Water availability

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the Nation and depends on groundwater for irrigation. The MAP area constitutes the third largest area of irrigated cropland in the United States. The area is approximately 29,000 square miles (19 million acres) and includes parts of the States of Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The U.S...

Since 1950 when the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) first conducted water-use compilations, important changes in water use have occurred in Alabama. The early part of the history (1950 to 1980) showed a steady increase in water use. During this time, the expectation was that, as the population increased, so would water use. Contrary to this expectation, reported water withdrawals declined in 1985...

The U.S. Geological Survey's Groundwater Resources Program (GWRP) is conducting an assessment of groundwater availability throughout the United States to gain a better understanding of the status of the Nation's groundwater resources and how changes in water use and climate may affect those resources. Assessments will be completed for the Nation's principal aquifer systems to help characterize how...

As part of their mission to protect public health and aquatic ecosystems, Alabama state agencies need accurate and representative streamflow statistics to establish realistic and applicable criteria for both water quality and water quantity (fig. 1). Historically, low-flow statistics, such as the annual minimum 7-day average flow that likely will occur, on average, once every 10 years (7Q10), have...

Static flood-inundation map libraries consist of maps that have been created in advance of a flood that are ready to be served through the Internet. Each library consists of a set of flood extent and depth maps developed for predetermined stream stage intervals (for example, a map for each one foot of stage). A user can view real-time or forecast stage data from a USGS streamgage or National...

StreamStats is a Web-based tool that provides streamflow statistics, drainage-basin characteristics, and other information for USGS streamgaging stations and for user-selected ungaged sites on streams. When users select the location of a streamgaging station, StreamStats provides previously published information from a database. When users select a site on an ungaged stream, StreamStats will...

The USGS-MWSC partners with various federal, state and local cooperating agencies to implement Monitoring Plans for watershed restoration or protection projects. The purpose of monitoring is to measure change in water quality throughout the duration of watershed specific restoration efforts targeted to remediate specific pollutants of concern. The goal is to document, using defensible scientific...

T-LiDAR technology utilizes reflected laser pulses sent from a tripod-mounted scanning instrument to determine distances to targets of interest. The resulting dataset is a 3 dimensional model or "point cloud" of millions of XYZ data points, spaced only a few millimeters apart. This highly detailed dataset is used by USGS scientists to create topographic models, make detailed measurements, and...

The USGS is summarizing basic information on water resources for each parish in Louisiana and presenting the information in fact-sheet format. Information presented includes groundwater and surface-water availability, quality, development, use, and trends. These brief summaries of water resources will provide parish officials, local officials and concerned citizens with information needed to make...

The live oaks framing Toomer's Corner in Auburn, Alabama were planted about 1880 and have served as a focal point for Auburn celebrations in recent decades. The trees recently received a powerful dose of an herbicide known as Spike 80DF. In an effort to save the trees, a task force made up of university horticulturists, landscapers, agronomists, engineers, chemists and others has undertaken a...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Mississippi Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service, and the Mississippi Automated Resource Information System developed a 1:24,000-scale Watershed Boundary Dataset for Mississippi including...

Wetlands in the Bayou aux Carpes area, south of New Orleans, La., currently are isolated from direct inflow of storm water runoff by levees and spoil banks. The USACE is considering removal of a spoil bank that would allow storm-water runoff to flow through and across the wetlands. . The wetlands consist of floating marshes, with a predominately organic substrate, and forested wetlands, some of...