Paul Barlow
Biography
Paul Barlow is the Associate Director of the Hydrologic Interpretive Program for the USGS New England Water Science Center. Paul manages a diverse team of scientists involved in a wide range of water-resource investigations spanning environmental, watershed, and urban hydrology; integrated modeling; and statistical and geospatial analyses. He previously served as Chief of the Earth Systems Modeling Branch in the USGS Water Mission Area and as a staff hydrologist with the USGS Office of Groundwater. His technical expertise is modeling coupled groundwater/surface-water systems and the application of mathematical optimization to groundwater management, focusing in particular on the management of streamflow depletion by wells. He received an M.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources Administration from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut.
Science and Products
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.
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...
Killian, Courtney D.; Asquith, William H.; Barlow, Jeannie R. B.; Bent, Gardner C.; Kress, Wade; Barlow, Paul M.; Schmitz, Darrel W.
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...
Evenson, Eric J.; Jones, Sonya A.; Barber, Nancy L.; Barlow, Paul M.; Blodgett, David L.; Bruce, Breton W.; Douglas-Mankin, Kyle R.; Farmer, William H.; Fischer, Jeffrey M.; Hughes, William B.; Kennen, Jonathan; Kiang, Julie E.; Maupin, Molly A.; Reeves, Howard W.; Senay, Gabriel B.; Stanton, Jennifer S.; Wagner, Chad R.; Wilson, Jennifer T. 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...
Barlow, Paul M. 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...
Barlow, Paul M.; Stanley A. Leake; Fienen, Michael N. 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-...
White, Jeremy T.; Fienen, Michael N.; Barlow, Paul M.; Welter, Dave E. 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...
Fienen, Michael N.; Bradbury, Kenneth R.; Kniffin, Maribeth; Barlow, Paul M. 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...
Ken Bradbury; Fienen, Michael N.; Kniffin, Maribeth; Jacob Krause; Westenbroek, Stephen M.; Leaf, Andrew T.; Barlow, Paul M.
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...
Regan, R. Steve; Niswonger, Richard G.; Markstrom, Steven L.; Barlow, Paul M.
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...
Barlow, Paul M.; Cunningham, William L.; Zhai, Tong; Gray, Mark Optimization techniques using MODFLOW-GWM
An important application of optimization codes such as MODFLOW-GWM is to maximize water supply from unconfined aquifers subject to constraints involving surface-water depletion and drawdown. In optimizing pumping for a fish hatchery in a bedrock aquifer system overlain by glacial deposits in eastern Wisconsin, various features of the GWM-2000 code...
Grava, Anna; Feinstein, Daniel T.; Barlow, Paul M.; Bonomi, Tullia; Buarne, Fabiola; Dunning, Charles; Hunt, Randall J.
Use of multi-node wells in the Groundwater-Management Process of MODFLOW-2005 (GWM-2005)
Many groundwater wells are open to multiple aquifers or to multiple intervals within a single aquifer. These types of wells can be represented in numerical simulations of groundwater flow by use of the Multi-Node Well (MNW) Packages developed for the U.S. Geological Survey’s MODFLOW model. However, previous versions of the Groundwater-Management (...
Ahlfeld, David P.; Barlow, Paul M.
Understanding and managing the effects of groundwater pumping on streamflow
Groundwater is a critical resource in the United States because it provides drinking water, irrigates crops, supports industry, and is a source of water for rivers, streams, lakes, and springs. Wells that pump water out of aquifers can reduce the amount of groundwater that flows into rivers and streams, which can have detrimental impacts on...
Leake, Stanley A.; Barlow, Paul 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.
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 in Support of Aquatic-Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration
Human land- and water-management practices have resulted in modifications to natural streamflow conditions and reduced the ecological health of aquatic communities. Working in collaboration with our many partners, the New England Water Science Center provides data and scientific analyses to inform and support aquatic-ecosystem conservation and restoration.
USGS Groundwater Toolbox: A New Way to Analyze Hydrologic Data
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released a convenient and informative new method for the analysis of groundwater and surface-water hydrologic data called the Groundwater (GW) Toolbox.