Water Resources
Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands
Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands Water Science Center
The USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center conducts hydrologic monitoring and investigative studies on a wide variety of issues affecting water resources in the State of Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands.
Science
Science
The USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center provides reliable, objective scientific information to address water-related issues in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands.
Publications
Divergent trends in fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations following improved land-use practices, southwest Washington State Divergent trends in fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations following improved land-use practices, southwest Washington State
Improvements in logging practices since the mid-20th century are widely presumed to have reduced suspended sediment loads in streams across the Pacific Northwest. However, there have been few opportunities to directly assess this, particularly in larger rivers. We compare modern (2019–22) and historical (1960s) suspended sediment monitoring in three large, actively managed watersheds in...
Identifying the relative importance of water-budget information needed to quantify how land-cover change affects recharge, Hawaiian Islands Identifying the relative importance of water-budget information needed to quantify how land-cover change affects recharge, Hawaiian Islands
This report describes a sensitivity analysis of a water-budget model that was completed to identify the most important types of hydrologic information needed to reduce the uncertainty of model recharge estimates. The sensitivity of model recharge estimates for the Hawaiian Islands of Oʻahu and Maui was analyzed for seven model parameters potentially affected by land-cover changes within...
Long-term groundwater availability in the Waihe‘e, ‘Īao, and Waikapū aquifer systems, Maui, Hawai‘i Long-term groundwater availability in the Waihe‘e, ‘Īao, and Waikapū aquifer systems, Maui, Hawai‘i
Groundwater levels have declined since the 1940s in the Wailuku area of central Maui, Hawai‘i, on the eastern flank of West Maui volcano, mainly in response to increased groundwater withdrawals. Available data since the 1980s also indicate a thinning of the freshwater lens and an increase in chloride concentrations of pumped water from production wells. These trends, combined with...