Integrated Water Availability Assessment Funds
A group of Cooperative Matching Funds (CMF) projects across the U.S. will help to support development of National and Regional Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs). IWAAs are a multi-extent, stakeholder-driven, near real-time census and seasonal prediction of water availability for both human and ecological uses at regional and national extents.
The IWAAs are designed to provide information to meet the goals of the National Water Census as established through the SECURE Water Act. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2019, Congress has provided the Water Availability and Use Science Program (WAUSP) with $1 million annually in additional Cooperative Matching Funds (CMF) to pilot projects in support of IWAAs.
Since 2019, IWAAs CMF have funded 27 projects across the U.S. that help to support development of National and Regional IWAAs, including work in selected Integrated Water Science (IWS) Basins. This work is conducted with state and local partners with the support of CMF and cover a variety of technical topics focused on improving our ability to provide the data, tools, and information stakeholders need to make water-resource management decisions.
Geographic areas with projects selected for funding:
Delaware River Basin (IWS Basin) - 10 projects, 2019-21, 2020-22, 2021, 2022-23, 2022, 2022-24, 2023-24, 2023-25
Cambrian-Ordovician Regional Aquifer System - 1 project, 2019-21
Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System - 1 project, 2019-21
Illinois River Basin (IWS Basin) - 3 projects, 2019-21, 2022-25, 2024-26
Island of Maui, Hawaii - 1 project, 2020-21
New Hampshire - 1 project, 2022-24
Rhode Island - 1 project, 2022-24
Russian River Basin, California - 1 project, 2019-21
Salinas River Basin, California - 1 project, 2022-24
San Joaquin-San Francisco Bay Delta Basin, California - 1 project, 2019-21
Trinity-San Jacinto River Basin, Texas (IWS Basin) - 1 project, 2019-21
Upper Colorado River Basin (IWS Basin) - 4 projects, 2022-24, 2024, 2024-25, 2024-26
Willamette River Basin (IWS Basin) - 1 project, 2023-24
Delaware River Basin
Identifying spatial and temporal drivers to predict drought in the Delaware River Basin (funded in 2019)
Partner: Delaware Geological Survey
Contact: John Hammond - jhammond@usgs.gov
This study generated annual time series of selected low flow metrics, map hotspots where gages have extreme low flows during the drought of record to identify parts of the basin most acutely affected and performed trend analysis on selected annual time series of low flows. Time series of identified climatic drivers of drought were correlated with flow time series. Drivers with correlation to flows were included in predictive models of low flows and low groundwater levels to reduce uncertainty and extend the forecasting ability of empirical models. Low flow regressions were developed for the State of Delaware to predict low flows at ungaged locations.
Products:
Estimates of Daily Water Use for Public Supply and Linking the National Hydrologic Model with a Riverware model within the Delaware River Basin (funded in 2020)
Partner: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Contact: Jon Janowicz - jjanowicz@usgs.gov
This study investigated potential methods specific to New Jersey public supply water use that could be used to estimate daily water use based upon reported historic monthly data and compiled publicly available data including monthly water use, weather data, and other parameters for 5 to 10 public community water systems throughout the state representing both urban and suburban development. The study applied selected methods to generate daily estimates and evaluated selected methods to determine robustness of each at predicting daily estimates of disaggregated historic monthly data for public supply and for predicting future daily public supply use. In addition, an initial RiverWare model was developed for a stream and reservoir system within the Delaware River Basin to help define and implement a process to collect and evaluate forecasts from observed data within river basins without significant flow regulation.
Products: Ongoing project
Estimating Daily Public Supply Data in New Jersey (funded in 2022)
Partner: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Contact: Jennifer Shourds - jshourds@usgs.gov
This study will build upon an ongoing project regarding daily public supply data by examining factors that may be influential in effecting daily public supply use. New data include daily public supply estimates of losses/leakages and non-domestic water uses of publicly supplied water. Having better daily estimates of losses/leakages and non-domestic uses of publicly supplied water would be beneficial to the National Water Use Program's public supply modeling efforts and to local and regional water supply managers who need to be able to predict water use into the future based on different scenarios.
Products: Ongoing project
Developing a Tableau Dashboard for Self-Supplied Domestic Well Metering in New Jersey (funded in 2022)
Partner: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Contact: Jennifer Shourds - jshourds@usgs.gov
Having a data delivery dashboard allows the ability to aggregate and analyze data over combined sub-basins or other areas of interest. The data delivery dashboard enables the sharing of data to stakeholders, and other interested parties, and the public while not sharing personal information and other sensitive location information. The development of a Tableau Dashboard would serve two additional purposes: keep water use data delivery current with USGS data outputs such as Water Data for the Nation and set the groundwork for expanding studies like these in other basins executing similar domestic well metering studies.
Products: Ongoing project
Salinity encroachment due to climate change and sea-level rise, Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer along Delaware Bay (funded in 2022)
Partners: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Geological and Water Survey
Contact: Zoltan Szabo - zszabo@usgs.gov
This study includes a baseline assessment for vulnerability of water supply provide base-science data needed to refine water-resource management and protection policies and will establish a monitoring well network that will be used to obtain vital saltwater intrusion information to help guide New Jersey's policies to protect potable water supplies by identifying locations, sources, and rates of saltwater intrusion. The data obtained with this project also will augment ongoing studies addressing ongoing changes of the natural habitat, including saltwater marsh landward migration relative to changing saltwater distribution as an effect of climate change.
Products: Ongoing project
Assessing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) enrichment in natural foams and relating PFAS to dissolved organic matter (funded in 2022)
Partners: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Clean Water
Contact: Emily Woodward - ewoodward@usgs.gov
This study will improve understanding of a potentially key PFAS transport pathway that has a direct impact on water quality. Goals for the study are to (1) determine if there is an enrichment of PFAS compounds in surface water foams in the Neshaminy Creek basin, (2) develop and validate existing open-source image analysis tools, paired with representative sampling, and analytical results to estimate PFAS mass loss to natural foams, (3) determine what PFAS, DOM, oxidizable precursors of PFAS are detected and at what concentrations are they observed in natural foam and underlying bulk water, and (4) investigate relationships between detected PFAS compounds and DOM composition (freshness index, humic substances, etc.).
Products: Ongoing project
Occurrence, fate, and transport of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) across salinity gradients and varying sources in coastal watersheds (funded in 2023)
Partners: Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and Delaware Geological Survey
Contact: Michelle Lorah - mmlorah@usgs.gov
This project will determine relations between salinity, PFAS sources, and biogeochemical processes to enable stakeholders to better predict the threats to water quality resulting from tidal mixing, changes in salt front location, and PFAS influx. PFAS distribution will be determined in surface water, porewater, and benthic sediment across a salt gradient in an urban area of the Delaware River and across salinity gradients in tributary watersheds that provide PFAS influxes from differing dominant source types.
Products: Ongoing project
Hydrological conceptualization of Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer salinity encroachment from Delaware Bay (funded in 2023)
Partner: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Contact: Zoltan Szabo - zszabo@usgs.gov
The goal of the study is to provide a conceptual model of the hydrologic system to couple to timely initial age-date and bromide-chloride ratio interpretation to refine repeat data-collection efforts to establish the geochemical ambient background and typical hydrological behavior of the system in the sample collection area adjoining Delaware Bay. The assessment leads to presenting a conceptual assessment of risks posed by saltwater intrusion and inundation in the drainage sub-basins investigated (Cohansey and Maurice River Dividing, Alloway and Dennis Creek). These initial assessments provide transfer value to areas with similar hydrology in New Jersey and the region.
Products: Ongoing project
Estimation of Daily Mean Streamflow in StreamStats using Flow-Duration Curve Transfer Methodology for the Delaware River Basin (funded in 2023)
Partner: Delaware River Basin Commission
Contact: Marla Stuckey - mstuckey@usgs.gov
The overall goal for this project is to deliver daily streamflow estimates for ungaged locations in the Delaware River Basin utilizing StreamStats and the Flow-Duration Curve Transfer methodology. This goal will be accomplished by updating existing datasets previously developed in the Delaware River Basin with current gage data to estimate daily mean streamflows to improve overall accuracy and quality. Adding Flow-Duration Curve Transfer functionality to the StreamStats application will allow for efficient estimation of daily mean flow for any ungaged site. Use of StreamStats to estimate daily mean streamflows will ensure timely, reliable, and consistent information for stakeholders in the basin.
Products: Ongoing project
Spatiotemporal Variability of Groundwater and Surface Water Trends in the Delaware River Basin (funded in 2021)
Partner: Delaware River Basin Commission
Contact: Brandon Fleming - bjflemin@usgs.gov
Water availability, especially during drought, is a major concern for water resource managers in the Delaware River Basin. Groundwater storage is an important component of overall water availability, however the spatiotemporal variability of groundwater levels in the Delaware River Basin is poorly understood. In addition, the relation between streamflow and changes in groundwater storage are not well documented in the basin. To better describe patterns in groundwater storage and its relation to streamflow, this study will evaluate long-term groundwater and streamflow time series in and around the Delaware River Basin. Using the annual metrics of groundwater and surface water timing and magnitude, the relationship between groundwater and surface water time series will be examined in the context of 1) surface and subsurface watershed and well characteristics, and 2) antecedent climate conditions (relative precipitation surplus or deficit).
Products:
Water Quality limiting Cambrian-Ordovician Aquifer Water Availability (funded in 2019)
Partner: Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey
Contact: Randall Hunt - ajhunt@usgs.gov
The objectives of this project were to generate understanding needed to forecast water quality changes in the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system due to future changes in water use and climate and provide a foundation for a more comprehensive study in this important groundwater resource. Characterization and prediction of pathogen and radium concentrations will be critical for reporting water availability in the widely used Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer in the upper Midwest.
Products:
- Journal Article: Temporally dense monitoring of pathogen occurrence at four drinking-water well sites – Insights and Implications
Assessing the utility of a regional aquifer system groundwater model to inform the USGS National Hydrologic Model (funded in 2019)
Partner: Washington State Department of Ecology
Contact: Andrew Long ajlong@usgs.gov, Adel E. Haj - ahaj@usgs.gov
The objectives of this project are to assess the utility of a regional GW model for the Pacific Northwest to inform and improve the NHM’s capability in simulating and predicting baseflow and to evaluate approaches for future research and development of the NHM. The regional GW model to be used in this project is the Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System (CPRAS) model.
Products: Ongoing project
Expanding a groundwater well Nutrient Decision Support Tool to streams (funded in 2022)
Partner: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Contact: Paul Juckem - pfjuckem@usgs.gov
The project goal is to expand upon capabilities of a previous project (Phase 1) Nutrient Decision Support Tool and work in the Delaware River IWS Basin so as to transfer and advance tools for groundwater nutrient transport to surface water bodies across broad areas. Developing tools to help managers understand sources, lag times, and remediation potential will improve upon existing technical resources and aid with cost-effective targeting of land management changes for water-quality improvement. Moreover, results from this tool can reduce costs for USGS and stakeholders by using the tool to guide further data collection and model refinement for locations and situations where more detailed understanding is warranted.
Products: Ongoing project
Expansion of a hydrodynamic and water-quality model for the investigation of nutrients on the Illinois River (funded in 2024)
Partner: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Contact: Paul Juckem - pfjuckem@usgs.gov
Excessive nutrient loads leaving the Illinois River Basin have been identified as a leading contributor to hypoxia in the Gulf of America. The processes controlling nutrient transport in the mainstem of the Illinois River are not well defined or quantified. The goals of this project are to complete a CE-QUAL-W2 model for Hydrodynamics and Nutrients and collaborate with the National SPARROW model to help provide details on the instream reservoir process to improve simulations in the National SPARROW model. Modeling will be done using a 2-dimensional hydrodynamic and water-quality model that will be expanded for the reach of the Illinois River between Seneca and Peoria, Illinois.
Products: Ongoing project
Identification of critical information needed to more accurately assess potential effects of land-cover change on groundwater recharge and availability, Island of Maui, Hawai'i (funded in 2020)
Partner: State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Commission
Contact: Adam Johnson - ajohnson@usgs.gov
The objective of this study was to identify which types of data are most critical for quantification of the effects of watershed management on groundwater recharge on Maui. This information is essential for efficient data collection. Specifically, this study aimed to (1) estimate the sensitivity of recharge estimates to selected model parameters that might be impacted by land-cover changes associated with watershed management or lack of watershed management; (2) determine which of the selected model parameters are most critical for quantifying recharge within selected regions on Maui; and (3) identify and summarize the types of information that could be collected for each selected parameter and region on Maui.
Products:
Domestic well vulnerability and socioeconomic status indicators (funded in 2022)
Partners: New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Department
Contact: Joseph Ayotte - jayotte@usgs.gov
The goals of this project are to: (1) investigate statistical associations between data sets on private wells (geology and land use, construction, hydraulics, and chemistry) to data from home appraisals, enabling a novel look at private well performance, integrity, and vulnerability to contamination as a function of surrogate information for socioeconomic status and (2) integrate findings from this work on private wells with an existing public-health dashboard for community (public) water systems by partnering with federal and state public-health agencies, as well as water-supply regulatory agencies.
Products: Ongoing project
Contact: Paul Barlow - pbarlow@usgs.gov
The overall objective of this project is to develop a detailed water-use framework for end-to-end tracking of water withdrawn from the Scituate Reservoir in Rhode Island by the Providence Water Supply Board and distributed to their customer base including other wholesale public suppliers. The framework will be fleshed out with reported daily withdrawals and monthly volumes of distributed water. All available data will be compiled and standardized to fit the framework.
Products: Ongoing project
Integrated Operations and Hydrology Modeling for the Russian River Watershed (funded in 2019)
Partners: Sonoma County Water Agency, California State Water Resources Control Board
Contact: Claudia Faunt - ccfaunt@usgs.gov
This project builds upon an existing study addressing significant issues of stream-aquifer interaction and develops new transferable tools for analyzing multi-basin water management. The project developed: technology transfer regarding the MODSIM-GSFLOW model to the USGS, enhancement of the GSFLOW model code and application to the Russian River to represent irrigation supply ponds, and capabilities to represent water use for frost-protection and heat protection of crops, and development and application of innovative methods for estimating municipal and industrial water use.
Products: Ongoing project
Characterization of the groundwater system in a fractured hard-rock aquifer using airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey data, geologic data, and hydrologic data, Adelaida Area, San Luis Obispo County, California (funded in 2022)
Partners: San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District
Contact: Geoffrey Cromwell - gcromwell@usgs.gov
Historic and present-day hydrologic conditions of the Adelaida area will be evaluated with respect to groundwater storage and availability. A hydrogeologic framework of the Adelaida aquifer system will be developed using AEM survey data recently acquired by CADWR. High-quality evaluations of an aquifer system depend on a comprehensive understanding of the earth materials through which groundwater moves and is stored. The hydrogeologic framework is fundamental to estimate groundwater flow, recharge, discharge, and changes in groundwater storage. The Adelaida area aquifer system is primarily comprised of fractured, consolidated rock. The successful development of a hydrogeologic framework using AEM survey data in this type of aquifer system can be informative for studies in similar hard rock aquifers.
Products: Ongoing project
San Joaquin-San Francisco Bay Delta Basin, California
Central Valley Data Playground (funded in 2019)
Partner: Aquatic Science Center
Contact: Brian Bergamaschi - bbergama@usgs.gov
This project supported integration of water availability and water quality data critical to California water management in the context of a novel, web-based “data playground” that allows users to explore hypotheses and test ideas directly in an interactive web interface with real-time data visualizations and analytics. The project built upon and expanded the scope of the existing collaboration into a watershed-wide service that integrated USGS water data sources with other publicly available data in a way that is useful and informative to managers, regulators and the general public.
Products:
Integrated Water Availability Assessment of the Trinity River Basin (funded in 2019).
Partners: Trinity River Authority, City of Dallas Water Utilities, North Texas Municipal Water District, Tarrant Regional Water District
Contact: Jonathan Thomas - jvthomas@usgs.gov
This project had several objectives: (1) Refine water withdrawal and use estimates (2) Evaluate long-term trends of precipitation, temperature, and groundwater-level elevation, precipitation, streamflow, and surface-water storage within the basin (3) Refine and compare various existing models in the Trinity River basin to both improve the understanding of the hydrologic processes in the basin under current and future scenario conditions and determine which models/process are best suited to evaluate various parameters (4) Use best available models (NHM-PRMS, HEC-RAS, and HEC-HMS) to run a variety of possible future scenarios assessing ecological and socioeconomic impacts from changes in water use and availability.
Products:
Data and tools supporting management of thermal springs -- Integrated understanding of groundwater mixing and water quality susceptibility (funded in 2022)
Partner: City of Steamboat Springs
Contact: Connor Newman - cpnewman@usgs.gov
The goal of this project is to provide novel and informative data relevant to USGS priorities and to inform local water and land management practices oriented towards maintaining hydrologic functioning of springs. The project will be using an integrated approach of data collection, data publication and analysis, and stakeholder engagement. Data collection will include a diverse set of physical properties and water-quality parameters, which together will provide a framework for numerical modeling and serve as a template for future USGS studies. Result reporting through interactive web interfaces and tools, based on interpretive science, will allow for direct interfacing with local stakeholders.
Products: Ongoing project
Equipment Modernization for USGS station 09014050 - Grand Lake Outlet below Chipmunk Lane at Grand Lake, Colorado (funded in 2024)
Partner: Grand County
Contact: Tanner Chapin - twchapin@usgs.gov
The Colorado Water Science Center currently operates an Acoustic Doppler Velocity Meter (ADVM) at USGS Station 09014050-Grand Lake Outlet below Chipmunk Lane at Grand Lake, CO. This site measures bi-directional flow in a channel connecting Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Reservoir. The data collected at this site provides important information to stakeholders on water availability in the Upper Colorado River Basin during natural flows, and information on the transfer of water to the Front Range urban and agricultural areas during periods of pumping. The goals of this project are to update the current equipment at the site and make any required updates to the index velocity rating curve. This may require multiple visits to the site. This technical improvement will minimize lost data at the site if malfunctions occur and will reduce time spent troubleshooting the supporting software during field visits.
Snow Modeling and Remote Sensing to Improve Snowmelt Runoff Forecasts in the Upper Yampa River Basin (funded in 2024)
Partner: Upper Yampa Water Conservation District
Contact: Garrett Akie - gakie@usgs.gov
The goal of this project is to extend snow modeling efforts from the Upper Colorado River Basin to the Upper Yampa River subbasin using methods established by the USGS Snow Hydrology project. A high-resolution, spatially distributed, and physically based snow evolution model (SnowModel) will be developed to provide accurate estimates of snow water equivalent to aid runoff forecasting in the Upper Yampa River subbasin.
The snow model will be used to (1) simulate historical snowpack conditions across the basin (1994-2023), (2) make comparisons to runoff in prior years, and (3) provide near real-time estimates of snow-water equivalent storage conditions during the study period (2024–26).
Products: Ongoing project
Mapping snowpack to support water-resource forecasting using small, uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) in the Upper Colorado River Basin (funded in 2024)
Partner: Colorado Department of Transportation
Contact: John Fulton - jwfulton@usgs.gov
The project goal is to extend snow data collection and modeling efforts using methods established by the USGS NGWOS Program and Snow Hydrology projects by (1) measuring snowpack metrics; (2) generating a high-resolution snowpack product that augments ground-based measurements, Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) data, and satellite data; (3) validating remote sensing platforms such as ASO and satellites; (4) supporting SnowModel simulations; and (5) establishing a workflow for collecting spatial snowpack data using sUAS-based software defined ground-penetrating radar (GPR), ground-coupled GPR, and sUAS-based lidar that enhances safety and reduces cost when compared to conventional snow-measurement data collection.
Products: Ongoing project
Tool for visualizing and evaluating hydrologic parameters and output variables of National Hydrologic Model (NHM) watersheds (funded in 2023)
Partners: State of Washington Department of Ecology, Oregon Water Resources Department
Contact: Adel E. Haj - ahaj@usgs.gov
The study will provide local communities, water resource managers, and natural resource agencies a visualization tool for accessing, evaluating, and using NHM information to improve understanding of hydrologic systems. The study supports the goals of the USGS by applying research and analysis to deliver nationally consistent and well-documented information on groundwater availability for human and ecosystem needs. This project will be coordinated with two current investigations in Washington and Oregon. In both investigations, the visualization tool will be used to post-process, visualize, and evaluate hydrologic characteristics from the NHM framework and data files (parameter, input and output) provided by the NHM modeling team.
Products: Ongoing project