Performance Measures

By Water Availability and Use Science Program

The Water Availability and Use Science Program tracks progress toward Department of the Interior Performance Goal 3.3.4 established in the Departmental Strategic Plan.

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), and the subsequent GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, require that federal agencies establish performance measures to track and assess progress toward Departmental performance goals.

Performance Goals and Measures, FY 2022-2026

The FY 2022-2026 Department of the Interior (DOI) Strategic Plan identifies the strategic goals, strategic objectives, and performance goals that DOI will work to achieve. The Water Availability and Use Science Program supports DOI Performance Goal 3.3.4, under DOI Strategic Goal 3 and DOI Strategic Objective 3.3.

DOI Strategic Goal	DOI Strategic Objective	DOI Performance Goal
Goal 3: Sustainably Balance the Use of Resources While Supporting Communities and the Economy	3.3: Land, Water, and Non-Energy Mineral Resources Support the Diverse Needs of Communities	3.3.4 Communities have access to more robust water data, nationally consistent water availability assessments and predictions, and modeling tools to make decisions under changing climate conditions and competing urban, agricultural, and ecological demands.

The Water Availability and Use Science Program tracks and assesses progress toward DOI Performance Goal 3.3.4 using the following measures:

Performance Measure 1: Percentage progress toward the delivery of an Integrated National Water Census
Performance Measure 2: Percentage progress toward the development, testing, and delivery of modern water prediction tools to the public

These performance measures are published annually alongside the President’s Budget Request in the Department of Interior's Annual Performance Plan and Report. To see each of the published Annual Performance Plans and Reports, please reference Department of Interior’s Budget and Performance website.

Performance Measure Status

Performance Measure 1: Percentage progress toward the delivery of an Integrated National Water Census

In FY 2023, the USGS completed an evaluation of stakeholder interest in an Integrated National Water Census. The evaluation included users of national information and assessed how the information is used, what gaps are evident, and what format and delivery methods are preferred. There was also progress through the development of website hosting structures, application programming interfaces, and mockup sites toward the prototype testing environment.

Performance Measure 2: Percentage progress toward the development, testing, and delivery of modern water prediction tools to the public

In FY 2023, the USGS completed the development and released the CONUS404, a high-resolution hydro-climate dataset designed to provide climate information for the past 40 years at a 4-km resolution in hydrological models over the contiguous United States. Additional progress continues in the compilation of subsurface data to provide a framework for groundwater modeling at national scales.

Secretarial Priorities

In addition to the performance measures listed above, the Water Availability and Use Science Program also tracks and assesses progress toward Secretarial Priorities.

Secretarial Priority Goal: Conserve, protect, and restore natural and cultural resources

Contributing Activity/Task: Advance resilience of drought-stricken communities by utilizing tools to inform communities about risks and strategies to address climate change impacts on waterways and water supplies. Drought represents a substantial and recurring problem for water resource management across the United States. Without early warning, it is difficult to manage water resources in coordination with regional partners. Shortages of water, through changing climate or human uses, can lead to impactful shortages of water needed for public supply, agriculture, industry, and ecosystem services, among others. USGS is developing new data-driven methods to prototype advancement in predictive drought science that will deliver early warning of hydrologic drought conditions at higher spatial and temporal resolution than currently available in an operational product.