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
- Factsheet - Integrated Water Science Basins: Water Priorities for the Nation
- 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
Water science for the Delaware River Basin
Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
Paired Air and Water Temperature Monitoring for Next Generation Water Observing System
Integrated Water Availability Assessments: Delaware River Basin
Delaware River Basin IWAAs Pilot
Streamflow Estimation from Advanced Imaging (LSPIV) in Pennsylvania
Office of the Delaware River Master
Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study
Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Process-Based Streamflow Modeling
Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Statistical Streamflow Modeling
Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Water Use
Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Ecological Flow Science
Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Water Quality of the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Tributary Streams, New York and Pennsylvania
Datasets
Long-term database of historical, current, and future land cover for the Delaware River Basin (1680 through 2100)
Daily-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
Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Water-Quality and Sonar Measurements in Delaware River near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2019
Multi-source surface-water-quality data and U.S. Geological Survey streamgage match for the Delaware River Basin
Estimated Use of Water by Subbasin (HUC8 and HUC12) in the Delaware River Basin, 2010
Recent and other selected water science publications for or related to the Delaware River Basin
Water-quality trends in the Delaware River Basin calculated using multisource data and two methods for trend periods ending in 2018
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2012–November 30, 2013
Water priorities for the Nation—USGS Integrated Water Science basins
Pesticides in US Rivers: Regional differences in use, occurrence, and environmental toxicity, 2013 to 2017
Evaluating low flow patterns, drivers and trends in the Delaware River Basin
Microplastics in the Delaware River, northeastern United States
Hydro-climatic drought in the Delaware River Basin
Prioritizing river basins for intensive monitoring and assessment by the US Geological Survey
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2010–November 30, 2011
A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River basin
Pooling resources across organizations — Multisource water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin
Identification of management thresholds of urban development in support of aquatic biodiversity conservation
Data & Tools (Web Apps)
Delaware 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.
Delaware River basin software
The 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.
News about or related to the Delaware River Basin
Selected Delaware River Basin partners are listed below.
Many other partners have cooperated with USGS on local studies within the basin.
- Overview
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
- Factsheet - Integrated Water Science Basins: Water Priorities for the Nation
- 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) - Science
Water science for the Delaware River Basin
Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
The USGS Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) provides 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 was the first NGWOS basin, providing an opportunity to implement the program in a nationally important, complex interstate...Filter Total Items: 15Paired Air and Water Temperature Monitoring for Next Generation Water Observing System
USGS characterizes the relationship between a stream's water temperature and the surrounding air temperature to understand the influence groundwater flow into and out of the stream has on that relationship.Integrated Water Availability Assessments: Delaware River Basin
Integrated Water Availability Assessments examine water supply, use, and availability. In the Delaware River Basin, which serves over 13 million people, water availability can be affected by drought, river temperature, salinity, and more. The Delaware River Basin IWAAs will investigate these and other water quantity, quality, and use issues to assess available water and how it changes over time.Delaware River Basin IWAAs Pilot
The USGS is conducting a pilot study in the Delaware River Basin to support development of National and Regional Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs). The Delaware River Basin Pilot will be conducted with state and local partners with the support of USGS Cooperative Program Matching Funds and will focus on improving the data, tools, and information stakeholders need to make water...Streamflow 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.Office 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.Delaware 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.Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Process-Based Streamflow Modeling
The Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources provides a decision support system to examine different land-cover forecasts and climate projections using physical aspects of the basin that will remain unchanged, like topography and soil properties, to estimate streamflow for ungaged streams.Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Statistical Streamflow Modeling
The Delaware River Basin Streamflow Estimator Tool (DRB-SET) uses historical records of streamflow to estimate daily mean streamflow at any stream location within the Delaware River Basin for the period 1960-2010, incorporating basin characteristics such as drainage size, soil, geology, and seasonal precipitation.Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Water Use
Water-use data were compiled or estimated for 8-digit and 12-digit Hydrologic Unit Code watersheds for 2010. Water withdrawal, interbasin transfers, return flow, and hydroelectric power generation release data were compiled for 11 water-use categories.Delaware River Basin Focus Area Study: Ecological Flow Science
The Riverine Environmental Flow Decision Support System (REFDSS), models of river temperature, and evaluation of methods of determining Habitat Suitability Criteria were all products of the ecological-flow science component of the Delaware Focus Area Study.Quantifying 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 systems...Water 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 in - Data
Datasets
Long-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). Using historical landscape reconstruction and scenario-based future projections, the data provided land-use and land-cover (LULC) data for the DRB from year 1680 through 2100, with future projections from 2020-2100 modeled for 7 different socioeconomic-based scenarios, and 3 climate realDaily-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 stream gaPhysico-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 sediment-C of floodplainsAutonomous 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 autonomous underwater vehicle's (AMulti-source surface-water-quality data and U.S. Geological Survey streamgage match 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 Water QualitEstimated Use of Water by Subbasin (HUC8 and HUC12) in the Delaware River Basin, 2010
These datasets present offstream water use estimates from 2010 which are aggregated to the 8-digit and 12-digit (subwatershed) hydrologic unit level for the Delaware River Basin. The data support USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5142. - Multimedia
- Publications
Recent and other selected water science publications for or related to the Delaware River Basin
Filter Total Items: 45Water-quality trends in the Delaware River Basin calculated using multisource data and two methods for trend periods ending in 2018
Many organizations in the Delaware River Basin (DRB) monitor surface-water quality for regulatory, scientific, and decision-making purposes. In support of these purposes, over 260,000 water-quality records provided by 8 different organizations were compiled, screened, and used to generate water-quality trends in the DRB. These trends, for periods of record that end in 2018, were generated for 124Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2012–November 30, 2013
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 supervision and direction of the River Master. The DWater 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 assessments of water availability throughout the United StaPesticides 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 time period from 2013 to 2017. Samples were collectedEvaluating 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 plan for future flows. Using a sample of 325 U.S. GeolMicroplastics 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 Survey and the NPS conducted a three-phase study of micrHydro-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. Water‐year R is used to identify drought periods iPrioritizing 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 a systematic, quantitative approach to prioritize cReport 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 supervision and direction of the River Master. The DA 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 an important role in supporting ecological healthPooling 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 scientists with the information needed to evaluate the healtIdentification 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 diversity in streams within the Delaware Water Gap Nationa - Web Tools
Data & Tools (Web Apps)
Delaware 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.
- Software
Delaware River basin software
The 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.
- News
News about or related to the Delaware River Basin
- Partners
Selected Delaware River Basin partners are listed below.
Many other partners have cooperated with USGS on local studies within the basin.