Developing the next generation of USGS water monitoring technologies
Learn more about how the U.S. Geological Survey is advancing our cutting-edge water monitoring networks to stay ahead of and drive technological innovations.
As communities across the United States continue to face growing challenges to water supply, it is imperative to continually assess water availability as how water quantity and quality change through time and space, while considering who needs the water and what might be affecting the quantity and quality of the water. Simply put, water quality refers to how safe water is for use by humans and water quantity refers to how much water is physically accessible.
Water availability is influenced by human activities, like using water for agriculture, drinking water supplies, and thermoelectric power generation, and by natural events like fires, hurricanes, and drought.
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors water availability throughout the U.S. Data from our monitoring efforts are used to inform water resource management and develop water forecasts and early warnings for emergency response in communities throughout the country.
To ensure that water data are current and relevant, the USGS employs technology to automate monitoring of sites and deliver real-time or near-real-time updates of the status and changes to water measurements.
As technology advances and water challenges of the U.S. evolve, there is an ongoing need to design and evaluate emerging technology to ensure that our monitoring networks remain cutting-edge and provide necessary information at the speed of decision-making.
The Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) is the primary water data collection research arm for the USGS. In 2019, USGS began establishing Integrated Water Science basins in environmentally diverse watersheds to serve as innovation incubators for testing of new monitoring technologies and methods that can be migrated into our national monitoring networks.
Through NGWOS Program’s External Research and Development Project, USGS scientists are collaborating with other government agencies, academic institutions and commercial vendors to develop innovative water resource sensor technologies.
This research and development project will lead to:
- The identification of new sensors or methods that address unmet data needs.
- New partnerships with industry, academia and other federal agencies to develop new sensors or methods.
- The adoption of new methods, sensors, and instruments that result in increased data and/or monitoring cost efficiencies.
Here are some examples of technologies currently undergoing development:
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Once fully operational, this technology has the potential to revolutionize how the USGS collects water quality data at monitoring locations. This technology could allow USGS scientists to collect more data over larger segments of streams, compared to current operational methods and techniques.
The USGS is working in close cooperation with university and private sector partners to advance this technology.
Through a research and development contract with Jaia Robotics, USGS is working to expand the JaiaBot platform capability to add water quality sensors for dissolved oxygen, pH, and fluorescence, as well as cameras to collect imagery data.
In addition, the USGS also has three cooperative agreements with university researchers to perform research into different aspects of JaiaBot.
Scientists from USGS and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth are evaluating the accuracy of measurements from JaiaBot by comparing concurrent measurements using traditional techniques and methods.
The USGS and the University of Alabama have partnered together to develop a miniaturized acoustic modem capable of integration with JaiaBot to provide underwater communication capabilities during deployment.
At the University of Delaware, scientists are developing an algorithm that enables robots to communicate and make decisions for executing a predefined mission in the most efficient way and without human interaction.
Aerial Imagery
In a partnership with the University of Idaho, scientists are researching methods to use aerial imagery (near-field and satellite) to estimate streamflow in streams where standing waves are present. The USGS currently does not have the capability to measure streamflow in situations where standing waves occur, leaving a gap in our monitoring capabilities during periods of extreme flooding.
Should this approach prove effective and become operational, the USGS would have the ability to measure streamflow in situations, and even entire remote areas, where we currently cannot. This could be done by using imagery data that is often freely available or could be easily collected by a field crew onsite using a drone.
The USGS will continue to evaluate new monitoring methods and instruments that result in increased monitoring efficiencies, improved measurement accuracy, new data types, and enhanced temporal and spatial resolution of water data across hydrologic monitoring networks.
Through the NGWOS External Research and Development Project, the USGS will determine which technologies are most promising and develop strategies to transition them from research to national network operations.
To learn more about NGWOS, please visit: Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS).
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