David Saad is Chief of the Environmental Hydrodynamics Branch, Earth System Processes Division, USGS Water Resources Mission Area.
In the Environmental Hydrodynamics Branch, Dave oversees a diverse group of multi-disciplinary researchers and scientists who study the connections between surface and groundwater hydraulics and chemical and ecological fate and transport. This includes human and natural influences on the quality of surface and groundwater.
Dave has been with the USGS since 1987 where he has been a scientist (hydrologist), project manager, team leader, and supervisor in the Pennsylvania and Upper Midwest Water Science Centers and the Water Mission Area. In Pennsylvania, he worked on projects evaluating coal-mining reclamation methods and the effects on acid-mine drainage. In Wisconsin, Dave was the groundwater specialist and study unit chief of the Western Lake Michigan Drainages study unit of the USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. He also worked on groundwater modeling projects for the Water Science Center. Dave also developed regional SPARROW (stream-water quality) models of the Midwest for NAWQA and binational SPARROW models of the Great Lakes Basin in collaboration with the International Joint Commission and the National Research Council Canada. In addition to being a branch chief with the Water Mission Area, Dave is currently project manager for “Quantifying Water Reuse and Return Flow Influences on Water Quality and Suitability”. This project is looking at the influences of return flow on water availability and is utilizing SPARROW models to achieve project goals.
Education and Certifications
B.S. in Geology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987
Science and Products
SPARROW Mappers
SPARROW modeling: Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Ohio River, and Red River Basins
SPARROW nutrient modeling: Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB)
SPARROW nutrient modeling: Binational (US/Canada) models
SPARROW modeling: Estimating nutrient, sediment, and dissolved solids transport
Everything you need to know about SPARROW
SPARROW: Attributes for NHDPlus Catchments (Version 1.1) for the Conterminous United States
SPARROW: Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States
Science and Products
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SPARROW Mappers
SPARROW mappers are interactive tools that allow the user to explore river streamflow and nutrient and sediment loads and yields and the importance of different sources of contaminants in a particular river basin. Data can be visualized using maps and interactive graphs and tables, and rankings can be shown by state, major watershed, hydrologic unit (HUC), and catchment.SPARROW modeling: Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Ohio River, and Red River Basins
SPARROW models for the Great Lakes, Ohio River, Upper Mississippi River, and Red River Basins predict long-term mean annual loads, yields, concentrations, and source contributions of water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment throughout the Midwest.SPARROW nutrient modeling: Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB)
SPARROW models for the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin(MARB) predict long-term average loads, concentrations, yields, and source contributions of water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment to the Gulf of Mexico.SPARROW nutrient modeling: Binational (US/Canada) models
SPARROW phosphorus and nitrogen models are being developed for the entire Great Lakes Basin and the Upper Midwest part of the U.S., and the Red and Assiniboine River Basin, as part of a Binational project between the USGS and the International Joint Commission (IJC) and National Research Council (NRC) of Canada.SPARROW modeling: Estimating nutrient, sediment, and dissolved solids transport
SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes) models estimate the amount of a contaminant transported from inland watersheds to larger water bodies by linking monitoring data with information on watershed characteristics and contaminant sources. Interactive, online SPARROW mapping tools allow for easy access to explore relations between human activities, natural processes, and...Everything you need to know about SPARROW
What is SPARROW? SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes) is a watershed modeling technique for relating water-quality measurements made at a network of monitoring stations to attributes of the watersheds such as contaminant sources and environmental factors that affect rates of delivery to streams and in-stream processing. The core of the model consists of a nonlinear...SPARROW: Attributes for NHDPlus Catchments (Version 1.1) for the Conterminous United States
The national databases used in USGS SPARROW models are available for download. Attributes from the NHDPlus data set, such as climate, geology, soils, land cover, hydrologic variables, physical characteristics, chemicals, and nutrients, are available for all catchments in the digital stream networks (1:500K scale).SPARROW: Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States
The national databases used in USGS SPARROW models are available for download. Attributes from the RF1 data set, such as climate, geology, soils, land cover, hydrologic variables, physical characteristics, chemicals, and nutrients, are available for all catchments in the digital stream networks (1:100K scale). - Data
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