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Colorado Water Science Center

Welcome to the USGS Colorado Water Science Center!  Please use these pages to explore the hydrologic data and scientific investigations we conduct on Colorado water resources.

News

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Media Alert: USGS study will dye Slate River green in November

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Media Alert: Helicopter Will Survey Portions of the Colorado River Basin for Water Studies

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April Showers may Bring May Flowers, but Winter Snow is Water in the Bank

Publications

A call for strategic water-quality monitoring to advance assessment and prediction of wildfire impacts on water supplies

Wildfires pose a risk to water supplies in the western U.S. and many other parts of the world, due to the potential for degradation of water quality. However, a lack of adequate data hinders prediction and assessment of post-wildfire impacts and recovery. The dearth of such data is related to lack of funding for monitoring extreme events and the challenge of measuring the outsized hydrologic and e

The water cycle

An illustrated diagram of the water cycle. This is a modern, updated version of the widely used diagram featured on the USGS Water Science School. Notably, this new water cycle diagram depicts humans and major categories of human water use as key components of the water cycle, in addition to the key pools and fluxes of the hydrologic cycle. This product targets an 8th grade audience and is designe

Hydrologic compartmentalization and analytic-element groundwater-flow simulations for a draining mine tunnel

Draining mine tunnels contribute contaminants to groundwater and surface water, but remediation strategies may be hindered as hydrogeologic characterization and modeling of these heterogeneous features generally relies on sparse data sets. The Captain Jack mine site in Colorado, USA, presents a unique data set allowing for temporal evaluation of groundwater connectivity in the vicinity of an aband

Science

Data supporting management of thermal springs –Steamboat Springs, Colorado

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the city of Steamboat Springs and the Tread of Pioneers Museum, is undertaking a geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical study to better understand the sources of water to hot springs and the possible effects of land use change and human activities on the chemistry and sustainability of springs.
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Data supporting management of thermal springs –Steamboat Springs, Colorado

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the city of Steamboat Springs and the Tread of Pioneers Museum, is undertaking a geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical study to better understand the sources of water to hot springs and the possible effects of land use change and human activities on the chemistry and sustainability of springs.
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Actionable Science

The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project is exploring new approaches for the USGS to answer complex earth systems questions identified in partnership with stakeholders, which cannot be answered through a single discipline approach. Science coproduction is a method where scientists, managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders first identify specific decisions to be informed by science, and then...
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Actionable Science

The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project is exploring new approaches for the USGS to answer complex earth systems questions identified in partnership with stakeholders, which cannot be answered through a single discipline approach. Science coproduction is a method where scientists, managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders first identify specific decisions to be informed by science, and then...
Learn More

Integrated Science Approach

The USGS has a long history of delivering science and tools to help decision-makers manage and mitigate effects of drought. The timing is critical for the USGS to consolidate its diverse expertise into a single landscape-scale effort to rapidly provide integrated transdisciplinary, targeted data, tools, and models required by decision makers in the Basin. This initiative unifies USGS expertise...
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Integrated Science Approach

The USGS has a long history of delivering science and tools to help decision-makers manage and mitigate effects of drought. The timing is critical for the USGS to consolidate its diverse expertise into a single landscape-scale effort to rapidly provide integrated transdisciplinary, targeted data, tools, and models required by decision makers in the Basin. This initiative unifies USGS expertise...
Learn More