Hydrologic Modeling

Groundwater flow model of the Santa Clara Valley.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) is considering plans for developing a new park at the confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco. These plans include removing channel lining and creating a temporary lake using an inflatable rubber dam. Before implementing the plan, a wide array of scientific and engineering issues must be addressed. The U.S. Geological...

The Hi Desert Water District (HDWD) provides water service to about 10,000 customers in the areas of Yucca Valley, Yucca Mesa, and some unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County. The study area is the 19 square mile Warren subbasin of the Morongo groundwater basin (approximately 100 miles east of Los Angeles, California).

The USGS works in cooperation with local, State, and Federal agencies to compile and disseminate data on the Nation's water use. The annual water-use estimates are reported at the county, State, and national levels and provide fundamental input to regional hydrologic models. These estimates commonly represent the largest stresses in most aquifers and are needed by local managers to steward the...

Groundwater pumpage for agricultural and municipal supply has resulted in water-level declines of more than 200 ft in some parts of the Antelope Valley groundwater basin and land subsidence of more than 6 ft in some areas. Future urban growth, increased agricultural demand, and limits on the supply of imported water will continue to increase the demand for groundwater.

The study develops a greater understanding of the hydrology of the Big Bear Valley ground-water basin and allows the Big Bear Valley Community Services District to better manage and utilize the resource. The study will address the effects of urbanization and suburbanization on water resources and the effects of climate on water resources, issues 1 and 7 from the Strategic Directions for the Water...

The Central and West Coast groundwater basins provide nearly a third of the water supply to 43 cities in southern Los Angeles County. Over 250,000 afy are pumped from the basins for municipal and industrial use. To properly manage the ground-water resource and to ensure its future availability, it is necessary to identify and manage threats to the drinking water aquifers from surface contamination...

Reservoirs in the Yuba River Basin are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) as part of the Feather-Yuba Forecast Coordinated Operations Program, and play an important role in flood management, water quality, and the health of fisheries as far downstream as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The basin has been developed for hydropower and irrigation diversions, so that measured...

Strategies for managing local water supplies and ground-water quality are being formulated and evaluated by the Stanislaus-Tuolumne River Groundwater Basin Association (STRGBA).

The USGS partners with local, state, and other federal agencies through cooperative agreements for a variety of reasons. The USGS and partners jointly plan the scientific work conducted under cooperative agreements resulting in science that has broad relevance to address current water issues. Partners choose to work with the USGS because of the agency's broad technical expertise, its long-standing...

The USGS has been a leader in the development of hydrologic and geochemical simulation models since the 1960's. USGS models are widely used to predict responses of hydrologic systems to changing stresses, such as increases in precipitation or ground-water pumping rates, as well as to predict the fate and movement of solutes and contaminants in water.

The Basin Characterization Model (BCM) is a simple grid-based model that calculates the water balance for any time step or spatial scale by using climate inputs, precipitation, minimum and maximum air temperature. The BCM can translate fine-scale maps of climate trends and projections into the hydrologic consequences, to permit evaluation of the impacts to water availability at regional, watershed...