Cooperative Projects
USGS Cooperative Matching Funds (CMF) support joint projects with our State, regional, tribal, and local partners to provide reliable, impartial, and timely information needed by these partners to understand and manage the Nation's water resources.
CMF is combined with funds from over 1,500 partners for projects that monitor and assess water resources in every state, protectorate, and territory of the U.S. The flexibility of CMF allows USGS and its partners to respond to significant or emerging water issues in a timely manner; sometimes this results in local issues being raised to the regional or national level. Because consistent USGS national protocols are used to monitor and assess water resources, water data are directly comparable at the regional and national scale and water issues in a specific location, watershed, or aquifer can be compared to those in other geographic regions and across different time periods. Such comparisons allow for large-scale synthesis and problem-solving across state lines, in regional watersheds or aquifers, and nationally. CMF are also used to develop innovative approaches for monitoring, modeling, managing, and delivering water data and science to our partners, while also providing information that protects human lives and property, promotes healthy ecosystems, and supports sustainable economic development.
The Water Availability and Use Science Program (WAUSP) is one of four budget programs in the USGS Water Mission Area. WAUSP CMF, in combination with funds from Partners, support efforts to improve our understanding of how hydrologic systems are affected by increasing demand and competition for limited regional water resources, to ensure adequate water availability in the future. These funds support the development of groundwater and surface water models to determine water availability, especially during droughts and other low water periods. This information is critical for designing infrastructure and balancing demand between water supply and ecological needs. Tools such as StreamStats provide critical information when evaluating streams and rivers where data from streamgages are not available. The collection and evaluation of water-use data in cooperation with USGS Partners is critical for evaluating the effects of human use on groundwater and surface-water resources to aid long-term planning for water supply and ecological needs.
