New in GWRP

• Regional Ground-Water Studies
  • Ground-Water Availability in the United States
• Water Availability Pilot
  • Consumptive water use coefficients for Great Lakes Basin
• Ground Water & the Environment
  • Ground-Water Recharge in Southwestern US
• Methods & Modeling
  • SEAWAT v4--Simulation of 3D variable-density ground--water flow and transport
• Data & Information
  • Water-Level changes in aquifers of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, predevelopment to 2000

USGS in Your State

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Ground Water & the Environment

Process-oriented ground-water science is being used to assess the long-term availability of ground-water supplies while also addressing the environmental effects of ground-water development on land and surface-water resources. The Ground-Water Resources Program recognizes its responsibility to conduct and synthesize ground-water investigations on regional and national scales. The management and policy questions that drive regional assessments of ground-water availability do, in turn, drive and identify fundamental process-oriented ground water science that can vary across different geographic and hydrogeologic settings. The Ground-Water Resources Program is well suited to conduct these investigations of priority science issues and place them in a regional context that will clearly complement current efforts to assess the Nation’s ground-water availability.

Priority science issues of interest will be addressed as resources allow. Examples of these process-oriented ground-water science issues include:

• Ground-water recharge
  • Climate Variability Effects
  • Ground Water Age Dating & Recharge
  • Chloride Mass Balance in Streams to Estimate Recharge
• Ground-water processes in complex geologic environments -- karst and fractured aquifers
• Ground water/surface water interactions
• Freshwater/saltwater interactions
• Characterizations of subsurface heterogeneity (aquifer properties)
• Subsidence
• Ground-water quality and movement