Geospatial Data

The southern Chesapeake Bay region is experiencing land subsidence along with rising sea levels, both of which can contribute to coastal flooding. The rates at which these two processes are occurring are not exactly known. Mapping of land elevation change requires ground-truth survey data at multiple locations that are accurate and precise. With the exception of a few CORS sites that have...

Pennsylvanian- and Mississippian-age aquifers occupy approximately 86,000 square-miles in the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. As one of several USGS Regional Groundwater Studies, the primary goal of this study is to provide a regional understanding of groundwater flow and availability in the...

This successful partnership brings together Randolph-Macon College (RMC), Washington and Lee University (W&L), and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in partnership with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to foster growth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) through summer student internship experience, awareness of USGS science in the classroom, and increased understanding of...

Bedford County consists of 764 square miles in the west-central portion of Virginia's central plateau. Its boundaries include the Blue Ridge Mountains on the west, the James River on the northeast and Smith Mountain Lake on the south, and Campbell County on the east. The area has a rolling to hilly terrain with elevations from 800 feet to 4,200 feet above sea level. The County contains the...

Objectives of the program are to (1) evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of chloride concentrations in the aquifers, (2) evaluate the factors that affect the spatial and temporal distributions of chloride, and (3) assess the potential for upcoming or lateral intrusion of saline water in the aquifers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Wilmington District and the City of Roanoke, Virginia began construction of a congressionally authorized Roanoke River Flood Reduction Project (RRFRP) in 2005. RRFRP implementation activities include: construction activities, stream bank vegetation changes, and floodplain geometry changes which are occurring in a complicated urban river system. These...

Properly developed regional curves for a specific hydro-physiographic province are an invaluable tool for stream restoration design. Development of regional curves specifically for physiographic provinces of Virginia will enhance the ability to develop successful natural channel designs based on climatic, geologic, and hydrologic characteristics of specific regions of the state.

The USGS, with cooperation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, is involved in several related and on-going regional projects directed at better characterization of this important resource. The large amount of information needed for these projects requires the development and integration of a Geographic Information System (GIS)...

The objective of this study is to better characterize the carbonate aquifer system in the Northern Shenandoah Valley and provide relevant hydrogeologic information that can be used to guide the development and management of this important water resource.