Advanced Research

The Applied Hydrology Branch provides hydrologic data, research, and tools to water resource managers, stakeholders and policy makers that inform critical water management decisions throughout New England. This branch is divided into the Hydrology and Hydraulics Section, Water Quality Networks Section, Connecticut Water Quality Monitoring Section, and Massachusetts/Rhode Island Water Quality...

The Hydrologic Interpretive Branch collaborates with stakeholders to design, execute, and publish scientific studies that address issues associated with water resources at local, regional, and national scales. This branch has three sections that focus on watershed and urban hydrology, integrated modeling of hydrologic systems, and the development of new statistical and geospatial tools.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is developing tools and methods to help assess the fate and transport of anthropogenic and geologically sourced contaminants in the water cycle at waste sites throughout the nation.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in assessing facilities nationwide that have historically produced per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or used them in chemical manufacturing processes. In collaboration with EPA subcontractors, USGS is providing subject-matter expertise in PFAS fate and transport in the vadose zone and...

The Water Cycle Center is a cooperation between U.S. Geological Survey and academic partners in the Northeast that studies complete water cycles and watersheds, from mountaintops to shorelines, concentrating on freshwater ecosystems. This research advances the understanding of processes that determine water availability and is needed to best address future water resource challenges.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, is conducting advanced site characterization activities at the Savage Municipal Water Supply Superfund site in Milford, New Hampshire, and implementing new remediation efforts based on USGS science and tools.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a tool that uses a chemical budget approach to help determine which fractures in a fracture zone may be dominating the water chemistry of open boreholes in bedrock aquifers. The tool uses a Monte Carlo approach and measured concentrations of anthropogenic contaminants to simulate many different scenarios and predict the most likely source direction of...

The U.S. Geological Survey, New England Water Science Center, in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is modeling seasonal nutrient loads to Long Island Sound (LIS). Nutrients that originate from within the 41,867-square-mile section of the LIS watershed that is north of the Sound include both point (specific) and nonpoint (widespread) sources. Dynamic modeling of the...

The U.S. Geological Survey New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), is evaluating how a type of porous pavement affects the discharge of suspended sediment in comparison to the asphalt surface commonly used on Massachusetts highways. The project will expand the understanding of highway runoff concentrations of suspended sediment...

Communities across Massachusetts may face potential consequences of climate change, ranging from more extreme rainfall to more pronounced and frequent droughts. Climate change could alter the state’s hydrology in potentially complex and unanticipated ways. Typical approaches for projecting hydrologic risk under climate change can misrepresent and underestimate the variability of climate and...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse group of over 4,000 different compounds. Since the 1940s, PFAS have been manufactured and used around the globe, including in the United States. PFAS are resistant to chemical and thermal breakdown and impart stain and water-resistance properties, making them useful for a variety of commercial applications, but also persistent in the...

The Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont has been the site of active hydrologic research since 1959, when the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established a research program in the watershed. The Sleepers River site is now operated by the USGS, in cooperation with several other Federal agencies and universities.