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Wesley Henson, Ph.D.

Wesley Henson is a Research Hydrologist in San Diego, California. His research focuses on developing decision tools and methods to improve water management for food and water security and water resource sustainability.

Wes grew up in the dusty parched deserts of northern Nevada. He holds degrees in Geology, Hydrogeology, and Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He began his career with the USGS in 2009 and currently leads a Food and Water Security Research Team. His team helps address critical water resource issues, both nationally and internationally. Much of his current work is centered in a key US agricultural region—the Central Coast of California.

His research centers on incorporating additional hydrologic processes in hydrologic models so they are more suitable to address a wide variety of the challenges water managers must address. These methods include:

  1. Methods for estimating recharge, runoff, and land use.
  2. Quantifying regional scale uncertainty in water budgets (e.g., Sea Water Intrusion)
  3. Evaluating aquifer vulnerability to contaminants
  4. Nitrate biogeochemistry, and
  5. Development and simulation of karst aquifer preferential flow paths.

Science and Products

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Salinas Valley

Salinas and Carmel River Basins Study

Together, the Salinas and Carmel river basins include some of the world’s most fertile agricultural lands and are internationally known for their natural beauty; ecological diversity; multi-national cultural history; and recreation opportunities such as fishing, auto racing, and golfing. The area is oftentimes referred to as the “Salad Bowl of the World” or “America’s Salad Bowl” because of the...
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California Water Science Center
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Salinas and Carmel River Basins Study

Together, the Salinas and Carmel river basins include some of the world’s most fertile agricultural lands and are internationally known for their natural beauty; ecological diversity; multi-national cultural history; and recreation opportunities such as fishing, auto racing, and golfing. The area is oftentimes referred to as the “Salad Bowl of the World” or “America’s Salad Bowl” because of the...
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Salinas Valley

Salinas and Carmel Rivers Basin Study: Paso Robles Model Update

The existing Paso Robles Basin Model (PRBM) needed to be updated and enhanced to achieve the timeline and objectives of the Salinas Carmel River Basin Study (SCRBS) for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and local partners.
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California Water Science Center
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Salinas and Carmel Rivers Basin Study: Paso Robles Model Update

The existing Paso Robles Basin Model (PRBM) needed to be updated and enhanced to achieve the timeline and objectives of the Salinas Carmel River Basin Study (SCRBS) for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and local partners.
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a field being irrigated

SGMApy: An open source platform for computing sustainability metrics and visualizing MODFLOW data

Climate change and demographic changes have underscored the need to improve effectiveness of managing valuable water resources for sustainability. In 2014, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) established a framework for sustainable, local groundwater management. SGMA requires groundwater-dependent regions to halt overdraft and bring basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge...
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California Water Science Center
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SGMApy: An open source platform for computing sustainability metrics and visualizing MODFLOW data

Climate change and demographic changes have underscored the need to improve effectiveness of managing valuable water resources for sustainability. In 2014, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) established a framework for sustainable, local groundwater management. SGMA requires groundwater-dependent regions to halt overdraft and bring basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge...
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Pajaro Valley

Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model Update, Data Collection, and Analysis for Sustainability

The Pajaro Valley is home to a billion-dollar agricultural industry, providing food and food processing services for the nation. The water for these enterprises is supplied, in large part, by the groundwater resources (aquifers) in the area. The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PV Water) and the USGS have partnered to improve aquifer monitoring software, allowing better quantification and...
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California Water Science Center
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Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model Update, Data Collection, and Analysis for Sustainability

The Pajaro Valley is home to a billion-dollar agricultural industry, providing food and food processing services for the nation. The water for these enterprises is supplied, in large part, by the groundwater resources (aquifers) in the area. The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PV Water) and the USGS have partnered to improve aquifer monitoring software, allowing better quantification and...
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Study area map Salinas Valley, Monterey County, California.

Salinas Valley Operational Model: Interlake Tunnel and San Antonio Spillway Modification Project

An operational model for Salinas Valley is needed to evaluate and compare ecosystem, conservation, and water demands. This model must simulate current operations, assess benefits of and evaluate scenarios for tunnel operation and potential reservoir and spillway modifications.
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California Water Science Center
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Salinas Valley Operational Model: Interlake Tunnel and San Antonio Spillway Modification Project

An operational model for Salinas Valley is needed to evaluate and compare ecosystem, conservation, and water demands. This model must simulate current operations, assess benefits of and evaluate scenarios for tunnel operation and potential reservoir and spillway modifications.
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Pajaro Valley

Simulation of Water Resources Management in the Pajaro Valley

Two key hydrologic issues in all coastal aquifer systems are the delineation and the management of the renewable water resources. The proper development and management of the renewable resources helps to minimize ground-water mining of the lower aquifer systems, and minimizes overdraft and seawater intrusion of the upper aquifer system while maximizing the sustainable yield of the renewable water...
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California Water Science Center
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Simulation of Water Resources Management in the Pajaro Valley

Two key hydrologic issues in all coastal aquifer systems are the delineation and the management of the renewable water resources. The proper development and management of the renewable resources helps to minimize ground-water mining of the lower aquifer systems, and minimizes overdraft and seawater intrusion of the upper aquifer system while maximizing the sustainable yield of the renewable water...
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Estimated monthly water use for irrigation by 12-digit hydrologic unit in the conterminous United States for 2015

This data release contains the output of the Irrigation Water Use Estimation Disaggregation and Downscaling Model (IWUEDD) along with the scripts and data resources (IWUEDD_basic.zip) required to replicate the output results. The IWUEDD is used to estimate monthly irrigation withdrawals and consumptive use for each 12-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC 12) subwatershed in the conterminous United Stat
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Arizona Water Science Center

Detection and measurement of land-surface deformation, Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, California, 2015–18

Land-surface deformation (subsidence) caused by groundwater withdrawal is identified as an undesirable result in the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency’s Basin Management Plan and California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. In Pajaro Valley, groundwater provides nearly 90 percent of the total water supply. To aid the development of sustainable groundwater management criteria, the U.S.
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Rio Grande transboundary integrated hydrologic model and water-availability analysis, New Mexico and Texas, United States, and northern Chihuahua, Mexico

Changes in population, agricultural development and practices (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are increasing demands on available water resources, particularly groundwater, in one of the most productive agricultural regions in the Southwest—the Rincon and Mesilla Valley parts of Rio Grande Valley, Doña Ana and Sierra Counties, New Mexico, and El Paso Count
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center

One-Water Hydrologic Flow Model: A MODFLOW based conjunctive-use simulation software

The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Modular Ground-Water Flow Model (MODFLOW-2005) is a computer program that simulates groundwater flow by using finite differences. The MODFLOW-2005 framework uses a modular design that allows for the easy development and incorporation of new features called processes and packages that work with or modify inputs to the groundwater-flow equation. A process solves a
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Integrated hydrologic modeling of the Salinas River, California, for sustainable water management

The Salinas River is the largest river in California’s Central Coast region. Groundwater resources of the Salinas River basin are used to meet water supply needs, including crop irrigation and municipal water supply. Two large multipurpose reservoirs also supply irrigation and municipal water uses. Historical imbalances between supply and demand have resulted in sinking groundwater levels, seawate
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Spatially distributed denitrification in a karst springshed

Karst spring measurements assess biogeochemical processes occurring within groundwater contributing areas to springs (springsheds) but can only provide aggregated information. To better understand spatially distributed processes that comprise these aggregated measures, we investigated aquifer denitrification evidence in groundwater wells (n = 16) distributed throughout a springshed in the Upper Fl
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

UZIG research: Measurement and characterization of unsaturated zone processes under wide-ranging climates and changing conditions

Unsaturated zone properties and processes are central to understanding the interacting effects of land-use change, contamination, and hydroclimate on our ability to grow food, sustain clean water supplies, and minimize loss of life and property. Advances in unsaturated zone science are being achieved through collaborations across traditional boundaries where information from biological, physical,
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Toxic Substances Hydrology, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

What makes a first‐magnitude spring?: Global sensitivity analysis of a speleogenesis model to gain insight into karst network and spring genesis

Often, karstic conduit network geometry is unknown. This lack of knowledge represents a significant limitation when modeling flow and solute transport in karst systems. In this study, we apply Morris Method Global Sensitivity Analysis to a speleogenesis model to identify model input parameters, and combinations thereof, that most significantly influence evolution of karst conduit networks, develop
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Input data processing tools for the integrated hydrologic model GSFLOW

Integrated hydrologic modeling (IHM) encompasses a vast number of processes and specifications, variable in time and space, and development of models can be arduous. Model input construction techniques have not been formalized or made easily reproducible. Creating the input files for integrated hydrologic models requires complex GIS processing of raster and vector datasets from various sources. De
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Water Resources, Nevada Water Science Center

Rio Grande transboundary integrated hydrologic model and water-availability analysis, New Mexico and Texas, United States, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico

Errata**September 28, 2018: The purpose of a USGS Open-file report (OFR) is dissemination of information that must be released immediately to fill a public need or information that is not sufficiently refined to warrant publication in one of the other USGS series. As part of that refinement process, an error was discovered in one of the input data sets of the Rio Grande Transboundary Integrated Hy
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Nitrate reduction mechanisms and rates in an unconfined eogenetic karst aquifer in two sites with different redox potential

This study integrates push-pull tracer tests (PPTT) with microbial characterization of extracted water via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and reverse transcriptase qPCR (RT-qPCR) of selected functional N transformation genes to quantify nitrate reduction mechanisms and rates in sites with different redox potential in a karst aquifer. PPTT treatments with nitrate (AN) and nitrate-fum
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

CRT--Cascade Routing Tool to define and visualize flow paths for grid-based watershed models

The U.S. Geological Survey Cascade Routing Tool (CRT) is a computer application for watershed models that include the coupled Groundwater and Surface-water FLOW model, GSFLOW, and the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). CRT generates output to define cascading surface and shallow subsurface flow paths for grid-based model domains. CRT requires a land-surface elevation for each hydrologic
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Water Resources, Nevada Water Science Center

CRT: Cascade Routing Tool to Define and Visualize Flow Paths for Grid-Based Watershed Models

The U.S. Geological Survey Cascade Routing Tool (CRT) is a computer application for watershed models that include the coupled Groundwater and Surface-water FLOW model GSFLOW and the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). CRT generates output to define cascading surface and shallow subsurface flow paths for grid-based model domains. 

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California Water Science Center

MODPATH Observation Process (MODPATH-OBS)

The MODPATH-OBS (Hanson and others, 2013) computer program is designed to calculate simulated equivalents for observations related to advective groundwater transport that can be represented in a quantitative way by using simulated particle-tracking data. 

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California Water Science Center

Science and Products