Mission Areas
Water Resources
Water information is fundamental to national and local economic well-being, protection of life and property, and effective management of the Nation’s water resources. The USGS works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and water use and availability.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
Surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and water-use data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites across all 50 states.
Get dataMessage from the Associate Director for Water
Learn more about the WMA from Dr. Don Cline, the Associate Director for Water Resources.
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Explore our science by the topical areas that drive the research and projects conducted by our Programs.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
National Groundwater Monitoring Network Data Portal
More data and toolsNews
USGS Works to Predict and Track Isaias' Effects
To learn more about USGS’s role in providing science to decision makers before, during and after Tropical Storm Isaias, visit https://www.usgs.gov/isaias.
This story was updated August 3 to reflect changes in the coastal change and landfall forecasts for Isaias.
USGS Deploying Sensors in Carolinas to Monitor Hurricane Isaias
To learn more about USGS’s role in providing science to decision makers before, during, and after Hurricane Isaias, visit the USGS Hurricane Isaias page at https://www.usgs.gov/isaias.
Congratulations to the Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis Class of FY21 Working Group
The Powell Center is pleased to announce six new Working Groups for FY21 support.
Publications
Incipient bed-movement and flood-frequency analysis using hydrophones to estimate flushing flows on the upper Colorado River, Colorado, 2019
In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Stakeholder Group, studied the magnitude and recurrence interval of streamflow (discharge) needed to initiate bed movement of gravel-sized and finer sediment in a segment of the Colorado River in Colorado to better understand sediment movement and its...
Kohn, Michael S.; Marineau, Mathieu D.; Hempel, Laura A.; McDonald, Richard R.
seawaveQ—An R package providing a model and utilities for analyzing trends in chemical concentrations in streams with a seasonal wave (seawave) and adjustment for streamflow (Q) and other ancillary variables, version 2.0.0
The seawaveQ R package provides functionality and help to fit a parametric regression model, SEAWAVE-Q, to pesticide concentration data from stream-water samples to assess trends. The model incorporates the strong seasonality and high degree of censoring common in pesticide data, and users can incorporate numerous ancillary variables such as...
Ryberg, Karen R.; York, Benjamin C.
Estimating streamflow and base flow within the nontidal Chesapeake Bay riverine system
Daily mean streamflow was estimated for all the nontidal parts of the Chesapeake Bay riverine system with the Unit Flows in Networks of Channels computer application using measured streamflow at the most downstream gage of selected rivers. The streamflows estimated by the Unit Flows in Networks of Channels computer application were aggregated at...
Buffington, Patrick C.; Capel, Paul D.