Assessing Sustainable Water Use in Connecticut
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is updating a planning-level support tool to help decision makers estimate daily mean streamflows and selected streamflow statistics to assess sustainable water use across the state of Connecticut.
Freshwater streams in Connecticut face many competing demands, including public-water supply, agricultural, commercial, and industrial water use, and sustaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem. To sustainably allocate and manage water resources among these competing uses, federal, state, and local water resource managers require data and modeling tools to estimate water availability over space and time for planning purposes.
The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE), previously developed by the USGS in cooperation with CT DEEP, is a decision-support tool for estimating sustainable water use at ungaged sites in Connecticut. The CT SSWUE uses continuous streamflow gage data, basin characteristics, and water-use volumes (water withdrawals and wastewater-return flows) obtained from the USGS online StreamStats application to estimate the daily unaltered streamflows and water-use-adjusted streamflows at streams in Connecticut without a streamgage.
USGS and CT DEEP are improving the CT SSWUE by extending coverage to the entire state of Connecticut and the period of estimated unaltered and water-use adjusted streamflows through September 30, 2025.
Objectives:
- Analyze the relationships between streamflows at selected streamgages and physical and climatic characteristics of drainage basins using statistical regression techniques.
- Compile available data for streamflow withdrawals and returns. Effects of groundwater pumping on streamflows will be determined using a time-lagged approach developed from results of previously published groundwater models.
- Incorporate study enhancements into the CT SSWUE.
- Prepare and release a final report, statistical model, and software archives to document the updated CT SSWUE decision-support tool and update relevant basin characteristics and water-use volumes in StreamStats.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New England Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is updating a planning-level support tool to help decision makers estimate daily mean streamflows and selected streamflow statistics to assess sustainable water use across the state of Connecticut.
Freshwater streams in Connecticut face many competing demands, including public-water supply, agricultural, commercial, and industrial water use, and sustaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem. To sustainably allocate and manage water resources among these competing uses, federal, state, and local water resource managers require data and modeling tools to estimate water availability over space and time for planning purposes.
The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE), previously developed by the USGS in cooperation with CT DEEP, is a decision-support tool for estimating sustainable water use at ungaged sites in Connecticut. The CT SSWUE uses continuous streamflow gage data, basin characteristics, and water-use volumes (water withdrawals and wastewater-return flows) obtained from the USGS online StreamStats application to estimate the daily unaltered streamflows and water-use-adjusted streamflows at streams in Connecticut without a streamgage.
USGS and CT DEEP are improving the CT SSWUE by extending coverage to the entire state of Connecticut and the period of estimated unaltered and water-use adjusted streamflows through September 30, 2025.
Objectives:
- Analyze the relationships between streamflows at selected streamgages and physical and climatic characteristics of drainage basins using statistical regression techniques.
- Compile available data for streamflow withdrawals and returns. Effects of groundwater pumping on streamflows will be determined using a time-lagged approach developed from results of previously published groundwater models.
- Incorporate study enhancements into the CT SSWUE.
- Prepare and release a final report, statistical model, and software archives to document the updated CT SSWUE decision-support tool and update relevant basin characteristics and water-use volumes in StreamStats.