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: 18468
A guidance manual for assessing scour potential using the South Carolina bridge-scour envelope curves
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted a series of three field investigations of bridge scour in order to better understand regional trends of scour within South Carolina. The studies collected historic-scour data at approximately 200 riverine bridges including measurements of clear-water abutment, contraction, and pier scour, as
Authors
Stephen T. Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell, Toby D. Feaster
Assessment of the NCHRP abutment scour prediction equations with laboratory and field data
The U.S. Geological Survey, in coopeation with nthe National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) is assessing the performance of several abutment-scour predcition equations developed in NCHRP Project 24-15(2) and NCHRP Project 24-20. To accomplish this assssment, 516 laboratory and 329 fiels measurements of abutment scor were complied from selected sources and applied tto the new equation
Authors
Stephen T. Benedict
Use of acoustic backscatter to estimate continuous suspended sediment and phosphorus concentrations in the Barton River, northern Vermont, 2010-2013
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, investigated the use of acoustic backscatter to estimate concentrations of suspended sediment and total phosphorus at the Barton River near Coventry, Vermont. The hypothesis was that acoustic backscatter—the reflection of sound waves off objects back to the source from which they came—measured by
Authors
Laura Medalie, Ann T. Chalmers, Richard G. Kiah, Benjamin Copans
Anthropogenic organic compounds in source water of select community water systems in the United States, 2002-10
Drinking water delivered by community water systems (CWSs) comes from one or both of two sources: surface water and groundwater. Source water is raw, untreated water used by CWSs and is usually treated before distribution to consumers. Beginning in 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program initiated Source Water-Quality Assessments (SWQAs) at select CWSs a
Authors
Joshua F. Valder, Gregory C. Delzer, James A. Kingsbury, Jessica A. Hopple, Curtis V. Price, David A. Bender
Relations of water-quality constituent concentrations to surrogate measurements in the lower Platte River corridor, Nebraska, 2007 through 2011
The lower Platte River, Nebraska, provides drinking water, irrigation water, and in-stream flows for recreation, wildlife habitat, and vital habitats for several threatened and endangered species. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Lower Platte River Corridor Alliance (LPRCA) developed site-specific regression models for water-quality constituents at four sites (Shell Creek
Authors
Nathaniel J. Schaepe, Philip J. Soenksen, David L. Rus
Mercury in the nation's streams - Levels, trends, and implications
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish to levels of concern for human health and the health of fish-eating wildlife. Mercury contamination of fish is the primary reason for issuing fish consumption advisories, which exist in every State in the Nation. Much of the mercury originates from combustion of coal and can travel long distances in the atmosphere before being deposited. This
Authors
Dennis A. Wentz, Mark E. Brigham, Lia C. Chasar, Michelle A. Lutz, David P. Krabbenhoft
High-resolution delineation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds in a dipping, fractured mudstone: depth- and strata-dependent spatial variability from rock-core sampling
Synthesis of rock-core sampling and chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) analysis at five coreholes, with hydraulic and water-quality monitoring and a detailed hydrogeologic framework, was used to characterize the fine-scale distribution of CVOCs in dipping, fractured mudstones of the Lockatong Formation of Triassic age, of the Newark Basin in West Trenton, New Jersey. From these results,
Authors
Daniel J. Goode, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Pierre J. Lacombe
Updated study reporting levels (SRLs) for trace-element data collected for the California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Priority Basin Project, October 2009-March 2013
Groundwater samples have been collected in California as part of statewide investigations of groundwater quality conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey for the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Priority Basin Project (PBP). The GAMA-PBP is being conducted in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board to assess and monitor the quality of groundwater reso
Authors
Tracy A. Davis, Lisa D. Olsen, Miranda S. Fram, Kenneth Belitz
Microbial water quality during the northern migration of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) at the central Platte River, Nebraska
The central Platte River is an important resource in Nebraska. Its water flows among multiple channels and supports numerous beneficial uses such as drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, groundwater recharge, and recreational activities. The central Platte River valley is an important stopover for migratory waterfowl and cranes, such as the Whooping (Grus americana) and Sandhill Cranes (Grus
Authors
Matthew T. Moser
Relations between continuous real-time turbidity data and discrete suspended-sediment concentration samples in the Neosho and Cottonwood Rivers, east-central Kansas, 2009-2012
The Neosho River and its primary tributary, the Cottonwood River, are the primary sources of inflow to the John Redmond Reservoir in east-central Kansas. Sedimentation rate in the John Redmond Reservoir was estimated as 743 acre-feet per year for 1964–2006. This estimated sedimentation rate is more than 80 percent larger than the projected design sedimentation rate of 404 acre-feet per year, and r
Authors
Guy M. Foster
User guide to Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends (EGRET) and dataRetrieval: R packages for hydrologic data
Evaluating long-term changes in river conditions (water quality and discharge) is an important use of hydrologic data. To carry out such evaluations, the hydrologist needs tools to facilitate several key steps in the process: acquiring the data records from a variety of sources, structuring it in ways that facilitate the analysis, processing the data with routines that extract information about ch
Authors
Robert M. Hirsch, Laura A. De Cicco
Spectral masking of goethite in abandoned mine drainage systems: implications for Mars
Remote sensing studies of the surface of Mars use visible- to near-infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy to identify hydrated and hydroxylated minerals, which can be used to constrain past environmental conditions on the surface of Mars. However, due to differences in optical properties, some hydrated phases can mask others in VNIR spectra, complicating environmental interpretations. Here, we examine the r
Authors
Selby Cull, Charles A. Cravotta, Julia Grace Klinges, Chloe Weeks