Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Groundwater and Streamflow Information

Surface-water Monitoring, Groundwater monitoring, and Flood Hazards

projects

Water Use and Availability

Surface-water Modeling, Groundwater-flow Modeling, Hydrogeologic Characterization, Water Use, Flood Science, Climate Change

projects

Water Quality

Surface-water-quality Monitoring, Groundwater-quality Monitoring, Water-quality Modeling, Wetlands, Ecosystem Health

projects

Coastal Science

Beach and Barrier Dynamics, Flood Hazards, Nearshore Environmental Health, Tide and Wave Hydrodynamics, Wetlands, Climate and Land-Use Change

projects

Ecosystem Health

Aquatic Community Health, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, Climate Change, Ecological Assessment of Human and Natural Impacts

projects

New York Water Science Center

The New York Water Science Center will provide the hydrologic observations, research, and modeling needed for full integration of hydrogeologic, physiochemical, biological, and landscape processes across the freshwater to marine continuum. 

Connect

Current Water Conditions

outline of New York on map of the United States with a menu

Current water conditions in New York

View conditions...

Science

2 women kneeling in seawater on the Shinnecock Lands on Long Island

New York WSC science projects

View NYWSC Science

NY WSC Quick Links

Explore some of our most popular science topics, data, and tools

Laboratory

News

link

Native American Research Assistantship Student Learns USGS Water Science

link

10th Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy

link

New USGS Maps Show Flood Levels on Lake Ontario’s US Shoreline by Lake Level

View All

Publications

Toxic algae in inland waters of the conterminous United States—A review and synthesis

Cyanobacteria are the most common toxigenic algae in inland waters. Their toxins can affect the health of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including humans. Other algal groups, such as haptophytes (e.g., Prymnesium parvum) and euglenoids (e.g., Euglena sanguinea), can also form harmful algal blooms (HABs) whose toxins cause injury to aquatic biota but currently have no known effects on human hea
Authors
Reynaldo Patiño, Victoria Christensen, Jennifer L. Graham, Jane Rogosch, Barry H. Rosen
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Cooperative Research Units, New York Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

The "H," "A," and "B" of a HAB: A definitional framework

The use of the phrase “harmful algal bloom” and the acronym HAB originated in the marine science world, and referred to blooms also known as red tides, which can kill fish and sea life. The organisms that make up marine HABs generally do not thrive in lakes. In freshwater, HABs are most often associated with blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria. The term HAB started to be used broadly in the ea
Authors
Rebecca Michelle Gorney, Jennifer L. Graham, Jennifer C. Murphy
By
Water Resources Mission Area, New York Water Science Center, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Modeling surface wave dynamics in upper Delaware Bay with living shorelines

Living shorelines gain increasing attention because they stabilize shorelines and reduce erosion. This study leverages physics-based models and bagged regression tree (BRT) machine learning algorithm to simulate wave dynamics at a living shoreline composed of constructed oyster reefs (CORs) in upper Delaware Bay. The physics-based models consist of coupled Delft3D-FLOW and SWAN in four-level neste
Authors
Ling Zhu, Qin Chen, Hongqing Wang, Nan Wang, Kelin Hu, William D. Capurso, Lukasz M. Niemoczynski, Gregg Snedden
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Mission Area, New Jersey Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
View All

Science

link
Image Collage of Landsat, pollinator, and volcanologist

Development of a mapper-based Long Island Sound data and research portal (Clearinghouse)

In cooperation with the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is creating a mapper-based clearinghouse that will provide information on sources of data available throughout the Long Island Sound (LIS) watershed and allow for real-time metadata output and integration into visualization and modeling tools developed through a...
By
Water Resources Mission Area, New York Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center
link

Development of a mapper-based Long Island Sound data and research portal (Clearinghouse)

In cooperation with the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is creating a mapper-based clearinghouse that will provide information on sources of data available throughout the Long Island Sound (LIS) watershed and allow for real-time metadata output and integration into visualization and modeling tools developed through a...
Learn More
link
Autonomous environmental DNA sampler located in a USGS stream gage

READI-Net: Transitioning eDNA aquatic invasive species surveillance from research to actionable science

USGS researchers are working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to optimize autonomous, robotic samplers for detection of DNA fragments shed by biological threats (BT; invasive species, parasites, pathogens) in our nation’s waters. Finding DNA fragments (a method known as environmental DNA sampling) produced by an emerging BT in water is akin to finding a needle in a haystack—many...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, Pacific Northwest Environmental DNA Laboratory
link

READI-Net: Transitioning eDNA aquatic invasive species surveillance from research to actionable science

USGS researchers are working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to optimize autonomous, robotic samplers for detection of DNA fragments shed by biological threats (BT; invasive species, parasites, pathogens) in our nation’s waters. Finding DNA fragments (a method known as environmental DNA sampling) produced by an emerging BT in water is akin to finding a needle in a haystack—many...
Learn More
link
USGS Logo

Assessment of compound flood risk from the combined effects of sea level rise on storm surge, tidal and groundwater flooding, and stormwater

BACKGROUND Long Island Sound has 600 miles of coastline and there are over 23 million people living within 50 miles of its shores. In response to water-quality issues and nitrogen pollution in the Sound, Congress created the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) in 1985. LISS is a partnership of federal, state, and local government agencies, private organizations and educational institutions working tog
By
New York Water Science Center
link

Assessment of compound flood risk from the combined effects of sea level rise on storm surge, tidal and groundwater flooding, and stormwater

BACKGROUND Long Island Sound has 600 miles of coastline and there are over 23 million people living within 50 miles of its shores. In response to water-quality issues and nitrogen pollution in the Sound, Congress created the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) in 1985. LISS is a partnership of federal, state, and local government agencies, private organizations and educational institutions working tog
Learn More
View All