Climate Change

Droughts are one of the most expensive and damaging hydrologic hazards in the United States. They are generally slow in developing, frequently occur over a long period of time, and can affect large areas and populations.

The Connecticut streamflow and sustainable water use estimator is a decision-support tool that provides estimates of daily unaltered streamflow, water-use adjusted streamflow (for the portions of the state where water-use data are available), and water availability for ungaged, user-defined sites in Connecticut.

The drought of 2016 affected hydrologic conditions throughout New England. Responses of USGS groundwater observation wells to this event, however, were not uniform and were sometimes markedly different from site to site. Although USGS scientists were able to provide explanations for most of these situations, the event highlighted the need for additional well information to develop quantitative and...

The USGS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are examining the potential effects of droughts on the arsenic hazard in private well water across the Nation.

Hydrologic droughts and floods can have severe impacts on river infrastructure, water supply, and ecosystem functioning.

This project will provide a deterministic watershed model of the Meduxnekeag River watershed with a capacity to model water-temperatures capable of simulating future hydrologic and temperature changes based on projected climate estimates.

The record setting floods of 2011 in Lake Champlain Vermont/New York U.S. and the Richelieu River in the province of Quebec Canada prompted the U.S. and Canadian governments to work together to identify how flood forecasting, preparedness and mitigation can be improved in the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River (LCRR) basin.