Web Tools

The Mojave River and associated groundwater aquifers are important water supplies in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. The river and the aquifer are connected, and when hydrologic conditions change in one, the other is usually affected. This new web tool explores the connections between precipitation, streamflow, groundwater, subsurface geology, and water quality in the Mojave River.

The Central Valley has four hydrologic regions, from north to south: the Sacramento Valley, the Delta & Eastside Streams, the San Joaquin Basin, and the Tulare Basin. Water flows from Sacramento Valley, Tulare Basin, and the San Joaquin Basin, into the Delta & Eastside Streams through the Central Valley's only natural outlet, the Carquinez Strait, on its way to the Pacific Ocean.

The Central Valley Hydrologic Model version 2 (CVHM2) is an integrated surface–subsurface hydrologic model, representing the major components of the hydrologic system of California’s Central Valley. This new decision support tool is useful for testing water management strategies in California's Central Valley.

Is the Colorado River Basin in a drought or is it aridifying? The Colorado River Basin is no stranger to drought. However, not all droughts are the same. It is important to know whether the current drought is actually the first stages of aridification, because planning for and managing a drought is different than aridification.

Use this visualization tool to explore and enhance your understanding of historical climatic and hydrologic conditions at select CDFW Wildlife Areas (WA) and Ecological Reserves (ER). The properties highlighted by this tool are currently serving as CDFW Sentinel Sites.

Explore real-time soil moisture data by clicking on each point. Access site-specific USGS NWIS Water Data pages for time-series data on soil temperature, electrical conductance, and moisture. Some sites also include NRCS soil profile descriptions.

Streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs are important natural resources for irrigation, public supply, wetlands and wildlife. Excess precipitation that flows into these sources is called runoff, and it's an important drought indicator. The California Water Science Center tracks both monthly and annual runoff.

To understand the contamination caused by historic mining in California, researchers sampled sediment, water, and biota (animals) during the years 1999–2004 and 2011–2012. From the data collected, a set of interactive maps were produced. The maps, along with the data release and introductory video, explain the results of the research.

Hawaiian coastal wetlands provide important habitat for endangered waterbirds and socio-cultural resources for Native Hawaiians. Currently, they are degraded by development, sedimentation, and invasive species and, thus, require restoration. Site prioritization represents both an actionable plan for coastal wetland restoration and an alternative protocol for restoration decision-making.

To help resource managers plan and mitigate long-term drought impacts in the Colorado River Basin, the USGS has launched a platform that brings together science, data, and mapping and analytical tools from across the basin in a central location.

Nitrate is a major concern to water-resource managers in the eastern San Joaquin Valley, and there are extensive regulatory programs in place that seek to reduce nonpoint-source loading and eventually reduce concentrations in groundwater.

This focuses on how we use groundwater age to predict changes in nitrate concentrations over time. Typically, deep public supply wells draw from deeper parts of the aquifer where water is decades, centuries, or even millenia old.