New in GWRP

• Regional Groundwater Studies
  • Groundwater Availability in the United States
• Water Availability Pilot
  • Consumptive water use coefficients for Great Lakes Basin
• Groundwater & the Environment
  • Groundwater 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 groundwater science is being used to assess the long-term availability of groundwater supplies while also addressing the environmental effects of groundwater development on land and surface-water resources. The Groundwater Resources Program recognizes its responsibility to conduct and synthesize groundwater investigations on regional and national scales. The management and policy questions that drive regional assessments of groundwater availability do, in turn, drive and identify fundamental process-oriented groundwater science that can vary across different geographic and hydrogeologic settings. The Groundwater 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 groundwater availability.

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

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