Flood

From July 9 through July 12, 2023, 3 to 9 inches of rain fell within 48 hours across the state of Vermont, causing catastrophic flooding and millions of dollars in damage. The high amount of rain caused several rivers to peak at record levels, in some cases exceeding records set during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with Acadia National Park, is assessing the vulnerability of the park’s streams, culverts, and bridges to flood damage and erosion using design flows for selected high streamflow recurrence intervals to inform management decisions on infrastructure upgrades.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), began a series of studies in 2019 to develop a GIS-based hydraulic modeling tool and to provide preliminary culvert designs for stream-crossing replacement projects in Massachusetts on USGS StreamStats.

The term environmental streamflows refers to the magnitude, frequency, seasonal timing, duration, and rate of change of streamflows needed to sustain freshwater and estuary ecosystems and human wellbeing. It is important that environmental streamflow assessments by water managers consider changes in climate, land use, and water management; this cannot be done effectively without understanding...

2018 Nor’easters in Coastal Massachusetts

On August 28, 2011 Tropical Storm Irene made landfall in New England, leading to coastal storm surge, significant riverine flooding, sediment transport to Long Island Sound, and major infrastructure damage and destruction. Ten years later, the USGS New England Water Science Center looks back at Irene, the data collected by our Center during the event, the response by our employees before, during...

The USGS delivers continuous streamflow, stage (water-level), and tide data to help emergency managers and other decision makers protect life and property caused by floods and other water-related hazards.

FEMA has requested USGS expertise in hydraulics, hydrology, and mapping to generate flood insurance maps for New England.

The purpose of this work is to better understand the effects of dam removal on local hydraulics, fish passage, and flooding. This study is part of a larger effort to monitor ecological resilience changes at nine Hurricane Sandy coastal resiliency aquatic connectivity restoration projects. It will contribute crucial knowledge that will be used to improve aquatic connectivity system cost...

Hydrologic droughts and floods can have severe impacts on river infrastructure, water supply, and ecosystem functioning.

The flood-frequency characteristics for streamgages and regression equations for estimating flood magnitudes have been published.

Knowledge of the magnitude and frequency of floods is needed for the effective and safe design of bridges, culverts, and other structures. This information is also important for flood-plain planning and management. Periodic examination of flood-frequency characteristics is essential to ensure the best estimates of flood magnitudes for a given annual exceedance probabilities (AEP).