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Molly S Wood

Molly Wood is the National Sediment Specialist for the USGS Water Resources Mission Area’s Observing Systems Division. Most of her work focuses on developing policies and methods for measuring fluvial sediment transport and for computing streamflow using complex rating techniques. She also teaches national and international training courses on surface-water and sediment data collection.

Molly Wood has a B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Tennessee and is a registered Professional Engineer. She started working with the USGS in 2002; initially as a Hydrologist in the Florida Water Science Center working on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, then as Surface-Water Specialist for the Idaho Water Science Center, and now as the National Sediment Specialist for USGS Headquarters. She provides technical guidance for and leads initiatives to support national sediment and streamflow monitoring programs and related research. Her scientific work includes the estimation of fluvial sediment transport using surrogate technologies, estimation of reservoir capacity and sustainability, and applications of statistical hydrology. She has provided technical assistance in hydrologic data collection and research to government agencies across the world, including in Iraq, Laos, Chile, and Brazil.

Science and Products

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San Acacia Samples in Rio Grande

Sediment Laboratories

The USGS maintains sediment laboratories in several Water Science Centers and offices across the country.
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Water Resources
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Sediment Laboratories

The USGS maintains sediment laboratories in several Water Science Centers and offices across the country.
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Clearwater River Surrogate Gage

Sediment Surrogate Techniques

USGS develops and uses “surrogate” techniques to estimate sediment at times when it can’t be physically measured through samples.
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Water Resources
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Sediment Surrogate Techniques

USGS develops and uses “surrogate” techniques to estimate sediment at times when it can’t be physically measured through samples.
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Sediment Sampling on the Mekong River

Sediment Sampling and Data Processing

USGS collects sediment samples at thousands of locations across the U.S. using nationally consistent methods.
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Water Resources
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Sediment Sampling and Data Processing

USGS collects sediment samples at thousands of locations across the U.S. using nationally consistent methods.
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Sediment sampling and surrogates

Sediment Acoustics

The U.S. Geological Survey recognizes the need to provide sediment acoustic training and to develop standardized techniques and practices.
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Water Resources
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Sediment Acoustics

The U.S. Geological Survey recognizes the need to provide sediment acoustic training and to develop standardized techniques and practices.
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The crew of the R/V Alaskan Gyre lowering a hydroacoustics instrument in to the water

Sound Sediment Science

A training course to augment USGS Course H-17-037, Acoustic Index Method for Estimating Fluvial Suspended Sediment and USGS Techniques and Methods Report 3C-5

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Sound Sediment Science

A training course to augment USGS Course H-17-037, Acoustic Index Method for Estimating Fluvial Suspended Sediment and USGS Techniques and Methods Report 3C-5

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Geomorphology & Sediment Transport

Fluvial Sediment and Geomorphology: Resources for Monitoring and Analysis

The USGS collects fluvial sediment and geomorphic data and conducts related research at numerous sites across the Nation. This information is essential to informed solutions to sediment-related and overall water resource management issues.
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Water Resources
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Fluvial Sediment and Geomorphology: Resources for Monitoring and Analysis

The USGS collects fluvial sediment and geomorphic data and conducts related research at numerous sites across the Nation. This information is essential to informed solutions to sediment-related and overall water resource management issues.
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The Vigil Network: long-term, broad spectrum data collected to observe landscape change in drainage basins

Long-term monitoring data of geomorphic, hydrological, and biological characteristics of landscapes. This information provides an effective means of relating observed change to possible causes of the change. Identification of changes in basin characteristics, especially in arid areas where the response to altered climate or land use is generally rapid and readily apparent, might provide the initia
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Bathymetry and capacity of Blackfoot Reservoir, Caribou County, Idaho, 2011

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, surveyed the bathymetry and selected above-water sections of Blackfoot Reservoir, Caribou County, Idaho, in 2011. Reservoir operators manage releases from Government Dam on Blackfoot Reservoir based on a stage-capacity relation developed about the time of dam construction in the early 1900s. Reservoir operation dir
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center
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Mapping of suspended sediment transport using acoustic methods in a Pantanal tributary

Generally, fluvial systems are used for different objectives including energy production, water supply, recreation, and navigation. Thus, many impacts must be considered with their use. An understanding of sediment dynamics in fluvial systems is often of value for a variety of objectives, given that erosion and depositional processes can change the fluvial system morphology and can substantially a
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Water Resources

Field evaluation of the Sequoia Scientific LISST-ABS acoustic backscatter sediment sensor

Sequoia Scientific’s LISST-ABS is a submersible acoustic instrument that measures the acoustic backscatter sensor (ABS) concentration at a point within a river, stream, or creek. Compared to traditional physical methods for measuring suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), sediment surrogates like the LISST-ABS offer continuous data that can be calibrated with physical SSC samples. Data were colle
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Envisioning a multi-agency and multi-academic institution geomorphology data exchange portal

Access to bathymetry and geomorphology data for rivers and reservoirs is a critical need in multiple agencies and academia. These data are needed to make water-resource-management decisions regarding river restoration, resource protection, infrastructure design and sustainability, and flood-risk reduction, and during natural disasters. Sharing of data increases decision-making capacity by incorpor
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Water Resources

Acoustic Sediment Estimation Toolbox (ASET): A software package for calibrating and processing TRDI ADCP data to compute suspended-sediment transport in sandy rivers

Quantifying suspended-sediment transport is critical for a variety of disciplines related to the management of water resources. However, the number of gauging stations and monitoring networks in most rivers around the world is insufficient to improve understanding of river dynamics and support water resource management decisions. This is mainly due to the high operational costs and intensive labor
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center

Measuring suspended sediment in sand-bedded rivers using down-looking acoustic doppler current profilers

The use of side-looking acoustic Doppler velocity meters (ADVMs) to estimate fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) has become more operational by the U.S. Geological Survey in recent years; however, direct transfer of these techniques to down-looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) currently is not widely feasible. Key assumptions in the sidelooking ADVM method related to sedi
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Water Resources

Strategic directions of the USGS water mission area’s fluvial sediment science program

The USGS Water Mission Area’s Sediment Science Program provides leadership, training, and methods development in fluvial sediment science for the USGS and its external partners. Overarching objectives of the USGS Sediment Science Program (which includes the Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project) include: 1) developing and promoting innovative sediment monitoring techniques that result in cost
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Time-series sediment acoustics and LISST-ABS testing

Acoustics and other surrogates can be used to accurately and cost-effectively provide time-series estimates of suspended-sediment concentration and load, which is essential for creating informed solutions to many sediment-related environmental, engineering, and agricultural concerns. Interagency efforts in recent years have advanced the testing, methods development, operational guidelines, and tra
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Estimating sand concentrations using ADCP‐based acoustic inversion in a large fluvial system characterized by bi‐modal suspended‐sediment distributions

Quantifying sediment flux within rivers is a challenge for many disciplines due, mainly, to difficulties inherent to traditional sediment sampling methods. These methods are operationally complex, high cost, and high risk. Additionally, the resulting data provide a low spatial and temporal resolution estimate of the total sediment flux, which has impeded advances in the understanding of the hydro‐
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Water Resources

Sediment acoustic index method for computing continuous suspended-sediment concentrations

Suspended-sediment characteristics can be computed using acoustic indices derived from acoustic Doppler velocity meter (ADVM) backscatter data. The sediment acoustic index method applied in these types of studies can be used to more accurately and cost-effectively provide time-series estimates of suspended-sediment concentration and load, which is essential for informed solutions to many sediment-
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Water Resources, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program

Estimating peak-flow frequency statistics for selected gaged and ungaged sites in naturally flowing streams and rivers in Idaho

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Idaho Transportation Department, updated regional regression equations to estimate peak-flow statistics at ungaged sites on Idaho streams using recent streamflow (flow) data and new statistical techniques. Peak-flow statistics with 80-, 67-, 50-, 43-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities (1.25-, 1.50-, 2.00-
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center

Evaluation of multiple-frequency, active and passive acoustics as surrogates for bedload transport

The use of multiple-frequency, active acoustics through deployment of acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) shows potential for estimating bedload in selected grain size categories. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the University of Montana (UM), evaluated the use of multiple-frequency, active and passive acoustics as surrogates for bedload transport during a pilot study
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center

Sediment transport and evaluation of sediment surrogate ratings in the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Water Years 2011–14

The Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and other native fish species are culturally important to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, but their habitat and recruitment have been affected by anthropogenic changes to the river. Although the interconnections among anthropogenic changes and their impacts on fish are complex, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, in cooperation with other agencies,
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Water Resources, Idaho Water Science Center

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