William H Asquith
William has more than 25 years at the USGS encompassing a wide range of algorithms and statistical
and extreme value frequency studies of meteorology, surface water hydrology, and other water resources
topics such as data acquisition, hydraulics, and hydrologic regionalization.
Biography
Present (2016–2018) research includes exceptionally low annual exceedance probability (AEP) flood events, regulated flood-frequency, documentable climate-cycle impacts on flood-risk assessment, statistics of USGS discharge measurements, recent technical advisor on probable maximum precipitation in Texas, small watershed hydrometeorological stations, and missing record estimation. Recent cooperators include Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi via USGS Office of International Programs, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and USGS Office of Surface Water. Twice featured four-city speaker in 2016 and 2017 in Bolivia for Universidad Catolica Boliviana and U.S. State Department.
EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION:
Institution: Texas Tech University (TTU), College of Engineering, Lubbock, 2008–2011
Degree: Ph.D. (Civil Engineering, May 2011)
Institution: University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences, Geoscience, 1998–2003
Degree: Ph.D. (Geosciences, May 2003)
Institution: University of Texas at Austin, College of Engineering, 1988–1994
Degrees: B.S. (Civil Engineering, Dec. 1992); M.S. (Civil Engineering, May 1994)
Professional Geoscientist no. 1494, State of Texas 2003–present
Science and Products
Modeling and Projecting the Influence of Climate Change on Texas Surface Waters and their Aquatic Biotic Communities
Water scarcity is a growing concern in Texas, where surface water is derived almost entirely from rainfall. Changes in air temperature and precipitation patterns associated with global climate change are anticipated to regionally affect the quality and quantity of inland surface waters and consequently their suitability as habitat for freshwater life. In addition to directly affecting resident...
Regional regression equations for estimation of four hydraulic properties of streams at approximate bankfull conditions for different ecoregions in Texas
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, assessed statistical relations between hydraulic properties of streams at approximate bankfull conditions for different ecological regions (ecoregions) in Texas. Data from more than 103,000 records of measured discharge and ancillary hydraulic properties were...
Asquith, William H.; Gordon, John D.; Wallace, David S.
Methods to quality assure, plot, summarize, interpolate, and extend groundwater-level information—Examples for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer
Large-scale computational investigations of groundwater levels are proposed to accelerate science delivery through a workflow spanning database assembly, statistics, and information synthesis and packaging. A water-availability study of the Mississippi River alluvial plain, and particularly the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (MRVA), is...
Asquith, William H.; Seanor, Ronald C.; McGuire, Virginia L.; Kress, Wade
Altitude of the potentiometric surface in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, spring 2018
A potentiometric-surface map for spring 2018 was created for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer using available groundwater-altitude data from 1,126 wells completed in the MRVA aquifer and from the altitude of the top of the water surface in area rivers from 66 streamgages. Personnel from Arkansas Natural Resources Commission,...
McGuire, Virginia L.; Seanor, Ronald C.; Asquith, William H.; Nottmeier, Anna M.; Smith, David C.; Tollett, Roland W.; Kress, Wade H.; Strauch, Kellan R. The use of support vectors from support vector machines for hydrometeorologic monitoring network analyses
Hydrometeorologic monitoring networks are ubiquitous in contemporary earth-system science. Network stakeholders often inquire about the importance of sites and their locations when discussing funding and monitoring design. Support vector machines (SVMs) can be useful by their assigning each monitoring site as either a support or nonsupport vector...
Asquith, William H. Copula theory as a generalized framework for flow-duration curve-based streamflow estimates in ungaged and partially gaged catchments
Flow‐duration curve (FDC) based streamflow estimation methods involve estimating an FDC at an ungaged or partially gaged location and using the time series of nonexceedance probabilities estimated from donor streamgage sites to generate estimates of streamflow. We develop a mathematical framework to illustrate the connection between copulas and...
Worland, Scott C.; Steinschneider, Scott; Farmer, William; Asquith, William H.; White, Rodney Prediction and inference of flow-duration curves using multi-output neural networks
We develop multi-output neural network models (MNNs) to predict flow-duration curves (FDCs) in 9,203 ungaged locations in the Southeastern United States for six decades between 1950-2009. The model architecture contains multiple response variables in the output layer that correspond to individual quantiles along the FDC. During training,...
Worland, Scott C.; Steinschneider, Scott; Asquith, William H.; Knight, Rodney; Wieczorek, Michael E.
Potentiometric surface of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, spring 2016
A potentiometric surface map for spring 2016 was created for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer using selected available groundwater-altitude data from wells and surface-water-altitude data from streamgages. Most of the wells were measured annually or one time after installation, but some wells were measured more than one time or...
McGuire, Virginia L.; Seanor, Ronald C.; Asquith, William H.; Kress, Wade; Strauch, Kellan R. 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.
Annual and approximately quarterly series peak streamflow derived from interpretations of indirect measurements for a crest-stage gage network in Texas through water year 2015
In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), incooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation,began collecting annual and approximately quarterly seriespeak-streamflow data at streamflow-gaging stations in smalltomedium-sized watersheds in central and western Texasas part of a crest-stage gage (CSG) network, along withselected flood-...
Asquith, William H.; Harwell, Glenn R.; Winters, Karl E.
Application of at-site peak-streamflow frequency analyses for very low annual exceedance probabilities
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has investigated statistical methods for probabilistic flood hazard assessment to provide guidance on very low annual exceedance probability (AEP) estimation of peak-streamflow frequency and the quantification of corresponding uncertainties using...
Asquith, William H.; Kiang, Julie E.; Cohn, Timothy A.
Refining previous estimates of groundwater outflows from the Medina/Diversion Lake system, San Antonio area, Texas
IntroductionIn 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, began a study to refine previously derived estimates of groundwater outflows from Medina and Diversion Lakes in south-central Texas near San Antonio. When full, Medina and Diversion Lakes (hereinafter referred to as the Medina/Diversion Lake...
Slattery, Richard N.; Asquith, William H.; Gordon, John D. Long-term trends in reservoir water quality and quantity in two major river basins of the southern Great Plains
Trends in water quality and quantity were assessed for 11 major reservoirs of the Brazos and Colorado river basins in the southern Great Plains (maximum period of record, 1965–2010). Water quality, major contributing-stream inflow, storage, local precipitation, and basin-wide total water withdrawals were analyzed. Inflow and storage decreased and...
Dawson, D.; VanLandeghem, Matthew M.; Asquith, William H.; Patino, Reynaldo