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Sara Brandt Levin

Sara is a staff scientist in the Upper Midwest Water Science Center with a focus on surface water hydrology and statistics.

I began working at the USGS in 2007 with a background in surface hydrology and statistics. My recent studies have focused on flood frequency estimation and characterization of changes in magnitude and timing of floods in the midwest. Additional interests and past projects have focused on simulation and statistical modeling of surface water reservoirs, streamflow at ungaged sites, and the effects of human water use on water availability and fish populations.

 

Education and Certifications

  • Master of Science, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, 2010

  • Master of Environmental Management, Duke University, 2002

  • Bachelor of Arts, University of North Carolina, 1997

Science and Products

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USGS reference streamgages used for developing regression equations in Connecticut

The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator: A Decision-Support Tool to Estimate Streamflow and Water Availability at Ungaged, User-Defined Stream Locations in Connecticut

The Connecticut streamflow and sustainable water use estimator is a decision-support tool that provides estimates of daily unaltered streamflow, water-use adjusted streamflow (for the portions of the state where water-use data are available), and water availability for ungaged, user-defined sites in Connecticut.
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New England Water Science Center
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The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator: A Decision-Support Tool to Estimate Streamflow and Water Availability at Ungaged, User-Defined Stream Locations in Connecticut

The Connecticut streamflow and sustainable water use estimator is a decision-support tool that provides estimates of daily unaltered streamflow, water-use adjusted streamflow (for the portions of the state where water-use data are available), and water availability for ungaged, user-defined sites in Connecticut.
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Map showing reference gages used in the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator development and application

Estimation of Daily Streamflow and Water Availability in the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator, Version 2.0

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 sites in Massachusetts. In this recently completed study, version 2.0 of the original Sustainable-Yield Estimator (Archfield and others, 2010) was developed with minor changes to the...
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New England Water Science Center
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Estimation of Daily Streamflow and Water Availability in the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator, Version 2.0

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 sites in Massachusetts. In this recently completed study, version 2.0 of the original Sustainable-Yield Estimator (Archfield and others, 2010) was developed with minor changes to the...
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Model archive - Regional regression models for estimating flood frequency characteristics of unregulated streams in Wisconsin

This model archive contains R source code for the Weighted-Multiple Linear Regression Program (WREG), input files, and associated output files needed to recreate regression models that are discussed in the report: Levin, S.B. and Sanocki, C.A., Methods for estimating flood magnitude and frequency for unregulated streams in Wisconsin, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2022-511
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

PeakFQ input and output files for 299 streamgages in Wisconsin through water year 2020.

This dataset includes U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) flood-frequency analysis software PeakFQ input and output files for 299 streamgages in Wisconsin. Input files for each streamgage include peak streamflow data through 2020 and PeakFQ specification files. Output files are text files (.prt) with flood-frequency results.
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Hydrologic metrics, biological metrics, R scripts, and model archives associated with regression analyses used to quantify relations between altered hydrological and biological responses in rivers of Minnesota, 1945-2015

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) conducted a cooperative study to develop linear regression models that quantify relations among 173 hydrologic explanatory metrics in five categories (duration, frequency, magnitude, rate-of-change, and timing) computed from streamgage records and 132 biological response metrics in six categories (composition, habi
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Attributions for nonstationary peak streamflow records across the conterminous United States, 1941-2015 and 1966-2015

The U.S. Geological Survey Dakota Water Science Center, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, analyzed annual peak-flow data to determine if trends are present and provide attribution of trends where possible. Work for the national trend attributions for nonstationary annual peak-flow records was broken into seven regions that are loosely based off of two-digit hydrologic unit wa
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Dakota Water Science Center
Filter Total Items: 22

Techniques for estimating the magnitude and frequency of peak flows on small streams in Minnesota, excluding the Rainy River Basin, based on data through water year 2019

Annual peak-flow data collected at U.S. Geological Survey streamgages in Minnesota and adjacent areas of neighboring states of Iowa and South Dakota were analyzed to develop and update regional regression equations that can be used to estimate the magnitude and frequency of peak streamflow for ungaged streams in Minnesota, excluding the Lake of the Woods-Rainy River Basin upstream from Kenora, Ont
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Christopher A. Sanocki, Sara B. Levin
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Upper Midwest Water Science Center

A novel suspended-sediment sampling method: Depth-Integrated Grab (DIG)

Measuring suspended sediment in fluvial systems is critical to understanding and managing water resources. Sampling suspended sediment has been the primary means of understanding fluvial suspended sediment. Specialized samplers, sampling methods, and laboratory methods developed by select U.S. Federal Agencies are more representative of river and stream conditions than commonly used grab sampling
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Joel T. Groten, Sara B. Levin, Erin N. Coenen, John (William) Lund, Gregory D. Johnson
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Comparing empirical sediment transport modeling approaches in Michigan rivers

Excess or limited fluvial sediment transport can contribute to and exacerbate many environmental issues including nutrient loading, aquatic habitat degradation, flooding, channel navigation dredging, dam operation, and stream degradation or aggradation. However, fluvial sediment transport is difficult and expensive to comprehensively characterize because it can vary substantially both temporally a
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Joel T. Groten, Sara B. Levin, Erin N. Coenen, John (William) Lund, Bethany Matousek
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Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Flood-frequency analysis in the Midwest: Addressing potential nonstationarity of annual peak-flow records

Flood-frequency analysis is essential in numerous water-resource management applications, including critical structure design and flood-plain mapping. A basic assumption within Bulletin 17C [1], the standardized guidelines for conducting flood-frequency analysis, is that basins without major hydrologic alterations, such as regulation or urbanization, exhibit stationary statistical properties of th
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Mackenzie K. Marti, Karen R. Ryberg, Sara B. Levin
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Dakota Water Science Center, Central Midwest Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Estimating flood magnitude and frequency for unregulated streams in Wisconsin

Flood frequency characteristics and estimated flood discharges for the 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities were computed at 299 streamgaged locations in Wisconsin. The State was divided into four flood frequency regions using a cluster analysis to produce regions which are homogeneous with respect to physical basin characteristics. Regression equations
Authors
Sara B. Levin, Christopher A. Sanocki
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Upper Midwest Water Science Center, StreamStats

Quantifying relations between altered hydrology and fish community responses for streams in Minnesota

Altered hydrology is a stressor on aquatic life for several streams in Minnesota, but quantitative relations between specific aspects of streamflow alteration and biological responses have not been developed on a statewide scale in Minnesota. Best subsets regression analysis was used to develop linear regression models that quantify relations among five categories of hydrologic explanatory metric
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Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid, Gregory D. Johnson, Aliesha L. Krall, Kara Fitzpatrick, Sara B. Levin
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Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Evaluation of uncertainty intervals for daily, statistically derived streamflow estimates at ungaged basins across the continental U.S.

Streamflow estimation methods that transfer information from an index gage to an ungaged site are commonly used; however, uncertainty in daily streamflow estimates are often not adequately quantified. In this study, daily streamflow was simulated at 1,331 validation streamgages across the continental United States using four transfer-based streamflow estimation methods. Empirical 95 percent unce
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Sara B. Levin, William H. Farmer
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Upper Midwest Water Science Center

User guide for the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MA SYE—version 2.0) computer program

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 mean streamflows and selected streamflow statistics
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Gregory E. Granato, Sara B. Levin
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Water Resources Mission Area, New England Water Science Center

Methods used to estimate daily streamflow and water availability in the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator version 2.0

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 procedure for estimating streamflow was developed previousl
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Sara B. Levin, Gregory E. Granato
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Water Resources Mission Area, New England Water Science Center

The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator—A decision-support tool to estimate water availability at ungaged stream locations in Connecticut

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, Federal, State, and local water-resource managers requi
Authors
Sara B. Levin, Scott A. Olson, Martha G. Nielsen, Gregory E. Granato
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Water Resources Mission Area, New England Water Science Center

User guide for the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE—version 1.0) computer program

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 decision makers estimate daily mean streamflows and
Authors
Gregory E. Granato, Sara B. Levin
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Water Resources Mission Area, New England Water Science Center

Characterizing uncertainty in daily streamflow estimates at ungauged locations for the Massachusetts sustainable yield estimator

Hydrologic characterization at ungauged locations is one of the quintessential challenges of hydrology. Beyond simulation of historical streamflows, it is similarly important to characterize the level of uncertainty in hydrologic estimates. In tandem with updates to Massachusetts Sustainable Yield Estimator, this work explores the application of global uncertainty estimates to daily streamflow sim
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William H. Farmer, Sara B. Levin

Non-USGS Publications**

P. K. Weiskel, D. M. Wolock, P. J. Zarriello, R. M. Vogel, S. B. Levin, 2014: Hydroclimatic regimes: a distributed water-balance framework for hydrologic assessment, classification, and management, Hydrology and Earth Systems Sciences, vol 18.
, and R. M. Lent4
Farmer, William H. and Sara Levin, 2018. Characterizing Uncertainty in Daily Streamflow Estimates at Ungauged Locations for the Massachusetts Sustainable Yield Estimator. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 54(1): 198‐210. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12603

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Hydrologic Model Evaluation and Time-Series Tools (HyMETT) R-package

Hydrologic Model and Evaluation Time-series Tools (HyMETT) software facilitates the analysis and evaluation of hydrologic model output and time-series data with functions focused on comparison of modeled and observed data, period-of-record statistics, and trends.
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MASYE) application software (version 2.0)

This software release provides the database application that runs the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MA SYE) computer program (version 2.0).

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New England Water Science Center

Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CTSSWUE Version 1.0) application software

This software release provides the database application that runs the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE) computer program (version 1.0).

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New England Water Science Center

The Massachusetts Reservoir Simulation Tool

The Massachusetts Reservoir Simulation Tool is a screening-level model developed to examine the effects of reservoirs on the natural streamflow of streams in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Reservoir Simulation Tool simulates the daily water balance equation of a water supply reservoir and estimates the magnitude, frequency and duration of spillage below the dam over the period of record.

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New England Water Science Center

Science and Products