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USGS2024

Hydrologic changes in the Brazos River Basin and implications for Great Plains fishes

Alteration of natural flow regimes from surface water and groundwater resource development has adversely impacted aquatic habitats of resident fish throughout the Great Plains. Two endangered cyprinids, Sharpnose Shiner Notropis oxyrhynchus and Smalleye Shiner N. buccula , were historically found throughout the Brazos River Basin in Texas. However, their range has been greatly reduced by construction of impoundments and stream depletion from groundwater pumping. Successful recruitment requires flowing, unobstructed river reaches of sufficient velocity to suspend semi-buoyant fertilized fish ova. The wide, shallow stream habitats the shiners utilize are now limited to the Upper Brazos River Basin upstream of Possum Kingdom Reservoir. This study assesses the relative importance of long-term climate variability, reservoir construction, and groundwater development on Upper Brazos streamflow regimes by (1) calculating flow metrics (2) evaluating groundwater-surface water interactions and long-term groundwater inflows, and (3) using mixed-effects regression models and Poisson regression. Results show that fish habitat has been threatened through several impacted hydrologic processes: (1) groundwater development has resulted in reduced mean daily flows, peak flows, and zero-flow days, (2) upstream impoundments have increased zero-flow days and reduced mean daily flows, and (3) lower mean daily flows and peak flows now occur during droughts, suggesting water resource development—particularly after 1970—has exacerbated drought effects. We illustrate this approach using the Upper Brazos River Basin; however, the methodology applied can inform management actions to maintain spawning flows for streams in similar altered basins.

Texas↗

USGS2024

Remote sensing evapotranspiration in ensemble-based framework to enhance cascade routing and re-infiltration concept in integrated hydrological model applied to support decision making

Integrated hydrological models (IHMs) help characterize the complexity of surface–groundwater interactions. The cascade routing and re-infiltration (CRR) concept, recently applied to a MODFLOW 6 IHM, improved conceptualization and simulation of overland flow processes. The CRR controls the transfer of rejected infiltration and groundwater exfiltration from upslope areas to adjacent downslope areas where that water can be evaporated, re-infiltrated back to subsurface, or discharged to streams as direct runoff. The partitioning between these three components is controlled by uncertain parameters that must be estimated. Thus, by quantifying and reducing those uncertainties, next to uncertainties of the other model parameters (e.g. hydraulic and storage parameters), the reliability of the CRR is improved and the IHM is better suited for decision support modelling, the two key objectives of this work. To this end, the remotely sensed MODIS-ET product was incorporated into the calibration process for complementing traditional hydraulic head and streamflow observations. A total of approximately 150,000 observations guided the calibration of a 13-year MODFLOW 6 IHM simulation of the Sardon catchment (Spain) with daily stress periods. The model input uncertainty was represented by grid-cell-scale parameterization, yielding approximately 500,000 unknown input parameters to be conditioned. The calibration was carried out through an iterative ensemble smoother. Incorporating the MODIS-ET data improved the CRR implementation, and reduced uncertainties associated with other model parameters. Additionally, it significantly reduced the uncertainty associated with net recharge, a critical flux for water management that cannot be directly measured and rather is commonly estimated by IHM simulations.

Sardon catchment↗

USGS2013

Simulating the water budget of a Prairie Potholes complex from LiDAR and hydrological models in North Dakota, USA

Hydrological processes of the wetland complex in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) are difficult to model, partly due to a lack of wetland morphology data. We used Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data sets to derive wetland features; we then modelled rainfall, snowfall, snowmelt, runoff, evaporation, the “fill-and-spill” mechanism, shallow groundwater loss, and the effect of wet and dry conditions. For large wetlands with a volume greater than thousands of cubic metres (e.g. about 3000 m 3 ), the modelled water volume agreed fairly well with observations; however, it did not succeed for small wetlands (e.g. volume less than 450 m 3 ). Despite the failure for small wetlands, the modelled water area of the wetland complex coincided well with interpretation of aerial photographs, showing a linear regression with R 2 of around 0.80 and a mean average error of around 0.55 km 2 . The next step is to improve the water budget modelling for small wetlands.

North Dakota↗

USGS2009

Deciphering hydrological systems by means of geochemical processes

Interpretation of geochemical reactions and isotopic composition of groundwater provides a method to determine hydrological parameters such as porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and groundwater flow rates. This geochemical method is largely independent of the more conventional approach of determining these parameters by an evaluation of physical properties of aquifer systems. -from Authors

Hydrological Sciences Journal↗

USGS1975

Hydrologic data of the coastal drainage basins of southeastern Massachusetts, Weir River, Hingham, to Jonas River, Kingston

The principal basins are those of Weir River, James Brook, Bound Brook, North River, South River, and Jones River, all draining to Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay. These basins are bounded on the north by the Weymouth River basins, on the west by the Taunton River basin, and on the south by small basins that drain to Cape Cod Bay. The basins included all, or parts of, the Norwell, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Rockland, Scituate, Weymouth, and Whitman. With the following exceptions, each town is served by its own municipal water system--Hingham and northwest Cohasset by the Hingham Water Company; Abington and Rockland by the Abington-Rockland Joint Water Works; and Plympton lacks a public water supply. Weymouth and Cohasset are in Norfolk County; the other towns are in Plymouth County. This report presents, in tabular form, selected records of wells, test wells, borings, and springs; measurements of stream discharge, specific conductance, and temperature at partial-record stations; chemical analyses of ground water and surface water; and a summary of municipal water sources and additional sources available. The data were collected during a study of the drainage basins from 1969 to 1971 in cooperation with the Massachusetts Water Resources Commission. The report is released in order to make available to the public and to local, state, and federal agencies basic hydrologic information that may aid in planning water-resources development. Basic records contained in this report and streamflow data published elsewhere (U.S. Geol. Survey, 1960 et seq.) complement an interpretive report (Williams and Tasker, 1974).

Massachusetts↗

USGS1966

Hydrology and physiography of the Salton Sea, California

The increased utilization of the Salton Sea and its shore for recreation, the development of residential complexes on its shore, and the encroachment of the sea into these developments have emphasized the need for a concise summary of hydrologic and physiographic information concerning the area. This report attempts to fill that need. The report was authorized by a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Department of Water Resources. It was prepared under the general direction of Walter Hofmann, district chief of the Water Resources Division of the Geological Survey, at Menlo Park.

California↗

USGS1995

Hydrologic aspects of Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina, September 1989

Hurricane Hugo, with winds in excess of 135 miles per hour(mi/h), made landfall near Charleston, S.C., early on the morning of September 22, 1989. It was the most destructive hurricane ever experienced in South Carolina. The storm caused 35 deaths and $7 billion in property damage in South Carolina (Purvis, 1990). This report documents some hydrologic effects of Hurricane Hugo along the South Carolina coast. The report includes maps showing storm-tide stage and profiles of the maximum storm-tide stages along the outer coast. Storm-tide stage frequency information is presented and changes in beach morphology and water quality of coastal streams resulting from the storm are described.

South Carolina↗

USGS1974

Hydrologic Unit Map -- 1974, State of Kentucky

This map and accompanying table show Hydrologic Units that are basically hydrographic in nature. The Cataloging Units shown will supplant the Cataloging Units previously used by the U.S. Geological Survey in its Catalog of Information on Water Data (1966-72). The previous U.S. Geological Survey Catalog-Indexing System was by map number and letter, such as 49M.

Kentucky↗

USGS1974

Hydrologic Unit Map -- 1974, Minnesota

Minnesota↗

USGS2023

Improvements and evaluation of the agro-hydrologic VegET model for large-area water budget analysis and drought monitoring

We enhanced the agro-hydrologic VegET model to include snow accumulation and melt processes and the separation of runoff into surface runoff and deep drainage. Driven by global weather datasets and parameterized by land surface phenology (LSP), the enhanced VegET model was implemented in the cloud to simulate daily soil moisture (SM), actual evapotranspiration (ETa), and runoff (R) for the conterminous United States (CONUS) and the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). Evaluation of the VegET model with independent data showed satisfactory performance, capturing the temporal variability of SM (Pearson correlation r: 0.22–0.97), snowpack (r: 0.86–0.88), ETa (r: 0.41–0.97), and spatial variability of R (r: 0.81–0.90). Absolute magnitudes showed some biases, indicating the need of calibrating the model for water budget analysis. The seasonal Landscape Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (L-WRSI) for CONUS and GHA showed realistic depictions of drought hazard extent and severity, indicating the usefulness of the L-WRSI for the convergence of an evidence toolkit used by the Famine Early Warning System Network to monitor potential food insecurity conditions in different parts of the world. Using projected weather datasets and landcover-based LSP, the VegET model can be used not only for global monitoring of drought conditions, but also for evaluating scenarios on the effect of a changing climate and land cover on agriculture and water resources.

Horn of Africa↗

USGS2015

Estimating mean long-term hydrologic budget components for watersheds and counties: An application to the commonwealth of Virginia, USA

Mean long-term hydrologic budget components, such as recharge and base flow, are often difficult to estimate because they can vary substantially in space and time. Mean long-term fluxes were calculated in this study for precipitation, surface runoff, infiltration, total evapotranspiration (ET), riparian ET, recharge, base flow (or groundwater discharge) and net total outflow using long-term estimates of mean ET and precipitation and the assumption that the relative change in storage over that 30-year period is small compared to the total ET or precipitation. Fluxes of these components were first estimated on a number of real-time-gaged watersheds across Virginia. Specific conductance was used to distinguish and separate surface runoff from base flow. Specific-conductance (SC) data were collected every 15 minutes at 75 real-time gages for approximately 18 months between March 2007 and August 2008. Precipitation was estimated for 1971-2000 using PRISM climate data. Precipitation and temperature from the PRISM data were used to develop a regression-based relation to estimate total ET. The proportion of watershed precipitation that becomes surface runoff was related to physiographic province and rock type in a runoff regression equation. A new approach to estimate riparian ET using seasonal SC data gave results consistent with those from other methods. Component flux estimates from the watersheds were transferred to flux estimates for counties and independent cities using the ET and runoff regression equations. Only 48 of the 75 watersheds yielded sufficient data, and data from these 48 were used in the final runoff regression equation. Final results for the study are presented as component flux estimates for all counties and independent cities in Virginia. The method has the potential to be applied in many other states in the U.S. or in other regions or countries of the world where climate and stream flow data are plentiful.

Hydrology: Current Research↗

USGS2017

Hydrologic and geomorphic changes resulting from episodic glacial lake outburst floods: Rio Colonia, Patagonia, Chile

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a prominent but poorly understood cryospheric hazard in a warming climate. We quantify the hydrologic and geomorphic response to 21 episodic GLOFs that began in April 2008 using multitemporal satellite imagery and field observations. Peak discharge exiting the source lake became progressively muted downstream. At ~40–60 km downstream, where the floods entered and traveled down the main stem Rio Baker, peak discharges were generally < 2000 m 3 s −1 , although these flows were still >1–2 times the peak annual discharge of this system, Chile's largest river by volume. As such, caution must be applied to empirical relationships relating lake volume to peak discharge, as the latter is dependent on where this observation is made along the flood path. The GLOFs and subsequent periods of free drainage resulted in > 40 m of incision, the net removal of ~25 × 10 6 m 3 of sediment from the source lake basin, and a nonsteady channel configuration downstream. These results demonstrate that GLOFs sourced from low‐order tributaries can produce significant floods on major main stem rivers, in addition to significantly altering sediment dynamics.

Cachet‐Colonia‐Baker Valley, Patagonia, Rio Coloni↗

USGS2016

On the deterministic and stochastic use of hydrologic models

Environmental simulation models, such as precipitation-runoff watershed models, are increasingly used in a deterministic manner for environmental and water resources design, planning, and management. In operational hydrology, simulated responses are now routinely used to plan, design, and manage a very wide class of water resource systems. However, all such models are calibrated to existing data sets and retain some residual error. This residual, typically unknown in practice, is often ignored, implicitly trusting simulated responses as if they are deterministic quantities. In general, ignoring the residuals will result in simulated responses with distributional properties that do not mimic those of the observed responses. This discrepancy has major implications for the operational use of environmental simulation models as is shown here. Both a simple linear model and a distributed-parameter precipitation-runoff model are used to document the expected bias in the distributional properties of simulated responses when the residuals are ignored. The systematic reintroduction of residuals into simulated responses in a manner that produces stochastic output is shown to improve the distributional properties of the simulated responses. Every effort should be made to understand the distributional behavior of simulation residuals and to use environmental simulation models in a stochastic manner.

Water Resources Research↗

USGS2021

Modeling the impacts of hydrology and management on carbon balance at the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia and North Carolina, USA

The impact of drainage on the stability of peatland carbon sinks is well known; however, much less is understood regarding the way active management of the water-table affects carbon balance. In this study, we determined the carbon balance in the Great Dismal Swamp, a large, forested peatland in the southeastern USA, which has been drained for over two hundred years and is now being restored through hydrologic management. We modeled future net ecosystem carbon balance over 100 years (2012 to 2112) using in situ field observations paired with simulations of water-table depth. The three scenarios used in the model were baseline conditions, flooded/wet conditions, and drained/dry conditions, which represent a range of potential management actions and climate conditions at the Great Dismal Swamp. In the Baseline scenario, results show a carbon sink of 0.7 Tg, or an average annual rate of 0.23 Mg C/ha/yr. The Flooded/Wet scenario produced a net ecosystem carbon balance of 4.6 Tg C or an average annual rate of 1.06 Mg C/ha/yr. For the Drained/Dry scenario, under which no management was conducted, and typically dry conditions were assumed, the Great Dismal Swamp becomes a net carbon source at –2.07 Tg C or an average annual rate of –0.38 Mg C/ha/yr.

North Carolina, Virginia↗

USGS2022

Hydrologic modification and channel evolution degrades connectivity on the Atchafalaya River floodplain

The Atchafalaya River Basin is the largest remaining forested wetland in the contiguous United States. Since 1960, dredging and channel erosion in the Basin have resulted in changes to the hydrologic connectivity that have not been quantified. Analyses were conducted to determine the hydraulic and geomorphic factors that have changed since discharge became controlled that may have decreased river/floodplain connectivity. We examined: (1) stage/discharge relationships from 1960 to 2014; (2) hydroperiods across the floodplain; (3) discharge distribution to the floodplain by comparing discharge measurements from 1959–1968 to 2005–2012; and (4) channel cross-sections and floodplain elevations. Our results indicate that much of the floodplain no longer receives headwater discharge (upstream to downstream, > 200 km 2 ) or receives too little discharge to alleviate stagnancy and hypoxia in the forested wetland at lower stages. Large portions of the Basin (400 km 2 ) have low water levels controlled by channel geomorphology and sea-level rise that inundate the forested floodplain for more than 50% of the calendar year. This extended duration of inundation contributes to hypoxia and likely reduces nutrient retention. The confinement of discharge to a large efficient channel compromises the ability of this system to respond to sea-level rise and subsidence. This study provides insight to the effects of flood management projects along Coastal Plain rivers and deltas.

Louisiana↗

USGS2022

A hydrologic perspective of major U.S. droughts

Drought is a recurring natural hazard that has substantial human and environmental impacts. Given continued global warming and associated climate change, there is concern that droughts could become more severe and longer lasting. To better monitor and understand drought development and persistence, it is helpful to understand the development and climatic drivers of past droughts. In this study we use monthly runoff percentiles to identify five major drought events in the conterminous United States (CONUS) from 1901 through 2020. For each drought event we examined spatial patterns of departures of mean monthly precipitation, temperature, soil moisture storage, and runoff for 2,107 hydrologic units (HUs) across the CONUS. Results indicated that precipitation deficits have been the primary driver of past major-drought events and temperature a secondary driver, even of the most recent drought event (September 1999 through September 2015) when positive temperature anomalies occurred over most of the CONUS. Additionally, negative soil moisture storage departures were more negative than runoff departures during the five drought events we examined, which emphasizes the importance of measuring both runoff and soil moisture to monitor drought conditions. We also examined the use of statistical persistence to develop short-term (i.e., 1 month) forecasts of runoff drought conditions in the CONUS by developing autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models for each HU. Results indicated that persistence can be used to predict short-term changes in the spatial pattern of drought and the areal extent of drought, but that predictions of runoff magnitude for any particular site are often poor.

International Journal of Climatology↗

USGS2021

A stable isotope record of late Quaternary hydrologic change in the northwestern Brooks Range, Alaska (eastern Beringia)

A submillennial-resolution record of lake water oxygen isotope composition (δ 18 O) from chironomid head capsules is presented from Burial Lake, northwest Alaska. The record spans the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~20–16k cal a bp ) to the present and shows a series of large lake δ 18 O shifts (~5‰). Relatively low δ 18 O values occurred during a period covering the LGM, when the lake was a shallow, closed-basin pond. Higher values characterize deglaciation (~16–11.5k cal a bp ) when the lake was still closed but lake levels were higher. A rapid decline between ~11 and 10.5k cal a bp indicates that lake levels rose to overflowing. Lake δ 18 O values are interpreted to reflect the combined effects of changes in lake hydrology, growing season temperature and meteoric source water as well as large-scale environmental changes impacting this site, including opening of the Bering Strait and shifts in atmospheric circulation patterns related to ice-sheet dynamics. The results indicate significant shifts in precipitation minus evaporation across the late Pleistocene to early Holocene transition, which are consistent with temporal patterns of vegetation change and paludification. This study provides new perspectives on the paleohydrology of eastern Beringia concomitant with human migration and major turnover in megafaunal assemblages.

Alaska↗

USGS2021

Hydrologic effects on growth and hatching success of age-0 Channel Catfish in the Tallapoosa River basin: Implications for management in regulated systems

We assessed the effects of hydrology on growth and hatching success of age‐0 Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus in regulated and unregulated reaches of the Tallapoosa River basin, Alabama. Age‐0 Channel Catfish ( N = 91) were collected from sites in both the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions in fall 2003 and fall 2005. Lapillus otoliths were used to estimate the daily ages of age‐0 Channel Catfish, for which hatch dates were back‐calculated. We performed growth analysis to determine growth histories of each fish at 20‐d increments from hatch. Across the 2 years of sampling, Channel Catfish hatches were documented from June 7 to September 15. Ages and growth rates of age‐0 Channel Catfish ranged from 20 to 126 d and 0.60 to 1.5 mm/d, respectively. In general, growth was highest among age‐0 Channel Catfish from unregulated sites in the lower Coastal Plain, lowest among fish from unregulated sites in the Piedmont, and intermediate from regulated sites in the Piedmont. Successful hatching typically occurred during periods when mean discharges were in the upper two quartiles of flows for each site but not during exceptionally high peaks in flow. Physiographic province, the frequency of high pulses, and the number of flow reversals were the most important factors influencing the growth of recently hatched Channel Catfish. Results suggest that a low to moderate frequency of high pulses (25–150 pulses per 20‐d increment) and a moderate number of flow reversals (~100–175 reversals per 20‐d increment) enhances early growth of Channel Catfish in the Tallapoosa River system. Managing flow, when possible, to minimize large releases of water that result in exceptionally high pulses and providing minimal hydropeaking may improve hatching success during the Channel Catfish spawning season.

Alabama↗