Selected USGS Groundwater Publications

• • Recent Publications
  • Introductory Documents on Groundwater Hydrology
  • National Overviews
  • Circulars
  • Fact Sheets
  • Training & Methods Documents
  • Conference Proceedings
  • Groundwater Modeling and Hydraulics
  • Data Collection
  • Water Use
  • Links to Additional USGS Publications

New & Noteworthy

 ModelMuse: Graphical User Interface for MODFLOW-2005 and PHAST (TM 6-A29)

 Groundwater: Ground water versus groundwater (OGW Technical Memo 2009.03)

 Field Techniques for Estimating Water Fluxes Between Surface Water and Ground Water (TM 4–D2)

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

USGS in Your State

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Selected USGS Groundwater Publications

Recent Groundwater Publications

• Ground-Water Availability in the United States
• Ground-water recharge in the arid and semiarid southwestern United States
• USGS Karst Interest Group Proceedings 2008
• Water Budgets: Foundations for effective water-resources and environmental management

Introductory Documents on Groundwater Hydrology

• Ground Water (General Interest Publication)
• The Water Cycle (Water Science Basics Web Site)
• Basic ground-water hydrology (WSP 2220), by Ralph C. Heath
• Ground Water and the Rural Homeowner (General Interest Publication)
• What Is Ground Water (OFR 93-643)
• Ground Water And Surface Water: A Single Resource (Circular 1139)
• Aquifer Basics (Web site)
• Glossaries for Water Resources Terms

National Overviews

• Ground Water Atlas of the United States
• Aquifer Maps on the National Atlas
  (Printed wall map, 1:7,500,000 and spatial data sets, 1:2,500,000)
  • Principal Aquifers of the United States
  • Aquifers of Alluvial and Glacial Origin
• Bibliography of Regional aquifer system analysis (RASA) studies, 1978-96 (WRIR 97-4074)
• Flow and Storage in Groundwater Systems (from Science Magazine, June 14, 2002)
• A Brief History of Contributions to Ground Water Hydrology by the USGS (from Ground Water, July-August, 2004)
• Strategic Directions for the U.S. Geological Survey Ground-Water Resources Program - A Report to Congress (1998)

USGS Circulars

USGS Circulars are directed at general or scientific audiences and present short summaries or articles of short-term, popular, or local interest.

• Ground-Water Availability in the United States (Circular 1323)
• Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-Resources and Environmental Management (Circular 1308)
• Estimated Withdrawals From Principal Aquifers in the United States, 2000 (Circular 1279)
• Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 (Circular 1268)
• Ground Water in Freshwater-Saltwater Environments of the Atlantic Coast (Circular 1262)
• Heat as a tool for studying the movement of ground water near streams (Circular 1260)
• Evolving issues and practices in managing ground-water resources - Case studies on the role of science (Circular 1247)
• Water in storage and approaches to ground-water management, High Plains Aquifer, 2000 (Circular 1243)
• Assessing Ground-Water Vulnerability To Contamination: Providing Scientifically Defensible Information For Decision Makers (Circular 1224)
• Report to Congress -- Concepts for National Assessment of Water Availability and Use (Circular 1223)
• Ground-water resources of the Middle Rio Grande Basin, New Mexico (Circular 1222)
• Ground-Water-Level Monitoring and the Importance of Long-Term Water-Level Data (Circular 1217)
• Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 1995 (Circular 1200)
• Sustainability of ground-water resources (Circular 1186)
• Land Subsidence in the United States (Circular 1182)
• Estimating Areas Contributing Recharge to Wells -- Lessons from Previous Studies (Circular 1174)
• Ground Water And Surface Water: A Single Resource (Circular 1139)
• Summary of selected computer programs produced by the USGS for simulation of ground-water flow and quality - 1994 (Circular 1104)
  • Updates to USGS Circular 1104 (Updated 8/29/07)

USGS Fact Sheets

USGS Water-Resources Fact Sheets are concise and timely publications that describe programs, projects, products, and water-resources topics to either a general or professional audience.

• Ground-water recharge in humid areas of the United States (Fact Sheet 2007-3007)
• USGS Ground-Water Climate Response Network (Fact Sheet 2007-3003)
• USGS Ground-Water Resources Program (Fact Sheet 2005-3097)
• Use of Simulation-Optimization Modeling to Assess Regional Ground-Water Systems (Fact Sheet 2005-3095)
• Using temperature to study stream-ground water exchanges (Fact Sheet 2004-3010)
• Ground Water Depletion Across the Nation (Fact Sheet 103-03)
• Earthquakes - Rattling the Earth's Plumbing System (Fact Sheet 096-03)
• Desalination of Ground Water: Earth Science Perspectives (Fact Sheet 075-03)
• Measuring human-induced land subsidence from space (Fact Sheet 069-03)
• Fractured-rock aquifers - Understanding an increasingly important source of water (Fact Sheet 112-02)
• Real-time Ground-Water Data For The Nation (Fact Sheet 090-01)
• Land Subsidence in the United States (Fact Sheet 165-00)
• Desert Basins of the Southwest (Fact Sheet 086-00)
• Atlantic Coastal Zone (Fact Sheet 085-00)
• Tracing and dating young ground water (Fact Sheet 134-99)
• Modeling Ground-Water Flow with MODFLOW and Related Programs (Fact Sheet 121-97)

USGS Training and Methods Documents

Techniques and Methods Reports are directed at technically oriented audiences and present methods and techniques used in collecting, analyzing, and processing hydrologic data

• USGS Publications useful for education and training in ground-water hydrology (50KB PDF)
• USGS Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations (TWRI)
• USGS Techniques and Methods Reports (TM)

USGS Conference Proceedings

• USGS Karst Interest Group Proceedings, Bowling Green, Kentucky, May 27-29, 2008 (SIR 2008-5023)
• Subsidence Interest Group Conference, Proceedings of the Technical Meeting, Galveston, Texas, November 27-29, 2001 (OFR 03-308)
• USGS Artificial Recharge Workshop Proceedings, Sacramento, California, April 2-4, 2002 (OFR 02-89)
• Effects of Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) on Hydrologic Resources and the Environment -- Proceedings of the 1999 USGS conference (OFR 00-204)

Groundwater Modeling and Hydraulics

• Harbaugh, A.W., 2005, MODFLOW-2005, The U.S. Geological Survey modular ground-water model -- the Ground-Water Flow Process (TM 6-A16)
• Barlow, P.M., and Harbaugh, A.W., 2006, USGS Directions in MODFLOW Development (Ground Water) (80KB PDF)
• Reilly, T.E., and Harbaugh, A.W. , 2004, Guidelines for evaluating ground-water flow models (SIR2004-5038)
• System And Boundary Conceptualization In Ground-Water Flow Simulation (TWRI Book 3, Chapter B8)
• GWM - A Ground-Water Management Process for the USGS Modular Ground-Water Model (OFR 2005-1072)

Aquifer Tests

• Computer program (WTAQ) for analysis of aquifer tests in confined and water-table aquifers Barlow, P.M., and Moench, A.F., (WRIR 99-4225)
• Spreadsheets for the Analysis of Aquifer-Test and Slug-Test Data, Halford, K.J.and Kuniansky, E.L., 2002 (OFR 02-197)

MODFLOW Resources

• MODFLOW-2005 software and user guides
• MODFLOW-2000 software and user guides
• Ahlfeld, D.P., Barlow, P.M., and Mulligan, A.E., 2005, GWM—A Ground–Water Management Process for the U.S. Geological Survey Modular Ground–Water Model (MODFLOW–2000) (OFR 2005-1072)
• Jörn Hoffmann, S.A. Leake, D.L. Galloway, and Alicia M. Wilson, 2003, MODFLOW-2000 Ground-Water Model - User Guide to the Subsidence and Aquifer-System Compaction (SUB) Package (OFR 03-233)
• D.E. Prudic, L.F. Konikow, and E.R. Banta, 2004, A New Streamflow-Routing (SFR1) package to simulate stream-aquifer interaction with MODFLOW-2000 (OFR 04-1042)
• Langevin, C.D., Thorne, D.T., Jr., Dausman, A.M., Sukop, M.C., and Guo, Weixing, 2007, SEAWAT Version 4: A Computer Program for Simulation of Multi-Species Solute and Heat Transport (Techniques and Methods Book 6, Chapter A22)
• Computer programs for Telescopic Mesh Refinement using MODFLOW-96 Leake and Claar, 1999, OFR 99-238)
• Markstrom, S.L., Niswonger, R.G., Regan, R.S., Prudic, D.E., and Barlow, P.M., 2008, GSFLOW - Coupled Ground-water and Surface-water FLOW model based on the integration of the PRMS and MODFLOW-2005 (Techniques and Methods 6-D1)

Data Collection

• Field Techniques for Estimating Water Fluxes Between Surface Water and Ground Water (Techniques and Methods 4-D2)
• A Quality-Assurance Plan for District Ground-Water Activities of the USGS (OFR 97-11)
• Ground-Water Data-Collection Protocols and Procedures for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program: Selection, Installation, and Documentation of Wells, and Collection of Related Data (OFR 95-398)
• Ground-Water Data-Collection Protocols and Procedures for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program: Collection and Documentation of Water-Quality Samples and Related Data (OFR 95-399)
• National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data (TWRI Book 9 Section A)

Water Use

• Estimated Withdrawals From Principal Aquifers in the United States, 2000 (Circ 1279)
• Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 (Circ 1268)
• Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 1995 (Circ 1200)
• Interagency Report: National Handbook of Recommended Methods for Water Data Acquisition -- Chapter 11 - Water Use
• Guidelines for preparation of State water-use estimates for 2000 (TM 4-4A)

Links to Additional USGS Publications

• USGS Maps, Imagery, and Publications
• USGS Publications Warehouse
• USGS Library
• Water-Resources Publications

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