USGS WaterSMART activities

• Research Topics

  • Streamflow
  • Groundwater
  • Evaporative Loss
  • Water Use
  • Ecological Water
  • Water Quality

• Focus Area Studies

  • Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin
  • Colorado River Basin
  • Delaware River Basin

• Pilot Studies

  • Southwest Alluvial Basins
  • Great Lakes (U.S.)

• • Resources/Links

The National Water Census is a USGS research program on national water availability and use that develops new water accounting tools and assesses water availability at the regional and national scales. Through the Water Census, USGS is integrating diverse research on water availability and use and enhancing the understanding of connection between water quality and water availability. Research is designed to build decision support capacity for water management agencies and other natural resource managers. It is one of six major science directions identified by the USGS in its 2007 Science Plan and is called for in the SECURE Water Act and implemented through the Department of the Interior WaterSMART initiative.

  For more scientific background on the Water Census, visit the Water Budgets page.

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	Two national efforts which laid the groundwork for the USGS National Water Census are presented here for historical reference. The first was a systematic, if rudimentary, national effort titled "The Nation's Water Resources" released in 1968 by the U.S. Water Resources Council. A decade later the Council released a more comprehensive report titled "The Nation's Water Resources 1975-2000".
	This report fulfills a requirement to report to Congress on progress in implementing the national water availability and use assessment program, which was established within USGS as called for in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Also referred to as the National Water Census, this USGS program synthesizes and reports information at the regional and national scales, with an emphasis on compiling and reporting the information in a way that is useful to states and others responsible for water management and natural-resource issues. Read the USGS Circular>>>
	The Colorado River is a critical water supply for much of the Southwestern United States and is one of three Focus Area Studies launched by USGS as part of the WaterSMART initiative. USGS is currently investigating water availability in the basin using a scientific approach to documenting certain components of the water cycle, including current water use, water losses from evapotranspiration and sublimation from snowpack, and groundwater discharge to streams. This "water budget" approach will provide information to stakeholders making management decisions in the basin. Read the USGS Factsheet>>>
	In July 2011, as part of WaterSMART, USGS documented hydrologic and water-quality conditions in the lower Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and western and central Aucilla-Suwannee-Ochlockonee River basins in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia during low-flow conditions. Moderate drought conditions prevailed in this area during early 2011 and worsened to exceptional by June, when researchers measured water quality properties and took measurements of groundwater levels. Read the USGS Scientific Investigation Report>>>
	In 2011, as part of an overall project to better understand how to systematically collect and analyze water use data, USGS compared irrigation data collected by the USGS with other sources to begin to develop a standardized approach. The study led to a series of recommendations on future data collection. Read the USGS Scientific Investigation Report>>>