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Nevada Water Science Center

The Nevada Water Science Center (NVWSC) is committed to providing reliable, unbiased scientific information about Nevada's water resources to the public, cooperators, and stakeholders. To provide this information, we operate widespread data collection networks as well as conduct water-science research covering a wide range of scientific issues throughout Nevada and adjacent states.

News

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Saline Lakes Stakeholder Workshop Meeting Materials

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Water “bank account” running low in agricultural areas of Nevada

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Fall 2021 Nevada Water Science Center Newsletter

Publications

Can hydrological models benefit from using global soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff products as calibration targets?

Hydrological models are usually calibrated to in-situ streamflow observations with reasonably long and uninterrupted records. This is challenging for poorly gage or ungaged basins where such information is not available. Even for gaged basins, the single-objective calibration to gaged streamflow cannot guarantee reliable forecasts because, as has been documented elsewhere, the inverse problem is m

Incorporating temperature into seepage loss estimates for a large unlined irrigation canal

Quantifying seepage losses from unlined irrigation canals is necessary to improve water use and conservation. The use of heat as a tracer is widely used in quantifying seepage rates across the sediment–water interface. In this study, field observations and two-dimensional numerical models were used to simulate seepage losses during the 2018 and 2019 irrigation season in the Truckee Canal system. N

Estimated effects of pumping on groundwater storage and Walker River stream efficiencies in Smith and Mason Valleys, west-central Nevada

The Walker River originates in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and flows nearly 160 miles to its terminus at Walker Lake in west-central Nevada. The river provides a source of irrigation water for tens of thousands of acres of agricultural lands in California and Nevada and is the principal source of inflow to Walker Lake. Extraction of groundwater for agricultural use became prevalent in the late 195

Science

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

Pilot Project Team Members | CRB-ASIST

The Rocky Mountain Region is working with a multidisciplinary team of experts within the Colorado River Basin to determine how the USGS can develop integrative science, data, models, and tools that can be used to address key science challenges related to drought risk within the basin.
link

Pilot Project Team Members | CRB-ASIST

The Rocky Mountain Region is working with a multidisciplinary team of experts within the Colorado River Basin to determine how the USGS can develop integrative science, data, models, and tools that can be used to address key science challenges related to drought risk within the basin.
Learn More