Water Resources

USGS scientists load and check the mission path onto an Ecomapper autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), while other crew members collect vertical profile information using a multiple-parameter water-quality meter. This technology is part of the

USGS gage 05293000 YELLOW BANK RIVER NEAR ODESSA, MN with High River Water Level From Flood.

USGS scientists collect data from the surfaced Ecomapper after a mission to understand stream mixing near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Penn. This technology is part of the

USGS employee John Fulton prepares an unmanned aerial vehicle for take off. This particular drone referred to as "Q-Cam" measures surface water stream velocity. Combined with a second drone, non-contact discharge measurements can be made. This technology is part of the

Example of a camera system that will be tested to measure water level and surface velocity at the East Branch Brandywine Creek below Downingtown, PA. Photo Credit: USGS staff. This technology is part of the

USGS scientists Adam Baldwin and Chris Gazoorian (USGS New York Water Science Center) point out the newly installed fixed-mount thermal infrared camera installed on the USGS Platte Kill at Dunraven NY streamgage in the Neversink River watershed. The camera is positioned to

In this photo, USGS scientists Megan Haserodt (Hydrologist) and Jenelle Wempner (Student Intern) install a double ring infiltrometer along a recreated floodplain of Underwood Creek, a tributary to the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The work is part of a larger study of how overbank flows and shallow groundwater in floodplains are connected for

Pamela Reilly, Hydrologist

The World's Water - Distribution of Earth's Water

The Earth is a watery place. But just how much water exists on, in, and above our planet? About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent

USGS employees John Fulton - collecting live discharge data,  Josip Adams - operating drone, and Sandy Brosnahan co-piloting and spotting, on a River in Maine.

Hydrographer Keith Lambert installing a rapid deployment gage at New Mill Creek at Chesapeake, VA in advance of Hurricane Dorian. Photo: Blake Dudding, USGS September 5, 2019