Water Resources Mission Area
Water information is fundamental to national and local economic well-being, protection of life and property, and effective management of the Nation’s water resources. The USGS works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and water use and availability.
Message from the Associate Director
Message from the Associate Director
Learn more about the Mission Area from the Associate Director for Water Resources.
Water Data for the Nation
Water Data for the Nation
Water data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites across all 50 states.
News
Studies Reveal Presence and Distribution of PFAS in New Mexico's Water Resources
Studies Reveal Presence and Distribution of PFAS in New Mexico's Water Resources
Media Alert: USGS field crews to study avalanche prone regions using airborne techniques near Durango
Media Alert: USGS field crews to study avalanche prone regions using airborne techniques near Durango
World Water Day: How the USGS is using imagery as data for water science
World Water Day: How the USGS is using imagery as data for water science
Publications
Opportunities and challenges for precipitation forcing data in post-wildfire hydrologic modeling applications
The frequency and extent of wildfires have increased in recent decades with immediate and cascading effects on water availability in many regions of the world. Precipitation is used as primary input to hydrologic models and is a critical driver of post-wildfire hydrologic hazards including debris flows, flash floods, water-quality effects, and reservoir sedimentation. These models are valuable too
Groundwater and surface-water interactions in the He‘eia watershed, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i—Insights from analysis of historical data and numerical groundwater-model simulations
He‘eia and ‘Ioleka‘a Streams in the He‘eia watershed on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, receive substantial discharge from dike-impounded groundwater. Previous studies indicated that groundwater withdrawals from the watershed affect streamflow. Resource managers and users seek information that can be used to balance the needs of competing uses of groundwater and streamflow in the watershed.In this study, analyses
Evaluating the potential for efficient, UAS-based reach-scale mapping of river channel bathymetry from multispectral images
Introduction: Information on spatial patterns of water depth in river channels is valuable for numerous applications, but such data can be difficult to obtain via traditional field methods. Ongoing developments in remote sensing technology have enabled various image-based approaches for mapping river bathymetry; this study evaluated the potential to retrieve depth from multispectral images acquire
Science
Phosphorus in the Susquehanna River may be tied to legacy sediment and changing pH
The Susquehanna River is the predominant source of freshwater and nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay.
Eyes on Earth Episode 114 – The Color of Water with Landsat
We’re going to find out how researchers took an old data technique in freshwater science—physically sampling lake water—and reinvented it using satellite technology to study water quality in lakes across the U.S.
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Water Node
Get access to spatial datasets related to water through the NSDI node on ScienceBase.