National Water Census Active

The National Water Census is a centralized website and data delivery system that will provide routinely updated and nationally consistent modeled water quantity, water quality, and water use information, along with long-term trends in observational data. The National Water Census can be used by scientists, policymakers, resource managers, private companies, environmental advocates, media sources, and the general public to better understand the status of water systems across the Nation. It is a key component of the USGS Water Mission Area Water Availability Assessments.

This centralized delivery of model and trend information will be complementary to the centralized delivery of observational data in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) data base. The NWC extends NWIS's data by providing modeled data and long-term trend calculations that are spatially and temporally continuous, filling in spatial gaps between monitoring stations and temporal gaps between periodic sampling at these stations. These nationally consistent datasets are available at the sub-watershed scale (12-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes or HUC12s; tracts of 10,000-40,000 acres) and will cover past conditions over multiple decades, updated information on current or near-current conditions, and forecasts of future condition in the short and long term.