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: 18428
Water data to answer urgent water policy questions: Monitoring design, available data, and filling data gaps for determining whether shale gas development activities contaminate surface water or groundwater in the Susquehanna River Basin
Throughout its history, the United States has made major investments in assessing natural resources, such as soils, timber, oil and gas, and water. These investments allow policy makers, the private sector and the American public to make informed decisions about cultivating, harvesting or conserving these resources to maximize their value for public welfare, environmental conservation and the econ
Authors
Elin A. Betanzo, Erik R. Hagen, John T. Wilson, Kenneth H. Reckhow, Laura Hayes, Denise M. Argue, Allegra A. Cangelosi
Estuaries: Life on the edge: Chapter 19
No abstract available.
Authors
James E. Cloern, Patrick L. Barnard, Erin Beller, John C. Callaway, Letitia Grenier, Edwin D. Grosholz, Robin Grossinger, Kathryn Hieb, James T. Holligaugh, Noah Knowles, Martha Sutula, Samuel Veloz, Kerstin Wasson, Alison Whipple
Recent advances in understanding flow dynamics and transport of water-quality constituents in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
This paper, part of the collection of research
comprising the State of Bay–Delta Science 2016,
describes advances during the past decade in
understanding flow dynamics and how water-quality
constituents move within California’s Sacramento–
San Joaquin River Delta (Delta). Water-quality
constituents include salinity, heat, oxygen, nutrients,
contaminants, organic particles, and inorganic
particles.
Authors
David H. Schoellhamer, Scott Wright, Stephen G. Monismith, Brian A. Bergamaschi
Accelerating advances in continental domain hydrologic modeling
In the past, hydrologic modeling of surface water resources has mainly focused on simulating the hydrologic cycle at local to regional catchment modeling domains. There now exists a level of maturity among the catchment, global water security, and land surface modeling communities such that these communities are converging toward continental domain hydrologic models. This commentary, written from
Authors
Stacey A. Archfield, Martyn Clark, Berit Arheimer, Lauren E. Hay, Hilary McMillan, Julie E. Kiang, Jan Seibert, Kirsti Hakala, Andrew R. Bock, Thorsten Wagener, William H. Farmer, Vazken Andreassian, Sabine Attinger, Alberto Viglione, Rodney Knight, Steven L. Markstrom, Thomas M. Over
Groundwater and surface-water interaction and effects of pumping in a complex glacial-sediment aquifer, phase 2, east-central Massachusetts
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Town of Framingham, Massachusetts, has investigated the potential of proposed groundwater withdrawals at the Birch Road well site to affect nearby surface water bodies and wetlands, including Lake Cochituate, the Sudbury River, and the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in east-central Massachusetts. In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey develo
Authors
Jack R. Eggleston, Phillip J. Zarriello, Carl S. Carlson
Use of historic Persian water system data in groundwater models: Examples from Afghanistan and Emirates
Obtaining calibration data for models depicting conditions during pre-development periods can be challenging as such periods are characteristically data poor. This study presents two examples where simulation of historic water conveyance structures were used to help characterize historic, or pre-modern, conditions in calibration of groundwater flow models. Persian water conveyance structures, cal
Authors
Thomas J. Mack, Jack R. Eggleston
Fecal indicator and pathogenic bacteria and their antibiotic resistance in alluvial groundwater of an irrigated agricultural region with dairies
Surveys of microbiological groundwater quality were conducted in a region with intensive animal agriculture in California, USA. The survey included monitoring and domestic wells in eight concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and 200 small (domestic and community supply district) supply wells across the region. Campylobacter was not detected in groundwater, whereas Escherichia coli O157:H7
Authors
Xunde Li, Edward R. Atwill, Elizabeth Antaki, Olin Applegate, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Ronald F. Bond, Jennifer T. Chase, Katherine M Ransom, William B. Samuels, Naoko Watanabe, Thomas Harter
Upscaling of U (VI) desorption and transport from decimeter‐scale heterogeneity to plume‐scale modeling
Scientifically defensible predictions of field scale U(VI) transport in groundwater requires an understanding of key processes at multiple scales. These scales range from smaller than the sediment grain scale (less than 10 μm) to as large as the field scale which can extend over several kilometers. The key processes that need to be considered include both geochemical reactions in solution and at s
Authors
Gary P. Curtis, Matthias Kohler, Ramakrishnan Kannappan, Martin A. Briggs, Frederick D. Day-Lewis
An environmental survey of Serpentine Hot Springs: Geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and microbiology
Serpentine Hot Springs is the most visited site in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. The hot springs have traditionally been used by the Native people of the Seward Peninsula for religious, medicinal and spiritual purposes and continue to be used in many of the same ways by Native people today. The hot springs are also popular with non-Native users from Nome and other communities, recreati
Authors
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Linda Hasselbach, Steven E. Ingebritsen, Dana Skorupa, R. Blaine McCleskey, Timothy R. McDermott
Hydrologic response for a high-elevation storm in the South Dakota Black Hills
A group of thunderstorms produced >4 in of rain during four periods of progressively more intense rainfall across a small part of a relatively high-elevation area of the northern Black Hills on 5 August 2014. The resulting hydrologic response was noteworthy in two very small headwater drainage basins, where the measured peak flows are by far the largest—relative to drainage area—ever documented fo
Authors
Matthew J. Bunkers, Melissa Smith, Daniel G. Driscoll, Galen K. Hoogestraat
Head-of-tide bottleneck of particulate material transport from watersheds to estuaries
We measured rates of sediment, C, N, and P accumulation at four floodplain sites spanning the nontidal through oligohaline Choptank and Pocomoke Rivers, Maryland, USA. Ceramic tiles were used to collect sediment for a year and sediment cores were collected to derive decadal sedimentation rates using 137Cs. The results showed highest rates of short- and long-term sediment, C, N, and P accumulation
Authors
Scott H. Ensign, Gregory Noe, Cliff R. Hupp, Katherine Skalak
Development of flood regressions and climate change scenarios to explore estimates of future peak flows
A new Web-based application, titled “Application of Flood Regressions and Climate Change Scenarios To Explore Estimates of Future Peak Flows”, has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation, that allows a user to apply a set of regression equations to estimate the magnitude of future floods for any stream or river in New York S
Authors
Douglas A. Burns, Martyn J. Smith, Douglas A. Freehafer