Paul Barlow is Chief of the Hydrologic Interpretive Branch in the New England Water Science Center.
As Chief of the Hydrologic Interpretive Branch, New England Water Science Center, Paul manages a diverse team of scientists involved in a wide range of water-resources investigations spanning environmental, watershed, and urban hydrology; integrated water-resources modeling; and statistical and geospatial analyses. His technical work has focused on numerical modeling of coupled groundwater/surface-water flow systems and the application of mathematical optimization methods to problems in groundwater management, including streamflow depletion caused by groundwater withdrawals.
Professional Experience
Chief, Hydrologic Interpretive Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, New England Water Science Center, 2020 to Present
Chief, Earth Systems Modeling Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, Water Mission Area, 2017-2020
Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Groundwater, 1998-2017
Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, New England, Arizona, and California Water Science Centers, 1983-1998
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, 1997
M.S. Hydrology and Water Resources Administration, University of Arizona, 1987
B.S., Geology, Haverford College, 1983
Affiliations and Memberships*
National Ground Water Association, 1990 to Present
Honors and Awards
John Hem Award for Excellence in Science & Engineering, National Ground Water Association, 2014
Science and Products
Satellite-based Remote Sensing of River Discharge
The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are collaborating on a study to develop methods to estimate river flows from satellite observations.
Hydrologic Interpretive Program
The mission of the Hydrologic Interpretive Program is to work with stakeholders to design, carry out, and publish scientific studies addressing critical water-resources issues facing New England and the Nation.
MODFLOW-2000 and Management-Optimization Models Used to Evaluate Alternative Groundwater-Withdrawal Scenarios on Water Levels in Kingsbury Pond, Upper Charles River Basin, Eastern Massachusetts
An existing, three-dimensional, transient groundwater-flow model of the Upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts, was modified to evaluate alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond. The pond is hydraulically connected to the groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to recharge to the aquifer from precipitation and wast
Estimated and measured streamflow and groundwater-level data in the Mississippi Delta
This data release provides the data that support the findings in "Characterizing groundwater and surface-water interaction using hydrograph-separation techniques and groundwater-level data throughout the Mississippi Delta" by Killian and others (2019). There are two child items below: (1) Estimated baseflow includes the baseflow_est data and metadata that contain daily mean streamflow data provid
National-Scale Grid to Support Regional Groundwater Availability Studies and a National Hydrogeologic Framework
The National Hydrogeologic Grid (NHG) dataset includes a raster and vector representation of 1-km cells defining a uniform grid that encompasses the continental United States. The value of each cell of the raster dataset corresponds to the 1-km cell number defined as 'cellnum' in the attributes of the vector data. The NHG consists of 4,000 rows and 4,980 columns, numbered from the top left corner
Filter Total Items: 46
Evaluation of alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond, upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts
Kingsbury Pond is a glacial kettle pond in the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts, in the Mill River Basin, which is part of the Upper Charles River Basin in eastern Massachusetts. The pond is hydraulically connected to the surrounding groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to recharge to the aquifer from precipitation and wastewater return flows through septic sys
Authors
Paul M. Barlow, Paul J. Friesz, Jeffrey R. Barbaro
U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox — A graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data
The Hydrologic Toolbox is a Windows-based desktop software program that provides a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic time-series data with a set of widely used and standardized computational methods. The software combines the analytical and statistical functionality provided in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface-Water Toolboxes and provides several enhancem
Authors
Paul M. Barlow, Amy R. McHugh, Julie E. Kiang, Tong Zhai, Paul Hummel, Paul Duda, Scott Hinz
GW/SW-MST: A groundwater/surface-water method selection tool
Groundwater/surface-water (GW/SW) exchange and hyporheic processes are topics receiving increasing attention from the hydrologic community. Hydraulic, chemical, temperature, geophysical, and remote sensing methods are used to achieve various goals (e.g., inference of GW/SW exchange, mapping of bed materials, etc.), but the application of these methods is constrained by site conditions such as wate
Authors
Steven Hammett, Frederick Day-Lewis, Brett Russell Trottier, Paul M. Barlow, Martin A. Briggs, Geoffrey N. Delin, Judson Harvey, Carole D. Johnson, John W. Lane, D. O. Rosenberry, Dale D. Werkema
Characterizing groundwater/surface-water interaction using hydrograph-separation techniques and groundwater-level data throughout the Mississippi Delta, USA
The Mississippi Delta, located in northwest Mississippi, is an area dense with industrial-level agriculture sustained by groundwater-dependent irrigation supplied by the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial aquifer (alluvial aquifer). The Delta provides agricultural commodities across the United States and around the world. Observed declines in groundwater altitudes and streamflow contemporaneous wit
Authors
Courtney D. Killian, William H. Asquith, Jeannie R. B. Barlow, Gardner C. Bent, Wade Kress, Paul M. Barlow, Darrel W. Schmitz
Continuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use
Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS issued the first report on the program in 2013. Program progress over the period 2013–17
Authors
Eric J. Evenson, Sonya A. Jones, Nancy L. Barber, Paul M. Barlow, David L. Blodgett, Breton W. Bruce, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, William H. Farmer, Jeffrey M. Fischer, William B. Hughes, Jonathan Kennen, Julie E. Kiang, Molly A. Maupin, Howard W. Reeves, Gabriel B. Senay, Jennifer S. Stanton, Chad R. Wagner, Jennifer T. Wilson
Interstate water management of a “hidden” resource - Physical principles of groundwater hydrology
Groundwater systems are dynamic geologic environments in which water continuously flows from recharge areas to discharge areas at streams, springs, wetlands, coastal waters, and wells. Natural, predevelopment conditions within groundwater systems are changed by the introduction of wells and other human stresses that modify existing groundwater levels, flow paths, and hydrologic budgets. Groundwate
Authors
Paul M. Barlow
Capture versus capture zones: Clarifying terminology related to sources of water to wells
The term capture, related to the source of water derived from wells, has been used in two distinct yet related contexts by the hydrologic community. The first is a water‐budget context, in which capture refers to decreases in the rates of groundwater outflow and (or) increases in the rates of recharge along head‐dependent boundaries of an aquifer in response to pumping. The second is a transport c
Authors
Paul M. Barlow, Stanley A. Leake, Michael N. Fienen
A tool for efficient, model-independent management optimization under uncertainty
To fill a need for risk-based environmental management optimization, we have developed PESTPP-OPT, a model-independent tool for resource management optimization under uncertainty. PESTPP-OPT solves a sequential linear programming (SLP) problem and also implements (optional) efficient, “on-the-fly” (without user intervention) first-order, second-moment (FOSM) uncertainty techniques to estimate mode
Authors
Jeremy T. White, Michael N. Fienen, Paul M. Barlow, Dave E. Welter
Depletion mapping and constrained optimization to support managing groundwater extraction
Groundwater models often serve as management tools to evaluate competing water uses including ecosystems, irrigated agriculture, industry, municipal supply, and others. Depletion potential mapping—showing the model-calculated potential impacts that wells have on stream baseflow—can form the basis for multiple potential management approaches in an oversubscribed basin. Specific management approache
Authors
Michael N. Fienen, Kenneth R. Bradbury, Maribeth Kniffin, Paul M. Barlow
Groundwater flow model for the Little Plover River basin in Wisconsin’s Central Sands
The Little Plover River is a groundwater-fed stream in the sand plains region of central Wisconsin. In this region, sandy sediment deposited during or soon after the last glaciation forms an important unconfined sand and gravel aquifer. This aquifer supplies water for numerous high-capacity irrigation, municipal, and industrial wells that support a thriving agricultural industry. In recent years t
Authors
Ken Bradbury, Michael N. Fienen, Maribeth Kniffin, Jacob Krause, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Andrew T. Leaf, Paul M. Barlow
Documentation of a restart option for the U.S. Geological Survey coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow (GSFLOW) model
A new option to write and read antecedent conditions (also referred to as initial conditions) has been developed for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow (GSFLOW) numerical, hydrologic simulation code. GSFLOW is an integration of the USGS Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and USGS Modular Groundwater-Flow Model (MODFLOW), and provides three simulation mode
Authors
R. Steve Regan, Richard G. Niswonger, Steven L. Markstrom, Paul M. Barlow
U.S. Geological Survey groundwater toolbox, a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data (version 1.0): user guide for estimation of base flow, runoff, and groundwater recharge from streamflow data
This report is a user guide for the streamflow-hydrograph analysis methods provided with version 1.0 of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Groundwater Toolbox computer program. These include six hydrograph-separation methods to determine the groundwater-discharge (base-flow) and surface-runoff components of streamflow—the Base-Flow Index (BFI; Standard and Modified), HYSEP (Fixed Interval, Sliding
Authors
Paul M. Barlow, William L. Cunningham, Tong Zhai, Mark Gray
U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox Software Archive
The U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox is a Windows-based desktop software program that provides a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic time-series data with a set of widely used and standardized computational methods. The software combines the analytical and statistical functionality provided in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface-Water Toolboxes. The m
The Groundwater Toolbox: A Graphical and Mapping Interface for Analysis of Hydrologic Data
The Groundwater Toolbox is a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data. It provides methods to estimate many of the components of the water budget for a hydrologic basin, including precipitation, streamflow, base flow, runoff, groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration. As of May 2022, the Groundwater Toolbox has been superseded by the Hydrologic Toolbox.
GWM: Groundwater Management Process for MODFLOW Using Optimization
GWM is a Groundwater Management Process for the U.S. Geological Survey modular three-dimensional groundwater model, MODFLOW.
Science and Products
- Science
Satellite-based Remote Sensing of River Discharge
The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are collaborating on a study to develop methods to estimate river flows from satellite observations.Hydrologic Interpretive Program
The mission of the Hydrologic Interpretive Program is to work with stakeholders to design, carry out, and publish scientific studies addressing critical water-resources issues facing New England and the Nation. - Data
MODFLOW-2000 and Management-Optimization Models Used to Evaluate Alternative Groundwater-Withdrawal Scenarios on Water Levels in Kingsbury Pond, Upper Charles River Basin, Eastern Massachusetts
An existing, three-dimensional, transient groundwater-flow model of the Upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts, was modified to evaluate alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond. The pond is hydraulically connected to the groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to recharge to the aquifer from precipitation and wastEstimated and measured streamflow and groundwater-level data in the Mississippi Delta
This data release provides the data that support the findings in "Characterizing groundwater and surface-water interaction using hydrograph-separation techniques and groundwater-level data throughout the Mississippi Delta" by Killian and others (2019). There are two child items below: (1) Estimated baseflow includes the baseflow_est data and metadata that contain daily mean streamflow data providNational-Scale Grid to Support Regional Groundwater Availability Studies and a National Hydrogeologic Framework
The National Hydrogeologic Grid (NHG) dataset includes a raster and vector representation of 1-km cells defining a uniform grid that encompasses the continental United States. The value of each cell of the raster dataset corresponds to the 1-km cell number defined as 'cellnum' in the attributes of the vector data. The NHG consists of 4,000 rows and 4,980 columns, numbered from the top left corner - Publications
Filter Total Items: 46
Evaluation of alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond, upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts
Kingsbury Pond is a glacial kettle pond in the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts, in the Mill River Basin, which is part of the Upper Charles River Basin in eastern Massachusetts. The pond is hydraulically connected to the surrounding groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to recharge to the aquifer from precipitation and wastewater return flows through septic sysAuthorsPaul M. Barlow, Paul J. Friesz, Jeffrey R. BarbaroU.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox — A graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data
The Hydrologic Toolbox is a Windows-based desktop software program that provides a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic time-series data with a set of widely used and standardized computational methods. The software combines the analytical and statistical functionality provided in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface-Water Toolboxes and provides several enhancemAuthorsPaul M. Barlow, Amy R. McHugh, Julie E. Kiang, Tong Zhai, Paul Hummel, Paul Duda, Scott HinzGW/SW-MST: A groundwater/surface-water method selection tool
Groundwater/surface-water (GW/SW) exchange and hyporheic processes are topics receiving increasing attention from the hydrologic community. Hydraulic, chemical, temperature, geophysical, and remote sensing methods are used to achieve various goals (e.g., inference of GW/SW exchange, mapping of bed materials, etc.), but the application of these methods is constrained by site conditions such as wateAuthorsSteven Hammett, Frederick Day-Lewis, Brett Russell Trottier, Paul M. Barlow, Martin A. Briggs, Geoffrey N. Delin, Judson Harvey, Carole D. Johnson, John W. Lane, D. O. Rosenberry, Dale D. WerkemaCharacterizing groundwater/surface-water interaction using hydrograph-separation techniques and groundwater-level data throughout the Mississippi Delta, USA
The Mississippi Delta, located in northwest Mississippi, is an area dense with industrial-level agriculture sustained by groundwater-dependent irrigation supplied by the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial aquifer (alluvial aquifer). The Delta provides agricultural commodities across the United States and around the world. Observed declines in groundwater altitudes and streamflow contemporaneous witAuthorsCourtney D. Killian, William H. Asquith, Jeannie R. B. Barlow, Gardner C. Bent, Wade Kress, Paul M. Barlow, Darrel W. SchmitzContinuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use
Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS issued the first report on the program in 2013. Program progress over the period 2013–17AuthorsEric J. Evenson, Sonya A. Jones, Nancy L. Barber, Paul M. Barlow, David L. Blodgett, Breton W. Bruce, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, William H. Farmer, Jeffrey M. Fischer, William B. Hughes, Jonathan Kennen, Julie E. Kiang, Molly A. Maupin, Howard W. Reeves, Gabriel B. Senay, Jennifer S. Stanton, Chad R. Wagner, Jennifer T. WilsonInterstate water management of a “hidden” resource - Physical principles of groundwater hydrology
Groundwater systems are dynamic geologic environments in which water continuously flows from recharge areas to discharge areas at streams, springs, wetlands, coastal waters, and wells. Natural, predevelopment conditions within groundwater systems are changed by the introduction of wells and other human stresses that modify existing groundwater levels, flow paths, and hydrologic budgets. GroundwateAuthorsPaul M. BarlowCapture versus capture zones: Clarifying terminology related to sources of water to wells
The term capture, related to the source of water derived from wells, has been used in two distinct yet related contexts by the hydrologic community. The first is a water‐budget context, in which capture refers to decreases in the rates of groundwater outflow and (or) increases in the rates of recharge along head‐dependent boundaries of an aquifer in response to pumping. The second is a transport cAuthorsPaul M. Barlow, Stanley A. Leake, Michael N. FienenA tool for efficient, model-independent management optimization under uncertainty
To fill a need for risk-based environmental management optimization, we have developed PESTPP-OPT, a model-independent tool for resource management optimization under uncertainty. PESTPP-OPT solves a sequential linear programming (SLP) problem and also implements (optional) efficient, “on-the-fly” (without user intervention) first-order, second-moment (FOSM) uncertainty techniques to estimate modeAuthorsJeremy T. White, Michael N. Fienen, Paul M. Barlow, Dave E. WelterDepletion mapping and constrained optimization to support managing groundwater extraction
Groundwater models often serve as management tools to evaluate competing water uses including ecosystems, irrigated agriculture, industry, municipal supply, and others. Depletion potential mapping—showing the model-calculated potential impacts that wells have on stream baseflow—can form the basis for multiple potential management approaches in an oversubscribed basin. Specific management approacheAuthorsMichael N. Fienen, Kenneth R. Bradbury, Maribeth Kniffin, Paul M. BarlowGroundwater flow model for the Little Plover River basin in Wisconsin’s Central Sands
The Little Plover River is a groundwater-fed stream in the sand plains region of central Wisconsin. In this region, sandy sediment deposited during or soon after the last glaciation forms an important unconfined sand and gravel aquifer. This aquifer supplies water for numerous high-capacity irrigation, municipal, and industrial wells that support a thriving agricultural industry. In recent years tAuthorsKen Bradbury, Michael N. Fienen, Maribeth Kniffin, Jacob Krause, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Andrew T. Leaf, Paul M. BarlowDocumentation of a restart option for the U.S. Geological Survey coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow (GSFLOW) model
A new option to write and read antecedent conditions (also referred to as initial conditions) has been developed for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow (GSFLOW) numerical, hydrologic simulation code. GSFLOW is an integration of the USGS Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and USGS Modular Groundwater-Flow Model (MODFLOW), and provides three simulation modeAuthorsR. Steve Regan, Richard G. Niswonger, Steven L. Markstrom, Paul M. BarlowU.S. Geological Survey groundwater toolbox, a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data (version 1.0): user guide for estimation of base flow, runoff, and groundwater recharge from streamflow data
This report is a user guide for the streamflow-hydrograph analysis methods provided with version 1.0 of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Groundwater Toolbox computer program. These include six hydrograph-separation methods to determine the groundwater-discharge (base-flow) and surface-runoff components of streamflow—the Base-Flow Index (BFI; Standard and Modified), HYSEP (Fixed Interval, SlidingAuthorsPaul M. Barlow, William L. Cunningham, Tong Zhai, Mark Gray - Software
U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox Software Archive
The U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Toolbox is a Windows-based desktop software program that provides a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic time-series data with a set of widely used and standardized computational methods. The software combines the analytical and statistical functionality provided in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface-Water Toolboxes. The mThe Groundwater Toolbox: A Graphical and Mapping Interface for Analysis of Hydrologic Data
The Groundwater Toolbox is a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic data. It provides methods to estimate many of the components of the water budget for a hydrologic basin, including precipitation, streamflow, base flow, runoff, groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration. As of May 2022, the Groundwater Toolbox has been superseded by the Hydrologic Toolbox.
GWM: Groundwater Management Process for MODFLOW Using Optimization
GWM is a Groundwater Management Process for the U.S. Geological Survey modular three-dimensional groundwater model, MODFLOW.
- News
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government