeCicco, Michelle A. Nott, Samantha K. Oliver, Daniel L. Villeneuve
Groundwater and surface-water data collection for the Walla Walla River Basin, Washington, 2018–22
The semi-arid Walla Walla River Basin (WWRB) spans 1777 square miles in the states of Washington and Oregon and supports a diverse agricultural region as well as cities and rural communities that are partially reliant on groundwater. Historically, surface water and groundwater data have been collected in the WWRB by several entities including federal, state, local, and tribal governments; irrigati
Authors
Elisabeth T. Fasser, Sarah B. Dunn
Tapwater exposures, effects potential, and residential risk management in Northern Plains Nations
In the United States (US), private-supply tapwater (TW) is rarely monitored. This data gap undermines individual/community risk-management decision-making, leading to an increased probability of unrecognized contaminant exposures in rural and remote locations that rely on private wells. We assessed point-of-use (POU) TW in three northern plains Tribal Nations, where ongoing TW arsenic (As) interve
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly L. Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Robert Charboneau, Christine Marie George, Ana Navas-Acien, Marcia O'Leary, Reno Red Cloud, Tracy Zacher, Sara E. Breitmeyer, Mary C. Cardon, Christa K. Cuny, Guthrie Ducheneaux, Kendra Enright, Nicola Evans, James L. Gray, David E. Harvey, Michelle Hladik, Leslie K. Kanagy, Keith Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Elizabeth Medlock-Kakaley, Shannon M. Meppelink, Joshua F. Valder, Christopher P. Weis
Flopy: The Python interface for MODFLOW
No abstract available.
Authors
Andrew T. Leaf, Michael N. Fienen
Decision-making for managing harmful algal blooms
Cyanobacteria are a global water-quality
concern because these organisms can develop into
harmful blooms that affect ecologic, economic, and
public health.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists worked with
the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation and the New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation to
develop a structured decision-making template for
managing
Authors
Jennifer L. Graham
Water-level data for the Albuquerque Basin and adjacent areas, central New Mexico, period of record through September 30, 2021
The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti Lake to the north. A 20-percent population increase in the basin from 1990 to 2000
Authors
Meghan T. Bell, N.Y. Montero