New & Noteworthy

 Ground-Water Availability in the United States (Circular 1323)

 CFP: Conduit Flow Process for MODFLOW-2005

 GSFLOW: A New Model for Simulation of Ground-Water and Surface-Water Interaction

 SEAWAT v4: Simulation of 3D Variable-Density Ground-Water Flow and Transport

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 ground-water 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 ground water discharges to a gaining stream. One of the two formulations used by the model allows for an instantaneous recharge pulse and subsequent ground-water 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, ground-water 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 Ground-Water and Surface-Water Interactions web site.

Point of Contact

Comments about this page can be sent to Paul Barlow.