New & Noteworthy

  TWRI-B3 Chapter 2: Introduction to Ground-Water Hydaulics [12MB PDF], now with internal document links added

  Groundwater-Level Response to Virginia 2011 Earthquake

  Groundwater Technical Procedures of the USGS

 WTAQ Version 2 — Computer program for calculating drawdowns and estimating hydraulic properties for confined and water-table aquifers

 FLASH: A Computer Program for Flow-Log Analysis of Single Holes

USGS in Your State

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

PULSE: Model-Estimated Ground-Water Recharge and Hydrograph of Ground-Water Discharge to a Stream

This web site includes information about the PULSE computer program for analyzing a streamflow record.  The version at this site will read streamflow data in the format that is available from USGS web sites.

Overview

The computer model PULSE can be used to construct a hydrograph of groundwater discharge to a stream. The model is applicable to a ground-water flow system that is driven by areally uniform recharge to the water table, and in which groundwater discharges to a gaining stream. One of the two formulations used by the model allows for an instantaneous recharge pulse and subsequent groundwater discharge to the stream. The other formulation, which allows for a gradual hydrologic gain or loss term in addition to the instantaneous pulse, can be used to simulate the effects of gradual recharge to the water table, groundwater evapotranspiration, or downward leakage to a deeper aquifer.

• User Guide for the Pulse Program (USGS OFR 02-455)
• Download software executable files and sample data sets (643kb ZIP file, updated January 2007)
• Download fortran source code (15kb ZIP file)

Program users should be aware of recent data issues (12kb PDF).

Background Literature

There are two publications which will provide valuable information to the hydrologist who is using the PULSE program. The first documents the theoretical basis and mathematical model. The program user should read this report. The second report provides additional information that may be useful to some program users. This report shows a particular application of the program (a forward model) for evaluating an inverse model. The second report includes useful information about applicability of the method and the recession index.

• Model-Estimated Ground-Water Recharge and Hydrograph of Ground-Water Discharge to a Stream: USGS WRIR 97-4253
• Considerations for Use of the Rora Program to Estimate Ground-Water Recharge from Streamflow Records: USGS OFR 00-156

Useful Resources

• Obtaining streamflow data from a USGS web site
• USGS Water Resources Applications Software
• USGS Groundwater and Surface-Water Interactions web site.

Point of Contact

Comments about this page can be sent to Paul Barlow.

Other USGS Groundwater Software

The USGS develops groundwater, water-quality, surface-water, and other water-resources software for use by the USGS in fulfilling its mission. Most of this software is available online for download at no charge.

Disclaimers and Notices

Please refer to the USGS Software User Rights Notice for complete use, copyright, and distribution information. The USGS provides no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the correctness of the furnished software or the suitability for any purpose. The software has been tested, but as with any complex software, there could be undetected errors. Users who find errors are requested to report them to the USGS.

References to non-USGS products, trade names, and (or) services are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsement or warranty, express or implied, by the USGS, U.S. Department of Interior, or U.S. Government, as to their suitability, content, usefulness, functioning, completeness, or accuracy.

Note: Some or all of this information is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of the free Adobe Reader from the Adobe web site.  Visit http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/  for free tools that allow visually impaired users to read PDF files.