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Elements of the Initiative

Water Use Science. Man has had a profound effect on the hydrologic cycle throughout the post-development era. We change the run-off characteristics of the landscape, we affect how much water evaporates to the atmosphere, and we consume water in a watershed and transfer it to other watersheds before it is returned to the environment. Understanding man’s use of water and how man moves water on the landscape is the science of water use. This initiative will devote significant resources to better understanding and quantifying water use in the Nation and to apply statistical rigor to the information that we use. Water use will be estimated by 1) integrating national, state, and private databases of population, housing, climatological, agricultural, and economic information; 2) developing statistical relations between these data sets and metered withdrawal and delivery data for users across the region; and 3) using these relations to estimate water use (demand) across the region by small geographic areas. Many other partners in all levels of government, industry, agriculture, water purveyors, and interest groups have much knowledge to share in this arena and we will develop means to incorporate their information. Read more about water use in the United States.

National Infrastructure. Water availability can not be adequately studied without good and timely data. We have learned that during droughts, just as with floods, water resource managers need quality data that is real time in delivery. For that reason, significant resources ($2.0 M) in this initiative will be devoted to installation of new high data rate antennae on the Nation’s streamgaging network to provide for reliable real time transmission. Additionally, up to 50 critical streamgages discontinued in the past 2 decades will be reestablished in the network. A series of indicators of water availability and use will be developed and an on-line statistical summary of these conditions will be created and updated as new assessments are completed. Geologic framework is important to understand ground-water systems by defining the architecture and extent of the vessel that holds our Nation's ground water. Without an accurate understanding of the subsurface and interactions at the surface, estimates of available water will be crude at best.  Geologic and hydrologic frameworks integrate complex databases: (1) geologic mapping, (2) geophysical surveys, (3) geochronology, (4) three-dimensional modeling, and (5) geochemistry (as illustrated in USGS Fact Sheet 2006-3145). New cyber infrastructure will be developed to support effective delivery and sharing of datasets used in the assessments. Finally, database enhancements will be made to allow incorporation of State and other Federal agency information into the assessments.

Study Units. The USGS transmitted a report to Congress in 2002 entitled “Concepts for National Assessment of Water Availability and Use, Circular 1223.” The circular outlines a broad framework by which a national assessment could take place and advocates using 21 water resource regions for the study units. These regions are depicted on Figure 1 and the boundaries follow the HUC 2 accounting unit boundaries for the Nation. It will be the objective of this initiative to complete a study in each of these 21 regions within 10 years. Each Region will be studied for a three year period during which time the USGS will test for trends in streamflow and ground water storage, examine changes in surface-water storage and diversions, aquifer yields and recharge, determine water use in the region and help define the role it plays in the changing hydrology, and provide improved tools for forecasting future demands for water based on forecasts of future population and economic activity in the Region. About half of the Regions will be provided resources to more intensively study priority watersheds within the Region. The more intensive studies will focus particularly on the issues of the interplay between streamflow and ecosystem needs and also enhance the understanding of the connections between ground water and surface water in the basin to better define sustainable levels of water use. Geologic mapping of features important to understanding the hydrology will be provided to these intensive studies. Results of the assessment will be published in USGS reports and all data will be permanently archived in Survey databases for future use.

Cooperation with other Agencies and Stakeholders. The USGS will be working over the next eight months with our stakeholders to further develop this initiative. A number of meetings are already planned, and more will be held, to work with stakeholders on identifying approaches and priorities for this important effort. We want to hear about the information that they view useful to the assessment process, how best to assess regional priorities and what kinds of products will be most useful to the resource management agencies and help to increase public understanding of the water availability issue.