Gregory Granato is a hydrologist whose research focuses on developing hydrologic software to provide actionable information for environmental decisionmakers. Gregory has worked with the USGS on projects covering all aspects of hydrology since 1992. Before that time he was an aerospace engineer working on the design of the Space Station's water and waste treatment systems.
Software (currently supported):
SELDM Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model
KTRLine Kendall-Theil Robust Line
Patents:
Granato, G.E. and Smith, K.P., 2000, Automated Groundwater Monitoring System and Method: United States Patent 6,021,664, 31 p.
Smith, K.P. and Granato; G.E., 2005, Automated self-calibrating water quality monitoring sensor housing assembly: United States Patent 6,936,156, 9 p.
Publications:
Please see (Scholar) (USGS Pubs warehouse)...
USGS National Training Center Classes:
H1843 - Stormwater Runoff Quality Analysis with SELDM Developed and taught this class in MA(2013), DC(2014), OR (2014), CO (2015), TX (2016), CA(2017), NV (2017), OR (2018), Online (2020).
National Webinars:
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM); Transportation Research Board (TRB) Approaches for Determining and Complying with TMDL Requirements Related to Roadway Stormwater Runoff
Water Research Foundation Integrated Stormwater Management for Highway and Transportation Sector (2017)
NASEM TRB Use and Implementation of the Federal Highway Administration Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM): Oregon and Massachusetts
Other research activities:
NASEM TRB Standing Committees
AKD50 Standing Committee on Hydrology, Hydraulics and Stormwater, Full Member
NASEM National Cooperative Highway Research Program Research Panels
Project NCHRP 25-25 Research for the AASHTO Committee on Environment and Sustainability, Task 119 and 120 Enhancing the International Stormwater BMP Database
Project NCHRP 25-31 Guidelines for Evaluating and Selecting Modifications to Existing Roadway Drainage Infrastructure to Improve Water Quality in Ultra-Urban Areas
Project NCHRP 25-32 Measuring and Removing Dissolved Metals from Storm Water in Highly Urbanized Areas
Project NCHRP 25-40 Long-Term Performance and Life-Cycle Costs of Stormwater Best Management Practices
Project NCHRP 25-53 Approaches for Determining and Complying with TMDL Requirements Related to Roadway Stormwater Runoff
American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Reviewer Prize: Reston, 2015 (Journal of Environmental Engineering)
The USGS has a long history of cooperative investigations with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state highway agencies to provide data and information to address various issues related to water resources and the Nation’s transportation infrastructure. These issues cover a wide spectrum and include items such as regional flow statistics, flood documentation, regional stream...
Note: SELDM is now on version 1.0.3 Please use the new version on the software support page here
Example analyses for total nitrogen, total phosphorus, suspended sediment, and total zinc in highway-runoff were done by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration to simulate long-term annual loads for Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) analyses with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM).
Note: SELDM is now on version 1.0.3 Please use the new version on the software support page here
Knowledge of the characteristics of highway runoff (concentrations and loads of constituents and the physical and chemical processes that produce this runoff) is important for decisionmakers, planners, and highway engineers to assess and mitigate possible adverse impacts of highway runoff on the Nation's receiving waters. This project was done by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in...
Goto the project web page SELDM.html
Ecological studies indicate that impervious cover (IC) greater than approximately 5%–20% may have adverse effects on receiving-stream ecology. It is difficult to separate the effects of runoff quality from other effects of urbanization on receiving streams. This study presents the results of a numerical experiment to assess the effects of...
Jeznach, Lillian C.; Granato, Gregory E.
The Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration to simulate stormwater quality. To assess the effects of runoff, SELDM uses a stochastic mass-balance approach to estimate combinations of pre-storm...
Stonewall, Adam J.; Granato, Gregory E.; Glover-Cutter, Kira M.
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) entered into a cooperative agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to develop a North Carolina-enhanced variation of the national Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) with available North Carolina-specific streamflow and water-quality data and to...
Weaver, J. Curtis; Granato, Gregory E.; Fitzgerald, Sharon A. Stormwater practitioners need quantitative information about the quality and volume of highway runoff to assess and mitigate potential adverse effects of runoff on the Nation’s receiving waters. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the Highway Runoff Database (HRDB) in cooperation with the FHWA to provide practice-ready information to meet these...
Granato, Gregory E.; Jones, Susan C.
The quality of stormwater runoff from bridge decks (hereafter referred to as “bridge-deck runoff”) was characterized in a field study from August 2014 through August 2016 in which concentrations of suspended sediment (SS) and total nutrients were monitored. These new data were collected to supplement existing highway-runoff data collected in...
Smith, Kirk P.; Sorenson, Jason R.; Granato, Gregory E.
This report is a user guide for the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MA SYE) computer program (version 2.0). The MA SYE was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to provide a planning-level decision-support tool designed to help decision makers estimate daily...
Granato, Gregory E.; Levin, Sara B.
The Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator is a decision support tool that provides estimates of daily unaltered streamflow, water-use-adjusted streamflow, and water availability for ungaged, user-defined basins in Massachusetts. Daily streamflow at the ungaged site is estimated for unaltered (no water use) and water-use scenarios. The...
Levin, Sara B. ; Granato, Gregory E.
Freshwater streams in Connecticut are subject to many competing demands, including public water supply; agricultural, commercial, and industrial water use; and ecosystem and habitat needs. In recent years, drought has further stressed Connecticut’s water resources. To sustainably allocate and manage water resources among these competing uses,...
Levin, Sara B.; Olson, Scott A.; Nielsen, Martha G.; Granato, Gregory E.
This report is a user guide for the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE) computer program (version 1.0). The CT SSWUE was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to provide a planning-level decision-support tool designed to help...
Granato, Gregory E.; Levin, Sara B. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and other state departments of transportation need quantitative information about the percentages of different land cover categories above any given stream crossing in the state to assess and address roadway contributions to water-quality impairments and resulting total maximum daily loads. The U.S....
Stonewall, Adam; Granato, Gregory E.; Haluska, Tana
This report is a user guide for the low-flow analysis methods provided with version 1.0 of the Surface Water Toolbox (SWToolbox) computer program. The software combines functionality from two software programs—U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) SWSTAT and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) DFLOW. Both of these programs have been used primarily...
Kiang, Julie E.; Flynn, Kate; Zhai, Tong; Hummel, Paul; Granato, Gregory
Flow-proportional composite water samples were collected in water years 2013 and 2014 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, from the Blackstone River at Millville, Massachusetts (U.S. Geological Survey station 01111230), about 0.5 mile from the border with Rhode Island. Samples...
Sorenson, Jason R.; Granato, Gregory E.; Smith, Kirk P.
This software release provides the database application that runs the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MA SYE) computer program (version 2.0).
This software release provides the database application that runs the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE) computer program (version 1.0).
Overview
The HyDroDSS is designed to provide water managers with risk-based information for balancing water-supply needs and aquatic-habitat protection goals to mitigate potential effects of hydrologic drought.
Overview
The Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) is designed to transform complex scientific data into meaningful information about the risk of adverse effects of runoff on receiving waters, the potential need for mitigation measures, and the potential effectiveness of such management measures for reducing these risks.
Overview
The highway-runoff database (HRDB) was developed to serve as a data warehouse for current and future highway-runoff data sets. The database can be used by transportation agencies and researchers as a data warehouse to document information about a data set, monitoring site(s), highway-runoff data (including precipitation, runoff, and event mean concentrations...
Overview
The SWQDM database application was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration for use in the analysis of regional and national hydrologic data sets. The surface-water quality data miner (SWQDM) database application was developed to coordinate use of NWIS Web, NWiz, and the Kendall-Theil Robust Line analysis...
Overview
Five computer programs were developed for obtaining and analyzing streamflow from the National Water Information System (NWISWeb). The programs were developed as part of a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, to develop a stochastic empirical loading and dilution model.
Overview
The Kendall-Theil Robust Line software (KTRLine—version 1.0) is a Visual Basic program that may be used with the Microsoft Windows operating system to calculate parameters for robust, nonparametric estimates of linear-regression coefficients between two continuous variables.
Overview
The National Water Information System Wizard (NWiz Version 1.0) is a computer application written to automatically retrieve information and data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS).
Overview
VBVenn is a Visual Basic program that calculates the size and position of two circles to construct a quantitative Venn diagram. It is a simple one-form program with a fairly intuitive user interface.
Gregory Granato of the NEWSC and Susan Jones of the Federal Highway Administration recently published an article in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Transportation Research Record journal. The paper is:
Granato, G.E., Jones, S.C. 2019, Simulating Runoff Quality with the Highway Runoff Database and the...