Water Resources
Current Real-Time Stream Flow Conditions
Learn MoreData and Tools
The USGS Water Resources Mission Area provides water information that is fundamental to national and local economic well-being, protection of life and property, and effective management of the Nation’s water resources. Below, find data and tools relevant to a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and water use and availability.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
Access to water data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites
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WaterWatch (surface water)
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
Groundwater Watch
Groundwater Watch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and historical groundwater data from wells and springs across the United States. Groundwater Watch groups related wells and data from active well networks and provides basic statistics about the water-level data collected by the USGS and from data supplied to us from partners through cooperative agreements.
WaterQualityWatch
WaterQualityWatch provides access to real-time water-quality data collected at more than 2,000 stream sites throughout the United States, including streamflow, water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and nitrate.
WaterNow
The USGS WaterNow service lets users receive current conditions for USGS water-data-collection stations on demand via email or cell-phone text message. The user sends an email or text message containing a USGS current-conditions gaging site number, and will quickly receive a reply with the station's most recent data for one or more of its monitored parameters.
WaterAlert
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service sends e-mail or text (SMS) messages when certain parameters, as measured by a USGS real-time data-collection station, exceed user-definable thresholds. The development and maintenance of the WaterAlert system is supported by the USGS and its partners, including numerous federal, state, and local agencies.
NWIS Current Water Data (Real-Time Data)
The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.
USGS Mobile Water Data
The USGS Mobile Water Data site highlights USGS current conditions water data in a mobile-friendly website, allowing users to monitor conditions at a favorite river or stream or locate nearby monitoring locations. All USGS current conditions water data is available.
Water Data Labs
Water Data Labs is an experimental site that exposes tools and technologies in development by the USGS Water Data for the Nation software team. Here, users can explore and test experimental products, services, tools, and visualizations.
Water Data for the Nation Blog
The USGS Water Mission Area has a wide variety of services available to improve the access and understanding of U.S. water information. The Water Data for the Nation blog posts highlight developments, data, and applications of these services.
Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA)
The goals of the Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) are to characterize multiple water-quality factors that are stressors to aquatic life (contaminants, nutrients, sediment, and streamflow alteration) and to develop a better understanding of the relation of these stressors to ecological conditions in streams throughout the region.
Delaware River Dashboard
Created for the Office of the Delaware River Master and supporting the USGS Next Generation Water Observing System Delaware River pilot, the Delaware River Dashboard shows provisional real-time water data collected at USGS observation stations in context with weather-related data from other public sources.
Fauquier County Groundwater Recharge
A Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model (Westenbroek and others, 2010) was developed to estimate the mean annual water budget for the period 1996 through 2015 and the annual water budget for a drought-year in 2001. This application allows the display and...