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USGS Groundwater Information > September 3, 2018 Highlights


USGS Monthly Groundwater News and Highlights: September 4, 2018

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Feature: Effect of spatial and temporal scale on simulated groundwater recharge investigations

What effect does scale have on modeling groundwater recharge estimated from large-scale climate data? We presume that modeling over smaller areas and shorter time scales allows us to simulate physical processes more realistically, and thus provide better forecasts for water management decisions. This hypothesis was investigated using a Soil Water Balance model of the upper Colorado River Basin, where some management decisions are based on a ten-year moving average. The authors found that differences in the amount of modeled groundwater recharge were substantial during some seasonal comparisons. But trends in recharge were almost identical across scales, leading to similar conclusions about change from "normal" recharge. Considering the uncertainty inherent in projected climate data, coarser spatial and longer temporal scale input data may be sufficient for water resources managers who need to understand changes in trends in groundwater recharge over water-year or longer time periods. Learn more about this recent USGS study.


 [ Map of upper Colorado River basin study area ]

Figure: Location of the upper Colorado River basin study area within the southwestern United States. Source: Tillman and others, 2018. Figure is in the public domain.


Animation of Groundwater Watch Active Water Level Network, 30 days
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The USGS Active Groundwater Level Network includes about 20,000 wells that have been measured by the USGS or USGS cooperators at least once within the past 13 months. The animation shows a daily snapshot of water-level statistics in the network for August 2018. Credit: USGS. The image is in the public domain.

USGS Groundwater-Related Publications

Differing modes of biotic connectivity within freshwater ecosystem mosaics (08/30/18)

Geologic framework for the national assessment of carbon dioxide storage resources -- Atlantic Coastal Plain and Eastern Mesozoic Rift Basins (08/30/18)

Input data processing tools for the integrated hydrologic model GSFLOW (08/28/18)

Water temperature in the Lower Quinault River, Olympic Peninsula, Washington, June 2016 - August 2017 (08/21/18)

Hydrologic conditions and simulation of groundwater and surface water in the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina (08/24/18)

Evaluating long-term patterns of decreasing groundwater discharge through a lake-bottom permeable reactive barrier (08/20/18)

Status of groundwater-level altitudes and long-term groundwater-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas, 2018 (08/24/18)

Stream-centric methods for determining groundwater contributions in karst mountain watersheds (08/10/18)

Effect of spatial and temporal scale on simulated groundwater recharge investigations (08/10/18)

Variations on a method for evaluating decadal-scale changes in the groundwater quality of two GAMA coastal study units 2004-14, California GAMA Priority Basin Project (08/09/18)

Geologic framework and hydrogeology of the Rio Rico and Nogales 7.5' quadrangles, upper Santa Cruz Basin, Arizona, with three-dimensional hydrogeologic model (08/08/18)

Assessment of water resources in areas that affect the habitat of the endangered Hine's emerald dragonfly in the Lower Des Plaines River Valley, Illinois (08/08/18)

Mechanisms of earthquake‐induced chemical and fluid transport to carbonate groundwater springs after earthquakes (08/06/18)

Brackish groundwater and its potential as a resource in the southwestern United States (08/06/18)

Tritium deposition in precipitation in the United States, 1953-2012 (08/02/18)

Hydrothermal discharge from the El Tatio basin, Atacama, Chile (08/30/18)

Effectiveness of environmental flows for riparian restoration in arid regions: A tale of four rivers (08/06/18)

 

 


Field Photo

Did you know that plants can sometimes help us understand what is happening underground? Studying plants in an area can provide information about soil conditions, water availability, and water quality. In these photos, USGS Oregon Water Science Center hydrologists Brandon Overstreet and Gabe Gordon are using small unoccupied aircraft systems — sUAS or "drones" — to collect information about vegetation on Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in August 2018. The data will be used to improve our understanding of Harney Basin region water resources, including groundwater availability.


 [ Photo of scientist operating small drone in the field ]

Credit: USGS/Cian Dawson. Photo is in the public domain. Click on photo for larger version.

 [ Photo of scientist operating small drone in the field ]

Credit: USGS/Cian Dawson. Photo is in the public domain. Click on photo for larger version.



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Page Last Modified: Tuesday, 04-Sep-2018 15:42:37 EDT