Hydrologic Modeling

The natural environment and manmade infrastructure must be considered when characterizing hydrology and water quality in urban watersheds. This requirement is critical in stormwater management, which must account for how water flows above ground and underground through stormwater infrastructure. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is...

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, 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 and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), began a series of studies in 2019 to develop a web-based statewide hydraulic modeling tool to provide preliminary culvert designs for stream-crossing projects in Massachusetts.

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Recreation and Conservation, Office of Water Resources, began a study in 2019 to update the regional regression equations for estimating selected low-flow statistics at ungaged sites in Massachusetts.

High-quality light detection and ranging (lidar) data from USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) has unlocked the potential to derive new and innovative hydrography datasets such as the USGS next generation 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) that can be used for many hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) modeling applications. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mapping partners require elevation and...

Current methods of flood-frequency analyses for flood insurance studies assume that the statistical distribution of data from past observations will continue unchanged in the future. This is known as the assumption of stationarity. This assumption allows scientists to estimate flood magnitude and frequency based on past records and the expectation that those estimates will represent current and...

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...

The term environmental streamflows refers to the magnitude, frequency, seasonal timing, duration, and rate of change of streamflows needed to sustain freshwater and estuary ecosystems and human wellbeing. It is important that environmental streamflow assessments by water managers consider changes in climate, land use, and water management; this cannot be done effectively without understanding...

The New England Water Science Center collects data and does interpretive studies on hydrology, hydraulics, and water quality in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in New England and other states.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) are collaborating on a study to collect water-quality data at streams and ponds in Massachusetts that receive aluminum discharges from wastewater treatment (WWTF) or public-water supply (PWS) facilities. The objective of this study is to inform the development of MassDEP guidelines on discharge...

In 2018 USGS began work on the development of regional-scale groundwater flow and nitrogen transport models of areas along the Connecticut coast. The model will be used as a quantitative tool to evaluate groundwater flow and nitrogen loading to Long Island Sound.