The USGS Water-Use Open Forum is for those involved in water-use data collection, data management, and regulation to communicate about challenges and solutions to water-use data issues, such as data collection, storage, QA/QC, analysis and data dissemination.
Upcoming talk
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Spatial scaling effects on estimation of the variability of water supply and use
- October 31, 2024
- 3 pm EDT, Noon PDT
- Presenter: Dr. John Helly, UC-San Diego
- Abstract: Our recent studies of the variability of water supply and use across the State of California show that summary statistics can be quite mis-leading in terms of both spatial and temporal variability. The smoothing effects of summary statistics are well-known but are commonly glossed-over in agency reports and government publications for the sake of simplicity: most people are comfortable with averages but not quantiles, for example. Our analyses of California data show the importance of spatially resolving data across the wide-range, and sharp adjacency, of land-use in California to adequately account for land-use heterogeneity in water resource estimates. Recently, I have extended these results to tax-parcels for the island of Maui as an example of the importance of user-level data (i.e., metered) as a basis for water resource analysis.
General information about webinars
Water-Use Open Forum webinars generally will be scheduled on the last Wednesday of the month at 2 pm ET. A Microsoft Teams meeting invitation with the topic and speaker will be sent out before each call. At the meeting time, activate the webinar using the link in your calendar invitation. Please email the WUDR Coordinator to be added to the email list for announcements of future talks.
We encourage you to volunteer for an upcoming talk to share your water-use data experiences. Contact the WUDR Coordinator with your topic and preferred date.
Past presentations
| Date | Title | Presenters |
|---|---|---|
| October 31, 2024 | Spatial scaling effects on estimation of the variability of water supply and use | Dr. John Helly, UC-San Diego |
| August 26, 2024 | Total irrigation by crop in the Continental United States from 2008 to 2020 | Megan Konar Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| February 28, 2024 | An assessment of bottled water withdrawals in the United States | Cheryl Dieter, USGS |
| November 28, 2023 | Advancing Understanding of America's Water Use Through Novel Databases and Models | Dr. Landon Marston, Virginia Tech, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, |
| July 26, 2023 | The History and Applications of the Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database | James Polidori, Great Lakes Commission |
| March 29, 2023 | Mining Water Use in Texas | Robert C. Reedy, P.G., and Bridget R. Scanlon, P.G., Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin |
| November 30, 2022 | The Western States Water Data Access and Analysis Data Tool | Adel Abdallah, WaDE Program Manager; Ryan James, Hydroinformatics Specialist |
| October 19, 2022 | Developing a Web-Accessible Water Withdrawal and Use Database for Rhode Island | Tim Stagnitta, Rhode Island Water Resources Board |
| September 28, 2022 | Developing the Texas Water Data Hub Using a Human-Centered Design Approach | Taylor Christian, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) |
| August 31, 2022 | Automated Mapping and Monitoring of Irrigation Channel Networks with High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing | David Selkowitz, USGS Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center |
| July 27, 2022 | Agricultural Water Use Estimation for Puerto Rico Under Changing Climate Conditions | Michelle Irizarry-Ortiz, USGS Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center |
| April 27, 2022 | Next Generation Approach to Estimating Irrigation Water Use | Jonathan Haynes, Michael Rush; USGS |
| January 26, 2022 | Cloud-based Water Conservation Reporting Tool for the State of Minnesota | Carmelita Nelson, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Leo Steidel, CEO of ESPLabs |
| December 8, 2021 | Agricultural Water Use Assessment: Comparing Metered and Estimated Irrigation Withdrawals in New Jersey | Kent Barr, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection |
| October 27, 2021 | Water Withdrawals by Public Water Suppliers: Findings from Validated Water Audit Data | George Kunkel, PE, Kunkel Water Efficiency Consulting |
| September 29, 2021 | Better Data, More informed Decisions, and the AWWA Water Audit | Steve Cavanaugh, Cavanaugh & Associates, P.A. |
| August 25, | Domestic Well-Metering Projects in the USGS New Jersey Water Science Center | Jen Shourds, USGS New Jersey Water Science Center |
| January 27, 2021 | Experiences with contractors for Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) projects | Ryan Gordon, Maine Geological Survey Christina Hargiss, North Dakota State University |
| November 18, 2020 | USGS Water-Use Program updates and data delivery | Jaime Painter, USGS |
| October 28, 2020 | Locating private water well systems in Vermont: leveraging digital well records, parcel data, and property information in GIS | Julia Boyles, Vermont Geological Survey |
| September 30, 2020 | Estimated Groundwater Withdrawals from Principal Aquifers in the United States, 2015 | John Lovelace, USGS |
| August 26, 2020 | Consumptive water use: refining Virginia's water supply estimates with discharge and withdrawal data | Scott Kudlas, VA DEQ Robert Burgholzer, VA DEQ Julie Shortridge, Virginia Tech |
| July 29, 2020 | Mapping and modeling of interbasin water transfers within the United States | Landon Marston, Virginia Tech |
| May 27, 2020 | USGS thermoelectric water use | Melissa Harris, USGS |
| February 26, 2020 | Visualizing water use data in Texas through dashboards | Katie Dahlberg, Texas Water Development Board |
| December 4, 2019 | WSWC Water Data Exchange (WaDE) Program 2.0: New Architecture | Adel Abdallah, Western States Water Council |
| October 30, 2019 | Pennsylvania's Water Use and Data Research Projects | Michael Hill, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection |
| October 2, 2019 | USGS water-use data system modernization and WaDE collaboration | Nancy Barber, USGS |
| July 31, 2019 | Progress and status of the WUDR program | Kim Shaffer, USGS WUDR Coordinator |
| August 30, 2017 | Municipal water-use data in North Dakota — projects and per capita coefficients | Dr. Christina Hargiss, North Dakota State University |
| May 31, 2017 | Developing a domestic self-supplied metering program in Florida, what has been learned about metering, understanding early results, and how to expand this study | Rich Marella, USGS |
| April 26, 2017 | Water use in the Tennessee Valley: a TVA perspective | Amanda Bowen, TVA |
| February 22, 2017 | California Assembly Bill 1755 "The Open and Transparent Water Data Act" | Christina McCready, California DWR |
| January 25, 2017 | A look at irrigation policy and technology advancements through the Rrear view mirror, the Kansas Experience | Dr. Dan Rogers, Kansas State University |
| October 26, 2016 | Water use and golf courses in Utah, "Just Par for the Course" | Robert Baskin, Ph.D, PG, USGS Utah Water Science Center |
| September 28, 2016 | Overview of the Arkansas water-use program | Todd Fugitt and Mike Guess, Arkansas Natural Resources Commission |
| August 31, 2016 | Water Data Exchange (WaDE) | Sara Larsen, Western States Water Council |
| June 29, 2016 | Water Use in New Jersey and the New Jersey Water-Transfer Data System (NJWaTr) | Steve Domber, NJ DEP and Jen Shourds, USGS |
| May 25, 2016 | Wisconsin water-use data collection, database, and QA/QC | Bob Smail, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources |
| April 27, 2016 | Texas Municipal and Industrial Water Use Survey | Kevin Kluge, Texas Water Development Board |
| March 30, 2016 | Using SSEBop remote sensing methods to estimate consumptive use on agricultural lands | Gabriel Senay and Jesslyn Brown, USGS |
| February 24, 2016 | USGS water-use databases--AWUDS and SWUDS | Nancy Barber, USGS |
| February 10, 2016 | Overview of USGS 2015 water-use compilation | Molly Maupin, USGS |
Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program
The USGS Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program provides financial assistance through cooperative agreements with State water resource agencies to improve the availability, quality, compatibility, and delivery of water-use data that is collected or estimated by States.
The USGS Water-Use Open Forum is for those involved in water-use data collection, data management, and regulation to communicate about challenges and solutions to water-use data issues, such as data collection, storage, QA/QC, analysis and data dissemination.
Upcoming talk
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Spatial scaling effects on estimation of the variability of water supply and use
- October 31, 2024
- 3 pm EDT, Noon PDT
- Presenter: Dr. John Helly, UC-San Diego
- Abstract: Our recent studies of the variability of water supply and use across the State of California show that summary statistics can be quite mis-leading in terms of both spatial and temporal variability. The smoothing effects of summary statistics are well-known but are commonly glossed-over in agency reports and government publications for the sake of simplicity: most people are comfortable with averages but not quantiles, for example. Our analyses of California data show the importance of spatially resolving data across the wide-range, and sharp adjacency, of land-use in California to adequately account for land-use heterogeneity in water resource estimates. Recently, I have extended these results to tax-parcels for the island of Maui as an example of the importance of user-level data (i.e., metered) as a basis for water resource analysis.
General information about webinars
Water-Use Open Forum webinars generally will be scheduled on the last Wednesday of the month at 2 pm ET. A Microsoft Teams meeting invitation with the topic and speaker will be sent out before each call. At the meeting time, activate the webinar using the link in your calendar invitation. Please email the WUDR Coordinator to be added to the email list for announcements of future talks.
We encourage you to volunteer for an upcoming talk to share your water-use data experiences. Contact the WUDR Coordinator with your topic and preferred date.
Past presentations
| Date | Title | Presenters |
|---|---|---|
| October 31, 2024 | Spatial scaling effects on estimation of the variability of water supply and use | Dr. John Helly, UC-San Diego |
| August 26, 2024 | Total irrigation by crop in the Continental United States from 2008 to 2020 | Megan Konar Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| February 28, 2024 | An assessment of bottled water withdrawals in the United States | Cheryl Dieter, USGS |
| November 28, 2023 | Advancing Understanding of America's Water Use Through Novel Databases and Models | Dr. Landon Marston, Virginia Tech, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, |
| July 26, 2023 | The History and Applications of the Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database | James Polidori, Great Lakes Commission |
| March 29, 2023 | Mining Water Use in Texas | Robert C. Reedy, P.G., and Bridget R. Scanlon, P.G., Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin |
| November 30, 2022 | The Western States Water Data Access and Analysis Data Tool | Adel Abdallah, WaDE Program Manager; Ryan James, Hydroinformatics Specialist |
| October 19, 2022 | Developing a Web-Accessible Water Withdrawal and Use Database for Rhode Island | Tim Stagnitta, Rhode Island Water Resources Board |
| September 28, 2022 | Developing the Texas Water Data Hub Using a Human-Centered Design Approach | Taylor Christian, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) |
| August 31, 2022 | Automated Mapping and Monitoring of Irrigation Channel Networks with High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing | David Selkowitz, USGS Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center |
| July 27, 2022 | Agricultural Water Use Estimation for Puerto Rico Under Changing Climate Conditions | Michelle Irizarry-Ortiz, USGS Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center |
| April 27, 2022 | Next Generation Approach to Estimating Irrigation Water Use | Jonathan Haynes, Michael Rush; USGS |
| January 26, 2022 | Cloud-based Water Conservation Reporting Tool for the State of Minnesota | Carmelita Nelson, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Leo Steidel, CEO of ESPLabs |
| December 8, 2021 | Agricultural Water Use Assessment: Comparing Metered and Estimated Irrigation Withdrawals in New Jersey | Kent Barr, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection |
| October 27, 2021 | Water Withdrawals by Public Water Suppliers: Findings from Validated Water Audit Data | George Kunkel, PE, Kunkel Water Efficiency Consulting |
| September 29, 2021 | Better Data, More informed Decisions, and the AWWA Water Audit | Steve Cavanaugh, Cavanaugh & Associates, P.A. |
| August 25, | Domestic Well-Metering Projects in the USGS New Jersey Water Science Center | Jen Shourds, USGS New Jersey Water Science Center |
| January 27, 2021 | Experiences with contractors for Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) projects | Ryan Gordon, Maine Geological Survey Christina Hargiss, North Dakota State University |
| November 18, 2020 | USGS Water-Use Program updates and data delivery | Jaime Painter, USGS |
| October 28, 2020 | Locating private water well systems in Vermont: leveraging digital well records, parcel data, and property information in GIS | Julia Boyles, Vermont Geological Survey |
| September 30, 2020 | Estimated Groundwater Withdrawals from Principal Aquifers in the United States, 2015 | John Lovelace, USGS |
| August 26, 2020 | Consumptive water use: refining Virginia's water supply estimates with discharge and withdrawal data | Scott Kudlas, VA DEQ Robert Burgholzer, VA DEQ Julie Shortridge, Virginia Tech |
| July 29, 2020 | Mapping and modeling of interbasin water transfers within the United States | Landon Marston, Virginia Tech |
| May 27, 2020 | USGS thermoelectric water use | Melissa Harris, USGS |
| February 26, 2020 | Visualizing water use data in Texas through dashboards | Katie Dahlberg, Texas Water Development Board |
| December 4, 2019 | WSWC Water Data Exchange (WaDE) Program 2.0: New Architecture | Adel Abdallah, Western States Water Council |
| October 30, 2019 | Pennsylvania's Water Use and Data Research Projects | Michael Hill, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection |
| October 2, 2019 | USGS water-use data system modernization and WaDE collaboration | Nancy Barber, USGS |
| July 31, 2019 | Progress and status of the WUDR program | Kim Shaffer, USGS WUDR Coordinator |
| August 30, 2017 | Municipal water-use data in North Dakota — projects and per capita coefficients | Dr. Christina Hargiss, North Dakota State University |
| May 31, 2017 | Developing a domestic self-supplied metering program in Florida, what has been learned about metering, understanding early results, and how to expand this study | Rich Marella, USGS |
| April 26, 2017 | Water use in the Tennessee Valley: a TVA perspective | Amanda Bowen, TVA |
| February 22, 2017 | California Assembly Bill 1755 "The Open and Transparent Water Data Act" | Christina McCready, California DWR |
| January 25, 2017 | A look at irrigation policy and technology advancements through the Rrear view mirror, the Kansas Experience | Dr. Dan Rogers, Kansas State University |
| October 26, 2016 | Water use and golf courses in Utah, "Just Par for the Course" | Robert Baskin, Ph.D, PG, USGS Utah Water Science Center |
| September 28, 2016 | Overview of the Arkansas water-use program | Todd Fugitt and Mike Guess, Arkansas Natural Resources Commission |
| August 31, 2016 | Water Data Exchange (WaDE) | Sara Larsen, Western States Water Council |
| June 29, 2016 | Water Use in New Jersey and the New Jersey Water-Transfer Data System (NJWaTr) | Steve Domber, NJ DEP and Jen Shourds, USGS |
| May 25, 2016 | Wisconsin water-use data collection, database, and QA/QC | Bob Smail, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources |
| April 27, 2016 | Texas Municipal and Industrial Water Use Survey | Kevin Kluge, Texas Water Development Board |
| March 30, 2016 | Using SSEBop remote sensing methods to estimate consumptive use on agricultural lands | Gabriel Senay and Jesslyn Brown, USGS |
| February 24, 2016 | USGS water-use databases--AWUDS and SWUDS | Nancy Barber, USGS |
| February 10, 2016 | Overview of USGS 2015 water-use compilation | Molly Maupin, USGS |
Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program
The USGS Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program provides financial assistance through cooperative agreements with State water resource agencies to improve the availability, quality, compatibility, and delivery of water-use data that is collected or estimated by States.