Simulation of hydrologic conditions and suspended-sediment loads in the San Antonio River Basin downstream from San Antonio, Texas, 2000-12
J. Ryan Banta, Darwin J. Ockerman
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5182
Suspended sediment in rivers and streams can play an important role in ecological health of rivers and estuaries and consequently is an important issue for water-resource managers. To better understand suspended-sediment loads and transport in a watershed, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio River Authority, developed a...
Low-head hydropower assessment of the Brazilian State of São Paulo
Guleid A. Artan, W. Matthew Cushing, Melissa L. Mathis, Larry L. Tieszen
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1206
This study produced a comprehensive estimate of the magnitude of hydropower potential available in the streams that drain watersheds entirely within the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Because a large part of the contributing area is outside of São Paulo, the main stem of the Paraná River was excluded from...
An objective and parsimonious approach for classifying natural flow regimes at a continental scale
Stacey A. Archfield, Jonathan G. Kennen, Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 1166-1183
Hydro-ecological stream classification-the process of grouping streams by similar hydrologic responses and, by extension, similar aquatic habitat-has been widely accepted and is considered by some to be one of the first steps towards developing ecological flow targets. A new classification of 1543 streamgauges in the contiguous USA is presented by...
Understanding the hydrologic sources and sinks in the Nile Basin using multisource climate and remote sensing data sets
Gabriel B. Senay, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Stefanie Bohms, Yonas Demissie, Mekonnen Gebremichael
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 8625-8650
In this study, we integrated satellite-drived precipitation and modeled evapotranspiration data (2000–2012) to describe spatial variability of hydrologic sources and sinks in the Nile Basin. Over 2000–2012 period, 4 out of 11 countries (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) in the Nile Basin showed a positive water balance while three downstream...
Estimates of natural salinity and hydrology in a subtropical estuarine ecosystem: implications for Greater Everglades restoration
Frank E. Marshall, G. Lynn Wingard, Patrick A. Pitts
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 1449-1466
Disruption of the natural patterns of freshwater flow into estuarine ecosystems occurred in many locations around the world beginning in the twentieth century. To effectively restore these systems, establishing a pre-alteration perspective allows managers to develop science-based restoration targets for salinity and hydrology. This paper describes a process to develop...
Environmental stressors afflicting tailwater stream reaches across the United States
Leandro E. Miranda, R. M. Krogman
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 1184-1194
The tailwater is the reach of a stream immediately below an impoundment that is hydrologically, physicochemically and biologically altered by the presence and operation of a dam. The overall goal of this study was to gain a nationwide awareness of the issues afflicting tailwater reaches in the United States. Specific...
Effects of distributed and centralized stormwater best management practices and land cover on urban stream hydrology at the catchment scale
John V. Loperfido, Gregory B. Noe, S. Taylor Jarnagin, Dianna M. Hogan
2014, Journal of Hydrology (519) 2584-2595
Urban stormwater runoff remains an important issue that causes local and regional-scale water quantity and quality issues. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to mitigate runoff issues, traditionally in a centralized manner; however, problems associated with urban hydrology have remained. An emerging trend is implementation of BMPs...
Analysis of projected water availability with current basin management plan, Pajaro Valley, California
Randall T. Hanson, Brian Lockwood, Wolfgang Schmid
2014, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (519) 131-147
The projection and analysis of the Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model (PVHM) 34 years into the future using MODFLOW with the Farm Process (MF-FMP) facilitates assessment of potential future water availability. The projection is facilitated by the integrated hydrologic model, MF-FMP that fully couples the simulation of the use and movement...
A suggestion for computing objective function in model calibration
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu
2014, Ecological Informatics (24) 107-111
A parameter-optimization process (model calibration) is usually required for numerical model applications, which involves the use of an objective function to determine the model cost (model-data errors). The sum of square errors (SSR) has been widely adopted as the objective function in various optimization procedures. However, ‘square error’ calculation was...
Predicting East African spring droughts using Pacific and Indian Ocean sea surface temperature indices
Christopher C. Funk, Andrew Hoell, Shraddhanand Shukla, Ileana Blade, Brant Liebmann, Jason B. Roberts, Franklin R. Robertson
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (11) 3111-3136
In southern Ethiopia, Eastern Kenya, and southern Somalia poor boreal spring rains in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 contributed to severe food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition. Predicting rainfall deficits in this region on seasonal and decadal time frames can help decision makers support disaster risk...
A seasonal agricultural drought forecast system for food-insecure regions of East Africa
Shraddhanand Shukla, Amy McNally, Gregory Husak, Christopher C. Funk
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (11) 3049-3081
The increasing food and water demands of East Africa's growing population are stressing the region's inconsistent water resources and rain-fed agriculture. More accurate seasonal agricultural drought forecasts for this region can inform better water and agricultural management decisions, support optimal allocation of the region's water resources, and mitigate socio-economic losses...
Aquifers of Arkansas: protection, management, and hydrologic and geochemical characteristics of groundwater resources in Arkansas
Timothy M. Kresse, Phillip D. Hays, Katherine R. Merriman, Jonathan A. Gillip, D. Todd Fugitt, Jane L. Spellman, Anna M. Nottmeier, Drew A. Westerman, Joshua M. Blackstock, James L. Battreal
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5149
Sixteen aquifers in Arkansas that currently serve or have served as sources of water supply are described with respect to existing groundwater protection and management programs, geology, hydrologic characteristics, water use, water levels, deductive analysis, projections of hydrologic conditions, and water quality. State and Federal protection and management programs are...
Groundwater-flow and land-subsidence model of Antelope Valley, California
Adam J. Siade, Tracy Nishikawa, Diane L. Rewis, Peter Martin, Steven P. Phillips
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5166
Antelope Valley, California, is a topographically closed basin in the western part of the Mojave Desert, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The Antelope Valley groundwater basin is about 940 square miles and is separated from the northern part of Antelope Valley by faults and low-lying hills. Prior to...
Dual-domain mass-transfer parameters from electrical hysteresis: Theory and analytical approach applied to laboratory, synthetic streambed, and groundwater experiments
Martin A. Briggs, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, John B. Ong, Judson W. Harvey, John W. Lane Jr.
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 8281-8299
Models of dual‐domain mass transfer (DDMT) are used to explain anomalous aquifer transport behavior such as the slow release of contamination and solute tracer tailing. Traditional tracer experiments to characterize DDMT are performed at the flow path scale (meters), which inherently incorporates heterogeneous exchange processes; hence, estimated “effective” parameters are...
Measurements of HFC-134a and HCFC-22 in groundwater and unsaturated-zone air: implications for HFCs and HCFCs as dating tracers
Karl B. Haase, Eurybiades Busenberg, Niel Plummer, Gerolamo Casile, Ward E. Sanford
2014, Chemical Geology (385) 117-128
A new analytical method using gas chromatography with an atomic emission detector (GC–AED) was developed for measurement of ambient concentrations of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in soil, air, and groundwater, with the goal of determining their utility as groundwater age tracers. The analytical detection limits of HCFC-22 (difluorochloromethane, CHClF2)...
Hyporheic flow and transport processes: mechanisms, models, and biogeochemical implications
Fulvio Boano, Judson W. Harvey, Andrea Marion, Aaron I. Packman, Roberto Revelli, Luca Ridolfi, Worman Anders
2014, Reviews of Geophysics (52) 603-679
Fifty years of hyporheic zone research have shown the important role played by the hyporheic zone as an interface between groundwater and surface waters. However, it is only in the last two decades that what began as an empirical science has become a mechanistic science devoted to modeling studies of...
Scaling up watershed model parameters--Flow and load simulations of the Edisto River Basin
Toby D. Feaster, Stephen T. Benedict, Jimmy M. Clark, Paul M. Bradley, Paul Conrads
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2014 South Carolina Water Resources Conference
The Edisto River is the longest and largest river system completely contained in South Carolina and is one of the longest free flowing blackwater rivers in the United States. The Edisto River basin also has fish-tissue mercury concentrations that are some of the highest recorded in the United States. As...
High-resolution delineation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds in a dipping, fractured mudstone: depth- and strata-dependent spatial variability from rock-core sampling
Daniel J. Goode, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Pierre J. Lacombe
2014, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (171) 1-11
Synthesis of rock-core sampling and chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) analysis at five coreholes, with hydraulic and water-quality monitoring and a detailed hydrogeologic framework, was used to characterize the fine-scale distribution of CVOCs in dipping, fractured mudstones of the Lockatong Formation of Triassic age, of the Newark Basin in West...
Modelling landscape-scale erosion potential related to vehicle disturbances along the U.S.-Mexico border
Miguel L. Villarreal, Robert H. Webb, Laura M. Norman, Jennifer L. Psillas, Abigail S. Rosenberg, Shinji Carmichael, Roy E. Petrakis, Philip E. Sparks
2014, Land Degradation and Development (27) 1106-1121
Decades of intensive off-road vehicle use for border security, immigration, smuggling, recreation, and military training along the USA–Mexico border have prompted concerns about long-term human impacts on sensitive desert ecosystems. To help managers identify areas susceptible to soil erosion from anthropogenic activities, we developed a series of erosion potential models...
Sampling and monitoring for the mine life cycle
Virginia T. McLemore, Kathleen S. Smith, Carol C. Russell
2014, Book
Sampling and Monitoring for the Mine Life Cycle provides an overview of sampling for environmental purposes and monitoring of environmentally relevant variables at mining sites. It focuses on environmental sampling and monitoring of surface water, and also considers groundwater, process water streams, rock, soil, and other media including air and...
Documentation of a groundwater flow model (SJRRPGW) for the San Joaquin River Restoration Program study area, California
Jonathan A. Traum, Steven P. Phillips, George L. Bennett V, Celia Zamora, Loren F. Metzger
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5148
To better understand the potential effects of restoration flows on existing drainage problems, anticipated as a result of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), developed a groundwater flow model (SJRRPGW) of the SJRRP study area...
Hydrogeologic framework and occurrence, movement, and chemical characterization of groundwater in Dixie Valley, west-central Nevada
Jena M. Huntington, C. Amanda Garcia, Michael R. Rosen
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5152
Dixie Valley, a primarily undeveloped basin in west-central Nevada, is being considered for groundwater exportation. Proposed pumping would occur from the basin-fill aquifer. In response to proposed exportation, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation and Churchill County, conducted a study to improve the understanding of...
Development of a shared vision for groundwater management to protect and sustain baseflows of the Upper San Pedro River, Arizona, USA
Holly E. Richter, Bruce Gungle, Laurel J. Lacher, Dale S. Turner, Brooke M. Bushman
2014, Water (6) 2519-2538
Groundwater pumping along portions of the binational San Pedro River has depleted aquifer storage that supports baseflow in the San Pedro River. A consortium of 23 agencies, business interests, and non-governmental organizations pooled their collective resources to develop the scientific understanding and technical tools required to optimize the management of...
Developing and testing temperature models for regulated systems: a case study on the Upper Delaware River
Jeffrey C. Cole, Kelly O. Maloney, Matthias Schmid, James E. McKenna Jr.
2014, Journal of Hydrology (519) 588-598
Water temperature is an important driver of many processes in riverine ecosystems. If reservoirs are present, their releases can greatly influence downstream water temperatures. Models are important tools in understanding the influence these releases may have on the thermal regimes of downstream rivers. In this study, we developed and tested...
Bioaccumulation and toxicity of CuO nanoparticles by a freshwater invertebrate after waterborne and dietborne exposures
Marie Noele Croteau, Superb K. Misra, Samuel N. Luoma, Eugenia Valsami-Jones
2014, Environmental Science & Technology (48) 10929-10937
The incidental ingestion of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) can be an important route of uptake for aquatic organisms. Yet, knowledge of dietary bioavailability and toxicity of NPs is scarce. Here we used isotopically modified copper oxide (65CuO) NPs to characterize the processes governing their bioaccumulation in a freshwater snail after waterborne...
