Reports

Every 5 years since 1950, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled data on the amount of water used in homes, businesses, industries, and farms throughout the State. This water-use data, combined with other related USGS information, has facilitated a unique understanding of the effects of human activity on the State’s water resources. As water availability continues to emerge as an...

Assessing the physical change to shorelines and wetlands is critical in determining the resiliency of wetland systems that protect adjacent habitat and communities. The wetland and back-barrier shorelines of Assateague Island, located in Maryland and Virginia, changed as a result of wave action and storm surge that occurred during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. As part of the U.S. Geological...

Land application of municipal wastewater biosolids is the most common method of biosolids management used in North Carolina and the United States. Biosolids have characteristics that may be beneficial to soil and plants. Land application can take advantage of these beneficial qualities, whereas disposal in landfills or incineration poses no beneficial use of the waste. Some independent...

Nutrients, suspended sediment, and trace element loads in the Blackstone River and selected tributaries were estimated from composite water-quality samples in order to better understand the distribution and sources of these constituents in the river basin. The flow-proportional composite water-quality samples were collected during sequential 2-week periods at six stations along the river...

Three Sutron RLR-0003-1 water level sensors were tested in laboratory conditions to evaluate the accuracy of the sensor over the manufacturer’s specified operating temperature and distance-to-water ranges. The sensor was also tested for compliance to SDI-12 communication protocol and in field conditions at a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgaging site. Laboratory results were...

The U.S. National Ocean Policy calls for a science- and ecosystem-based approach to comprehensive planning and management of human activities and their impacts on America’s oceans. The Ocean Community in Data.gov is an outcome of 2010–2011 work by an interagency working group charged with designing a national information management system to support ocean planning. Within the working...

The BP-3-USGS well was drilled at the southwestern corner of Great Sand Dunes National Park in the San Luis Valley, south-central Colorado, 68 feet (ft, 20.7 meters [m]) southwest of the National Park Service’s boundary-piezometer (BP) well 3. BP-3-USGS is located at latitude 37°43ʹ18.06ʺN. and longitude 105°43ʹ39.30ʺW., at an elevation of 7,549 ft (2,301 m). The well was drilled through...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Southwestern Energy, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, developed regression equations for estimation of dry season mean monthly flows and harmonic mean flows that are representative of natural streamflow conditions at selected ungaged...

Many undocumented and commonly unmaintained levees exist in the landscape complicating flood forecasting, risk management, and emergency response. This report describes a pilot study completed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess two methods to identify undocumented levees by using remotely sensed, high-resolution topographic data...

This report summarizes baseline land-cover change information for four time intervals from between 1973 and 2000 for the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). The study used sample data from the USGS Land Cover Trends dataset to develop estimates of change for 10 land-cover classes in the LCC. The results show that an estimated 17.7 percent of the LCC...

During 2009–13, a Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) banding station was operated at the Naval Outlying Landing Field (NOLF), Imperial Beach, in southwestern San Diego County, California. The station was established as part of a long-term monitoring program of Neotropical migratory bird populations on NOLF and helps Naval Base Coronado (NOLF is a component) meet the...

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is developing a Landscape Approach for managing multiple uses of public lands by incorporating multiscale information to quantify the effects of natural and human influences on natural resource conditions and trends. A primary goal of the approach is to identify opportunities for resource conservation, restoration...