Delaware River Basin
Science Center Objects
In Pennsylvania, the USGS's water-resources roots date back to the late 1800's, with the initiation of streamflow gaging on the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers and assessments of groundwater resources near Philadelphia. The USGS Pennsylvania Water Science Center continues to provide scientific information about the water resources of the Delaware River Basin, in cooperation with regional and local agencies and stakeholders, and with other USGS Water Science Centers and national programs.
Recent Highlights
- Publication: Hydro-Climatic Drought
- Publication: Low-flow Patterns, Drivers & Trends
- Factsheet - Integrated Water Availability Assessments: Water Priorities for the Nation
- Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
- Pooling Resources Across Organizations—Multisource Water-Quality Data for the Delaware River Basin
- Online tools for watershed managers: Northeast US
USGS scientist surveys water levels on the Delaware River while streamflow measurements are made by boat. These measurements help scientists understand the amount of water and constituents being transported by the river. (Mario Martin-Alciati , USGS. Public domain.)
Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
The USGS Next Generation Water Observing System will provide high-fidelity, real-time data on water quantity and quality necessary to support modern water prediction and decision support systems for water emergencies and daily water operations. The Delaware River Basin pilot provides an opportunity to develop the NextGen observing system in a nationally important, complex interstate river...
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Date published: July 31, 2020Status: ActiveStreamflow Estimation from Advanced Imaging (LSPIV) in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Water Science Center and the Next Generation Water Observing Systems (NGWOS) Program are implementing new technologies for streamflow estimation at sites in Pennsylvania where conventional measurement techniques are inadequate.
Contacts: Matthew C Gyves, Lowell Abbadini -
Date published: March 3, 2019Status: ActiveOffice of the Delaware River Master
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a Decree in State of New Jersey v. State of New York and City of New York in which the Court established the position of the Delaware River Master. The Court directed that the River Master perform multiple duties and functions including administering the provisions of the Decree relating to yields, diversions, and releases; conserving the waters of the...
Contacts: Kendra L Russell, Vincent J DifrennaAttribution: Water Resources -
Date published: February 28, 2019Status: CompletedDelaware River Basin Focus Area Study
As one of several National Focus Area Studies within the USGS National Water Census (NWC), the USGS completed a 3-year study of water availability and use in the Delaware River Basin.
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: January 25, 2018Status: ActiveQuantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain...
Contacts: Kristina Hopkins, Peter Claggett, Gregory Noe, Emily J Pindilli, Ph.D., Marina Metes, Andrea S Medenblik, Samuel LamontAttribution: South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) -
Date published: August 5, 2015Status: ActiveWater Quality of the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Tributary Streams, New York and Pennsylvania
Water-quality samples were collected from the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River (UPDE) and its tributaries during the period October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2007, to document existing water quality, determine relations between land use and water quality, and identify areas of water-quality concern. A tiered water-quality monitoring framework was used, with the tiers consisting of...
Contacts: Jason Siemion
Water priorities for the Nation—USGS Integrated Water Science basins
The United States faces growing challenges to its water supply, infrastructure, and aquatic ecosystems because of population growth, climate change, floods, and droughts. To help address these challenges, the U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Mission Area is integrating recent advances in monitoring, research, and modeling to improve...
Miller, Mark P.; Eberts, Sandra M.; Sprague, Lori A.
Pesticides in US Rivers: Regional differences in use, occurrence, and environmental toxicity, 2013 to 2017
Pesticides pose a threat to the environment, but because of the substantial number of compounds, a comprehensive assessment of pesticides and an evaluation of the risk that they pose to human and aquatic life is challenging. In this study, improved analytical methods were used to quantify 221 pesticide concentrations in surface waters over the...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Shoda, Megan E.; Medalie, Laura; Stone, Wesley W. Evaluating low flow patterns, drivers and trends in the Delaware River Basin
In the humid, temperate Delaware River Basin (DRB) where water availability is generally reliable, summer low flows can cause competition between various human and ecological water uses. As temperatures continue to rise, population increases and development expands, it is critical to understand historical low flow variability to anticipate and...
Hammond, John; Fleming, Brandon J.
Microplastics in the Delaware River, northeastern United States
Microplastics are a contaminant of increasing concern in aquatic environments. Our understanding of microplastics in freshwater environments has increased dramatically over the past decade, but we still lack information on microplastic occurrence and biological uptake in National Park Service (NPS) waters. During 2015–19, the U.S. Geological...
Baldwin, Austin K.; Spanjer, Andrew R.; Hayhurst, Brett; Hamilton, Donald Hydro-climatic drought in the Delaware River Basin
The Delaware River Basin (DRB) supplies water to approximately 15 million people and is essential to agriculture and industry. In this study, a monthly water balance model is used to compute monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for the DRB for the 1901 through 2015 period...
McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M. Prioritizing river basins for intensive monitoring and assessment by the US Geological Survey
The US Geological Survey (USGS) is currently (2020) integrating its water science programs to better address the nation’s greatest water resource challenges now and into the future. This integration will rely, in part, on data from 10 or more intensively monitored river basins from across the USA. A team of USGS scientists was convened to develop...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Qi, Sharon L.; Deacon, Jeffrey R.; Dieter, Cheryl A.; Driscoll, Jessica M.; Fienen, Michael N.; Kenney, Terry A.; Lambert, Patrick M.; Lesmes, David; Mason, Christopher Allen; Mueller-Solger, Anke; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Painter, Jaime A.; Rosenberry, Donald O.; Sprague, Lori A.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Wolock, David M.
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2010–November 30, 2011
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the...
DiFrenna, Vincent J.; Andrews, William J.; Russell, Kendra L.; Norris, J. Michael; Mason,, Robert R.
A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River Basin
In 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched a pilot regional Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin (fig. 1). IWAA is intended to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses and understanding their underlying controls. Water quality plays...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E.
Pooling resources across organizations—Multisource water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently launched a pilot Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses based on water monitoring data. Water-quality monitoring provides citizens, managers, and...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E. Identification of management thresholds of urban development in support of aquatic biodiversity conservation
Urbanization degrades stream ecosystems and causes loss of bodiversity. Using benthic macroinvertebrates as a surragate for overall aquatic diversity, we conducted a series of analytical approaches to derive management thresholds of urban development designed to link ecological responses to the primary management goal of protecting aquatic...
Snyder, Craig D.; Young, John A.
Water priorities for the nation—The U.S. Geological Survey next generation water observing system
The challenges of providing safe and sustainable water supplies for human and ecological uses and protecting lives and property during water emergencies are well recognized. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) plays an essential role in meeting these challenges through its observational networks and renowned water science and research activities (...
Eberts, Sandra M.; Wagner, Chad R.; Woodside, Michael D. Reduced soil macropores and forest cover reduce warm-season baseflow below ecological thresholds in the upper Delaware River Basin
We examined the impacts of changes in land cover and soil conditions on the flow regime of the upper Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER). We simulated flows for two periods, circa 1600 and 1940, at three sites using the same temperature and precipitation conditions: the East Branch (EB), West...
Endreny, Theodore A.; Kwon, Peter Yong Seuk; Williamson, Tanja N.; Evans, Richard-
Date published: April 15, 2021Long-term database of historical, current, and future land cover for the Delaware River Basin (1680 through 2100)
The USGS's FORE-SCE model was used to produce a long-term landscape dataset for the Delaware River Basin (DRB).
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Date published: August 28, 2020Daily-timestep and monthly-timestep estimates of baseflow at 49 reference stream gages located within 25 miles of the Delaware River basin watershed boundary for the years 1950 through 2015
This USGS data release contains daily-timestep and monthly-timestep estimates of baseflow at 49 reference stream gages located within 25 miles of the Delaware River basin watershed boundary. Estimates are provided for the available period of record of streamflow data at each site between 1950 and 2015. A two-parameter recursive digital filter was used to estimate baseflow at the selected...
Attribution: New Jersey Water Science Center -
Date published: May 13, 2020
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Water-Quality and Sonar Measurements in Delaware River near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2019
These data sets were created in support of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) for the Delaware River Basin pilot study (Eberts, Wagner, and Woodside, 2019). The NGWOS utilizes real-time data, improved computational capabilities, and new technologies such as the rapid deployment of unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) and aut
Attribution: South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) -
Date published: May 1, 2020
Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Dataset includes site averages of measurements of floodplain and streambank sediment physico-chemistry and long-term (dendrogeomorphic) vertical and lateral geomorphic change, and reach scale floodplain width, streambank height, channel width, and streambed particle size. This information was used to calculate fluxes of sediment, fine sediment, sediment-C, sediment-N, and sed
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Date published: December 23, 2019
U.S. Geological Survey streamgage matching results for water-quality sites of the Delaware River Basin
This data set contains U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage matching results in tabular format for water-quality sites retrieved from the Water Quality Portal for the Delaware River Basin. The table contains a list of water-quality sites joined to USGS streamgages where the water-quality site and USGS streamgage are located on the same stream, as represented by the National Hydrography
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: September 25, 2019
Multisource surface-water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin
Jointly managed by multiple states and the federal government, there are many ongoing efforts to characterize and understand water quality in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Many State, Federal and non-profit organizations have collected surface-water-quality samples across the DRB for decades and many of these data are available through the National Water Quality Monitoring Council's W
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: August 22, 2019Delaware River Dashboard
Created for the Office of the Delaware River Master and supporting the USGS Next Generation Water Observing System Delaware River pilot, the Delaware River Dashboard shows provisional real-time water data collected at USGS observation stations in context with weather-related data from other public sources.
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: June 11, 2019Delaware River Basin Monitoring-Site Mapper
The Water-Monitoring-Site Mapper is an interactive map of the Delaware River Basin next-generation integrated water observing system with locations from the USGS National Water Information System. Piloting the NextGen water observing system in the Delaware River Basin provides an opportunity to support innovative modern water prediction and decision support systems in a complex river system....
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Date published: December 10, 20182012 SPARROW Models for the Northeast: Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, Suspended Sediment, and Streamflow
2012 SPARROW Models for the Northeast: Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, Suspended Sediment, and Streamflow
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Date published: January 1, 2016
Estimated Use of Water by Subbasin (HUC8) in the Delaware River Basin, 2010
This dataset presents offstream water use estimates from 2010 which are aggregated to the 8-digit (subbasin) hydrologic unit level for the Delaware River Basin. The data support USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5142.
Attribution: New Jersey Water Science Center
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Date published: June 21, 2016The Delaware River Basin Streamflow Estimator Tool (DRB-SET)
The Delaware River Basin Streamflow Estimator Tool (DRB-SET) estimates baseline and altered streamflow at a daily time step for ungaged stream locations in the Delaware River Basin for water years 1960-2010.
Lidar scan and rectifying frame for Frankford Cr
Lidar scan and rectifying frame for Frankford Cr. Data will be used within LSPIV setup for estimation of streamflow.
Photo of a camera system that will be tested to measure water level an
Example of a camera system that will be tested to measure water level and surface velocity at the East Branch Brandywine Creek below Downingtown, PA. Photo Credit: USGS staff. This technology is part of the
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Philadelphia 1900-2100
Philadelphia land use, backcast to 1900 and forecast to 2100, an example of the projections work performed at the USGS EROS Center by Research Physical Scientist Terry Sohl.
Delaware River Basin Monitoring-Site Mapper
Delaware River Basin Monitoring-Site Mapper
Water budget visualization for Buck Creek-Delaware River
Example water budget visualization for Buck Creek-Delaware River showing the difference between inflow and outflow components. Full visualization application is located at https://cida.usgs.gov/nwc-static/waterbudget-viz/
NextGen Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
Map showing the NextGen Water Observing System in the Delaware River Basin. The USGS will be installing new streamgages and enhancing existing streamgages throughout the Delaware River Basin in 2018 as part of the startup activities for the NextGen water observing system.
Delaware River Basin: USGS streamgaging station
Photo looking downstream at the gage house of USGS streamgage 01438500 Delaware River at Montague NJ.
Delaware River Basin: Benjamin Franklin bridge
Photo of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge spanning the Delaware River, looking towards the City of Philadelphia, Penn. from Camden, New Jersey. This location is very near USGS streamgage 01467200 Delaware R at Ben Franklin Bridge at Philadelphia.
Snow dapples the banks on Brodhead Creek
Snow dapples the banks on Brodhead Creek near Analomink, PA. This stream reach, and reaches on other streams were surveyed as part of a geomorphic dataset to determine channel dimensions and allow new estimates of bankfull discharge and channel dimensions at U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations compiled to present, and to contrast the glaciated and unglaciated
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Map of the Delaware River Basin
Map of the Delaware River Basin
Upper Delaware 001
Flooded out Inn at Delaware Water Gap, PA
Fairmount Waterworks, east bank of Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA
Fairmount Waterworks, east bank of Schuylkill River, Aquarium Drive, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. View looking northeast at waterworks from across Schuylkill River. Photo taken December, 1984.
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Date published: May 24, 2021Potential toxicity of pesticides to aquatic life in U.S. rivers is widespread
A new USGS study of pesticides in U.S. rivers and streams reports that, on average, 17 pesticides were detected at least once at the 74 river and stream sites sampled 12 to 24 times per year during 2013–2017. Herbicides were detected much more frequently than insecticides and fungicides.
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program -
Date published: September 4, 2020New USGS website provides water quality information for U.S. streams and rivers
Interested in water-quality concentrations, loads, and trends in streams and rivers across the United States? Check out a new USGS website with data from the USGS National Water Quality Network—110 stream and river sites with long-term, consistent data on water quality.
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program -
Date published: July 1, 2020Integrated Water Science Basin selection kicks off new era of water-resource assessments
The USGS has identified 36 major river basins—2 in each of 18 regions of the conterminous U.S.—as finalists for intensive study by new USGS Water Resources Mission Area programs. From the finalists, 10 will be selected to be an Integrated Water Science (IWS) Basin. The ranking process is described in a new article in the journal...
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: January 9, 2020New USGS online tools for watershed managers
SPARROW models, tools, and maps of streamflow, nutrients, and sediment for streams in five major U.S. regions
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program -
Date published: July 10, 2018Ospreys Benefit as Contaminants Decrease in Delaware Estuary
Lower levels of environmental contaminants—including pesticides, flame retardants and other pollutants—were recently found in osprey eggs in the Delaware Estuary compared to those tested from the 1970s through the early 2000s.
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Date published: November 13, 2014
Baseline Groundwater Quality Studies Find Naturally Occurring Methane in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Well-water tested in Wayne and Pike counties contains low-to-moderate concentrations of naturally occurring methane, according to new studies by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Attribution: Water Resources