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Cheryl A Buchwald

Cheryl Buchwald is a hydrologist with the Upper Midwest Water Science Center.

Cheryl Buchwald is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 2000. For most of her career, she works on county, regional, and national-scale hydrogeologic investigations providing research, database, and GIS support. In 2003, she became the Water-Use Specialist for Wisconsin, responsible for compiling, analyzing and disseminating the State’s water-use data as part of the National Water Availability and Use Science Program. She has led several water-use components for national studies, including the first National Water Census pilot study of the Great Lakes Basin and the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program’s regional assessment of public-supply groundwater use within the Glacial Aquifer System. She is an expert for USGS' Site-Specific Water-Use Database (SWUDS) and liaison between national water-use program and local water science center staff.

Her other roles include being a Database Administrator for the WI’s Ground-Water Site-Inventory (GWSI), Aggregated Water-Use Data System (AWUDS), SWUDS, and two Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) Fish Management and Beach Health databases.

 

Education

B.S. Geology - University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000)

 

Areas of Expertise

  • Water-use science, including developing methods for quantifying water withdrawals to improve our understanding of how water is used in order to meet current and future demands
  • Scholarly peer review of water-use subject matters and procedural documents
  • Database user acceptance testing for the USGS’s National Water Information System (NWIS) water-use databases
  • Proficient in using USGS’s Ground Water Site Inventory (GWSI), Management and Population of Sites (MAPS), Site-specific Water-Use Data System (SWUDS), and Aggregate Water-Use Data System (AWUDS)
  • GIS support for regional hydrogeologic investigations, specifically groundwater-flow models
  • Data support and training for project data needs assessment and data collection, organization, analysis, management, and dissemination

Current Projects

  • Public-supply record and water service area spatial layer development as part of the National Water Census and Water Budget Estimation and Evaluation Project
  • Lead Upper Midwest Water Use Research Team investigating unaccounted water use due to state reporting threshold differences, public-supply deliveries to customer classifications, explanatory variables to describe and predict industrial water use, and new approaches to visualize water-use data.
  • Every five years, since 2000, determine and report on water use for Wisconsin by county, category, and water source type
  • SWUDS Technical Expert and Liaison between State Water-Use Specialists and project management
  • Member and trainer for the USGS’s Water Use Operations Support Team (WUOST)
  • Provide database and application support for WDNR’s Fish Management Program
  • Provide database and application support for Wisconsin’s Beach Health website and internal data management sys

Science and Products

Characterization and occurrence of confined and unconfined aquifers in Quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States

The glacial aquifer system, which is a collection of aquifers within Quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States, is a principal aquifer that supplies groundwater that serves about 42 million people and accounts for about 5 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. This aquifer system (the area of maximum glacial advance) underlies parts of 25 States and covers 1.87×106 square k
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Water Resources Mission Area

Hydrogeologic framework for characterization and occurrence of confined and unconfined aquifers in quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States—A digital map compilation and database

The U.S. Geological Survey has created a hydrogeologic framework for Quaternary sediments in glaciated areas of the conterminous United States that categorizes, maps, and characterizes the glacial sediments at and beneath the land surface. The hydrogeologic framework divides the glaciated United States into 17 distinct hydrogeologic terranes using a geologic approach based on previous mapping, and
By
Water Resources Mission Area

Estimation of the groundwater resources of the bedrock aquifers at the Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin

Groundwater resources information was needed to understand regional aquifer systems and water available to wells and springs for rearing important Lake Michigan fish species at the Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. As a basis for estimating the groundwater resources available, an existing groundwater-flow model was refined, and new groundwater-flow models w
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Groundwater/surface-water interactions in the Bad River Watershed, Wisconsin

A groundwater-flow model was developed for the Bad River Watershed and surrounding area by using the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finite-difference code MODFLOW-NWT. The model simulates steady-state groundwater-flow and base flow in streams by using the streamflow routing (SFR) package. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop an improved understanding of the groundwater-flow system in t
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

A model for evaluating stream temperature response to climate change in Wisconsin

Expected climatic changes in air temperature and precipitation patterns across the State of Wisconsin may alter future stream temperature and flow regimes. As a consequence of flow and temperature changes, the composition and distribution of fish species assemblages are expected to change. In an effort to gain a better understanding of how climatic changes may affect stream temperature, an approac
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Development and application of a groundwater/surface-water flow model using MODFLOW-NWT for the Upper Fox River Basin, southeastern Wisconsin

The Fox River is a 199-mile-long tributary to the Illinois River within the Mississippi River Basin in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. For the purposes of this study the Upper Fox River Basin is defined as the topographic basin that extends from the upstream boundary of the Fox River Basin to a large wetland complex in south-central Waukesha County called the Vernon Marsh. The objectives for
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Estimation of groundwater use for a groundwater-flow model of the Lake Michigan Basin and adjacent areas, 1864-2005

The U.S. Geological Survey, at the request of Congress, is assessing the availability and use of the Nation's water resources to help characterize how much water is available now, how water availability is changing, and how much water can be expected to be available in the future. The Great Lakes Basin Pilot project of the U.S. Geological Survey national assessment of water availability and use fo
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Water Resources Mission Area

A model for evaluating stream temperature response to climate change scenarios in Wisconsin

Global climate change is expected to alter temperature and flow regimes for streams in Wisconsin over the coming decades. Stream temperature will be influenced not only by the predicted increases in average air temperature, but also by changes in baseflow due to changes in precipitation patterns and amounts. In order to evaluate future stream temperature and flow regimes in Wisconsin, we have inte
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Water Use in Wisconsin, 2005

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wisconsin Water Science Center is responsible for presenting data collected or estimated for water withdrawals and diversions every 5 years to the National Water-Use Information Program (NWUIP). This program serves many purposes such as quantifying how much, where, and for what purpose water is used; tracking and documenting water-use trends and changes; and provi
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Development and application of a screening model for simulating regional ground-water flow in the St. Croix River basin, Minnesota and Wisconsin

A series of databases and an accompanying screening model were constructed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, to better understand the regional ground-water-flow system and its relation to stream drainage in the St. Croix River Basin. The St. Croix River and its tributaries drain about 8,000 square miles in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsi
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Hydrology, nutrient concentrations, and nutrient yields in nearshore areas of four lakes in northern Wisconsin, 1999-2001

The effects of shoreline development on water quality and nutrient yields in nearshore areas of four lakes in northern Wisconsin were investigated from October 1999 through September 2001. The study measured surface runoff and ground-water flows from paired developed (sites containing lawn, rooftops, sidewalks, and driveways) and undeveloped (mature and immature woods) catchments adjacent to four
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Water use in Wisconsin, 2000

As part of the National Water-Use Information Program, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stores water-use data in standardized format for different catego ries of water use. Information about amounts of water withdrawn, sources of wa ter, how the water was used, and how much water was returned is available to those involved in establishing water-resource policy and to those managing water resource
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center
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Image of a water tower

Water use in Wisconsin

Water-use information is essential for managing Wisconsin's valuable water resources. This critical information includes knowing how much, where, and for what purpose water is being used. The USGS works in cooperation with local, state, and federal environmental agencies to collect water-use information, and compiles and disseminates aggregated data at the county, state, and national level.
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Upper Midwest Water Science Center
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Water use in Wisconsin

Water-use information is essential for managing Wisconsin's valuable water resources. This critical information includes knowing how much, where, and for what purpose water is being used. The USGS works in cooperation with local, state, and federal environmental agencies to collect water-use information, and compiles and disseminates aggregated data at the county, state, and national level.
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USGS science for a changing world logo

USGS Protocol Library: An Implementation Based on the National Environmental Methods Index

A number of monitoring method and protocol libraries are currently in existence. Although these systems have been tailored to certain disciplines or research foci, the underlying principles, mechanisms, and processes have commonalities that could facilitate synthesizing content and information. The Protocol Library project consists of modifying and thus extending the capabilities of the existing
By
Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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USGS Protocol Library: An Implementation Based on the National Environmental Methods Index

A number of monitoring method and protocol libraries are currently in existence. Although these systems have been tailored to certain disciplines or research foci, the underlying principles, mechanisms, and processes have commonalities that could facilitate synthesizing content and information. The Protocol Library project consists of modifying and thus extending the capabilities of the existing
Learn More

Digital products from a hydrogeologic framework for Quaternary sediments within the glaciated conterminous United States

This data release is a compilation of the digital products from a hydrogeologic framework of the glaciated conterminous United States that were constructed to portray sediment and aquifer characteristics within this area. These digital products are described in Yager, R.M., Kauffman, L.J., Soller, D.R., Haj, A.E., Heisig, P.M., Buchwald, C.A., Westenbroek, S.M., and Reddy, J.E., 2018, Characteriza
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Water Resources Mission Area, National Water Quality Program

Databases used to develop a hydrogeologic framework for Quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States

This dataset is a compilation of six databases described in Haj, A.E., Soller, D.R., Reddy, J.E., Kauffman, L.J., Yager, R.M., and Buchwald, C.A., 2018, Hydrogeologic framework for characterization and occurrence of confined and unconfined aquifers in quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States - A digital map compilation and database: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1090,
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Central Midwest Water Science Center
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Science and Products