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: 18422
Assessing the ecological functionality and integrity of natural ponds, excavated ponds and stormwater basins for conserving amphibian diversity
Wetlands provide ecological functionality by maintaining and promoting regional biodiversity supporting quality habitat for aquatic organisms. Globally, habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation due to increases in agricultural activities and urban development have reduced or altered geographically isolated wetlands, thus reducing biodiversity. The objective of this study was to assess the relat
Authors
Kelly L. Smalling, Sara E. Breitmeyer, John F. Bunnell, Kim J Laidig, Patrick Burritt, Marilyn Sobel, Jonathan Cohl, Michelle Hladik, Kristin M. Romanok, Paul M. Bradley
Regional regression equations based on channel-width characteristics to estimate peak-flow frequencies at ungaged sites in Montana using peak-flow frequency data through water year 2011
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Montana Department of Transportation, developed regression equations based on channel width to estimate peak-flow frequencies at ungaged sites in Montana. The equations are based on peak-flow data at streamgages through September 2011 (end of water year 2011), and channel widths measured in the field and from aerial photographs.Active-channel wid
Authors
Katherine J. Chase, Roy Sando, Daniel W. Armstrong, Peter McCarthy
Historical floods and geomorphic change in the lower Little Colorado River during the late 19th to early 21st centuries
The Little Colorado River is a major tributary to the Colorado River with a confluence at the boundary between Marble and Grand Canyons within Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The bedrock gorge of the lower Little Colorado River is home to the largest known population of Gila cypha (humpback chub), an endangered fish endemic to the Colorado River Basin. Channel conditions might affect the spaw
Authors
Joel A. Unema, David J. Topping, Keith Kohl, Michael J. Pillow, Joshua J. Caster
Using satellite imagery to estimate consumptive water use from irrigated lands in the Milk River Basin, United States and Canada
The U.S. Geological Survey, with the support of the International Joint Commission, and in cooperation with Alberta Environment and Parks, Blackfeet Nation, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, is leading a project that should improve information available to apportion water between Canada and the United States in the St. Mary and Mil
Authors
Roy Sando, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Gabriel B. Senay
Noble gas signatures constrain oil-field water as the carrier phase of hydrocarbons occurring in shallow aquifers in the San Joaquin Basin, USA
Noble gases record fluid interactions in multiphase subsurface environments through fractionation processes during fluid equilibration. Water in the presence of hydrocarbons at the subsurface acquires a distinct elemental signature due to the difference in solubility between these two fluids. We find the atmospheric noble gas signature in produced water is partially preserved after hydrocarbons pr
Authors
Ruta Karolyte, Peter H. Barry, Andrew Hunt, Justin T. Kulongoski, R. L. Tyne, Tracy Davis, Michael Wright, Peter B. McMahon, C. J. Ballentine
General water-quality conditions, long-term trends, and network analysis at selected sites within the Ambient Water-Quality Monitoring Network in Missouri, water years 1993–2017
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, collects data pertaining to the surface-water resources of Missouri. Established in 1964, the Ambient Water-Quality Monitoring Network (AWQMN) consisted of 69 sites in 2017. Two additional sites from the National Water-Quality Program are included with the AWQMN sites for the analyses in this report. The
Authors
Joseph M. Richards, Miya N. Barr
Uncertainty in remote sensing of streams using noncontact radars
Accounting for freshwater resources and monitoring floods are vital functions for societies throughout the world. Remote-sensing methods offer great prospects to expand stream monitoring in developing countries and to smaller, headwater streams that are largely ungauged worldwide. This study evaluates the potential to estimate discharge using eight radar units that have been installed over streams
Authors
Mushfiqur Rahman Khan, Jonathan J Gourley, Jorge Duarte, Humberto Vergara, Daniel Wasielewski, Pierre-Alain Ayral, John Fulton
Using an unmanned aerial vehicle water sampler to gather data in a pit-lake mining environment to assess closure and monitoring
Residual pit lakes from mining are often dangerous to sample for water quality. Thus, pit lakes may be rarely (or never) sampled. This study developed new technology in which water-sampling devices, mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), were used to sample three pit lakes in Nevada, USA, during 1 week in 2017. Water-quality datasets from two of the three pit lakes on public lands, Dexter an
Authors
Brian Straight, Devin Castendyk, Diane M. McKnight, Connor P. Newman, Pierre Filiatreault, Americo Pino
Using microbial source tracking to identify fecal contamination sources in an embayment in Hempstead Harbor on Long Island, New York
The U.S. Geological Survey worked collaboratively with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the potential sources of fecal contamination entering Hempstead Harbor, an embayment on the northern shore of Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Water samples are routinely collected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the harbor and analyzed
Authors
Tristen N. Tagliaferri, Shawn C. Fisher, Christopher M. Kephart, Natalie Cheung, Ariel P. Reed, Robert J. Welk
From saline to freshwater: The diversity of western lakes in space and time
Beginning with the nineteenth-century territorial surveys, the lakes and lacustrine deposits in what is now the western United States were recognized for their economic value to the expanding nation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these systems have been acknowledged as outstanding examples of depositional systems serving as models for energy exploration and environmental analysis, m
American and Sacramento Rivers, California, erodibility measurements and model
Executive Summary A previous report by the authors described sediment sampling and drilling by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) beside the American and Sacramento Rivers near Sacramento, California, in support of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project focused on regional flood control. The drilling was performed to define lithology, extract samples for laboratory testing, and perform borehole er
Authors
Paul A. Work, Daniel N. Livsey
The response of streams in the Adirondack region of New York to projected changes in sulfur and nitrogen deposition under changing climate
Modeling studies project that in the future surface waters in the northeast US will continue to recover from acidification over decades following reductions in atmospheric sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. However, these studies generally assume stationary climatic conditions over the simulation period and ignore the linkages between soil and surface water recovery from acid deposition
Authors
Shuai Shao, Douglas A. Burns, Huizhong Shen, Yilin Chen, Armistead G Russell, Charles T. Driscoll