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At least 505 records · Page 28Linked to original sources
USGS2014

Groundwater and surface-water resources in the Bureau of Land Management Moab Master Leasing Plan area and adjacent areas, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah, and Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colorado

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Canyon Country District Office is preparing a leasing plan known as the Moab Master Leasing Plan (Moab MLP) for oil, gas, and potash mineral rights in an area encompassing 946,469 acres in southeastern Utah. The BLM has identified water resources as being potentially affected by oil, gas, and potash development and has requested that the U.S. Geological Survey prepare a summary of existing water-resources information for the Moab MLP area. This report includes a summary and synthesis of previous and ongoing investigations conducted in the Moab MLP and adjacent areas in Utah and Colorado from the early 1930s through the late 2000s. Eight principal aquifers and six confining units were identified within the study area. Permeability is a function of both the primary permeability from interstitial pore connectivity and secondary permeability created by karst features or faults and fractures. Vertical hydraulic connection generally is restricted to strongly folded and fractured zones, which are concentrated along steeply dipping monoclines and in narrow regions encompassing igneous and salt intrusive masses. Several studies have identified both an upper and lower aquifer system separated by the Pennsylvanian age Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation evaporite, which is considered a confining unit and is present throughout large parts of the study area. Surface-water resources of the study area are dominated by the Colorado River. Several perennial and ephemeral or intermittent tributaries join the Colorado River as it flows from northeast to southwest across the study area. An annual spring snowmelt and runoff event dominates the hydrology of streams draining mountainous parts of the study area, and most perennial streams in the study area are snowmelt-dominated. A bimodal distribution is observed in hydrographs from some sites with a late-spring snowmelt-runoff peak followed by smaller peaks of shorter duration during the late summer. The large regional streams (Colorado, Green, and Dolores Rivers) integrate the regional hydrologic partitioning of a very large contributing area and, therefore, the hydrographs for these streams are much more smooth and consistent. Several streams throughout the study area are considered impaired and do not meet the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for specific designated-use classifications. Limited data are available to quantitatively estimate the large-scale regional groundwater budget for the study area. Previous studies have estimated groundwater budgets for areas in and adjacent to the current study area, namely Moab-Spanish Valley and parts of the Paradox Basin. Most groundwater recharge to the study area originates as infiltration of precipitation from upland areas and is further enhanced in areas covered with sandy soils or in areas where the bedrock is highly fractured. Additional groundwater recharge occurs as seepage from streams and irrigation water, and as subsurface inflow, both vertically between aquifers and as lateral movement into the study area. Groundwater discharge occurs as seepage to streams, evapotranspiration, to springs and seeps, well withdrawals; and as subsurface outflow, both vertically between aquifers and as lateral movement out of the study area across its defined boundaries. Groundwater use in the study area was determined using data from the Utah Division of Water Rights. Most wells in the study area are categorized as having multiple uses. Mean specific-conductance values for groundwater from wells and springs in the study area range from 101 to 220,000 microsiemens per centimeter at 25° C (μS/cm); most of the wells or springs have mean specific-conductance values of less than or equal to 1,000 μS/cm. Previously reported total dissolved-solids concentrations, specific conductances, and other groundwater-quality data for each of the principal aquifers indicate relative freshwater throughout the study area, except within the lower aquifer system and areas in contact with the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation evaporites. There is limited information on the resource availability of brines and saline groundwater in the study area. Total dissolved-solids concentrations typically are high (greater than 35,000 milligrams per liter) in groundwater from, or in contact with, the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation. Total dissolved-solids concentrations also are high in groundwater samples collected from the lower aquifer system. Because the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation is considered a barrier to vertical groundwater flow, most of the brine and saline groundwater resources are restricted to the lower aquifer system.

Colorado, Utah↗
USGS2003

Development and testing of method for assessing and mapping agricultural areas susceptible to atrazine leaching in the state of Washington

In a joint effort by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency's Pesticide Root Zone Model and a Geographic Information System were used to develop and test a method for screening and mapping the susceptibility of ground water in agricultural areas to pesticide contamination. The objective was to produce a map that would be used by the Washington State Department of Agriculture to allocate resources for monitoring pesticide levels in ground water. The method was tested by producing a map showing susceptibility to leaching of the pesticide atrazine for the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, which encompasses an area of intensive agriculture in eastern Washington. The reliability of the atrazine map was assessed by using statistical procedures to determine whether the median of the percentage of atrazine simulated to leach below the root zone in wells where atrazine was detected was statistically greater than the median percentage at wells where atrazine was not detected (at or above 0.001 microgram per liter) in 134 wells sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey. A statistical difference in medians was not found when all 134 wells were compared. However, a statistical difference was found in medians for two subsets of the 134 wells that were used in land-use studies (studies examining the quality of ground water beneath specific crops). The statistical results from wells from the land-use studies indicate that the model potentially can be used to map the relative susceptibility of agricultural areas to atrazine leaching. However, the distinction between areas of high and low susceptibility may not yet be sufficient to use the method for allocating resources to monitor water quality. Several options are offered for improving the reliability of future simulations.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS2010

Southeast Regional Assessment Project for the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey

The Southeastern United States spans a broad range of physiographic settings and maintains exceptionally high levels of faunal diversity. Unfortunately, many of these ecosystems are increasingly under threat due to rapid human development, and management agencies are increasingly aware of the potential effects that climate change will have on these ecosystems. Natural resource managers and conservation planners can be effective at preserving ecosystems in the face of these stressors only if they can adapt current conservation efforts to increase the overall resilience of the system. Climate change, in particular, challenges many of the basic assumptions used by conservation planners and managers. Previous conservation planning efforts identified and prioritized areas for conservation based on the current environmental conditions, such as habitat quality, and assumed that conditions in conservation lands would be largely controlled by management actions (including no action). Climate change, however, will likely alter important system drivers (temperature, precipitation, and sea-level rise) and make it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain recent historic conditions in conservation lands into the future. Climate change will also influence the future conservation potential of non-conservation lands, further complicating conservation planning. Therefore, there is a need to develop and adapt effective conservation strategies to cope with the effects of climate and landscape change on future environmental conditions. Congress recognized this important issue and authorized the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC; http://nccw.usgs.gov/) in the Fiscal Year 2008. The NCCWSC will produce science that will help resource management agencies anticipate and adapt to climate change impacts to fish, wildlife, and their habitats. With the release of Secretarial Order 3289 on September 14, 2009, the mandate of the NCCWSC was expanded to address climate change-related impacts on all Department of the Interior (DOI) resources. The NCCWSC will establish a network of eight DOI Regional Climate Science Centers (RCSCs) that will work with a variety of partners to provide natural resource managers with tools and information that will help them anticipate and adapt conservation planning and design for projected climate change. The forecasting products produced by the RCSCs will aid fish, wildlife, and land managers in designing suitable adaptive management approaches for their programs. The DOI also is developing Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) as science and conservation action partnerships at subregional scales. The USGS is working with the Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to develop science collaboration between the future Southeast RCSC and future LCCs. The NCCWSC Southeast Regional Assessment Project (SERAP) will begin to develop regional downscaled climate models, land cover change models, regional ecological models, regional watershed models, and other science tools. Models and data produced by SERAP will be used in a collaborative process between the USGS, the FWS (LCCs), State and federal partners, nongovernmental organizations, and academia to produce science at appropriate scales to answer resource management questions. The SERAP will produce an assessment of climate change, and impacts on land cover, ecosystems, and priority species in the region. The predictive tools developed by the SERAP project team will allow end users to better understand potential impacts of climate change and sea level rise on terrestrial and aquatic populations in the Southeastern United States. The SERAP capitalizes on the integration of five existing projects: (1) the Multi-State Conservation Grants Program project "Designing Sustainable Landscapes," (2) the USGS multidisciplinary Science Thrust project "Water Availability for Ecological Needs," (3) the USGS Southeast Pilot Project "Climate Change in the Southeastern U.S. and its Impacts on Bird Distributions and Habitats," (4) a sea-level rise impacts study envisioned jointly with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and (5) two USGS sea-level rise impact assessment projects that address inundation hazards and provide probabilistic forecasts of coastal geomorphic change. The SERAP will expand on these existing projects and include the following tasks, which were initiated in summer 2009: * Regionally downscaled probabilistic climate-change projections * Integrated coastal assessment * Integrated terrestrial assessment * Multi-resolution assessment of potential climate change effects on biological resources: aquatic and hydrologic dynamics * Optimal conservation strategies to cope with climate change The SERAP seeks to formally integrate these tasks to aid conservation planning and design so that ecosystem management decisions can be optimized for providing desirable outcomes across a range of species and environments. The following chapters detail SERAP's efforts in providing a suite of regional climate, watershed, and landscape-change analyses and develop the interdisciplinary framework required for the biological planning phases of adaptive management and strategic conservation. The planning phase will include the identification of conservation alternatives, development of predictive models and decision support tools, and development of a template to address similar challenges and goals in other regions. The project teams will explore and develop ways to link the various ecological models arising from each component. The SERAP project team also will work closely with members of the LCCs and other partnerships throughout the life of the project to ensure that the objectives of the project meet resources mangers needs in the Southeast.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2019

Drought-mediated extinction of an arid-land amphibian: Insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model

Understanding how natural and anthropogenic processes affect population dynamics of species with patchy distributions is critical to predicting their responses to environmental changes. Despite considerable evidence that demographic rates and dispersal patterns vary temporally in response to an array of biotic and abiotic processes, few applications of metapopulation theory have sought to explore factors that explain spatio-temporal variation in extinction or colonization rates. To facilitate exploring these factors, we extended a spatially explicit model of metapopulation dynamics to create a framework that requires only binary presence-absence data, makes few assumptions about the dispersal process, and accounts for imperfect detection. We apply this framework to 22 years of biannual survey data for lowland leopard frogs, Lithobates yavapaiensis, an amphibian that inhabits arid stream systems in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for factors that govern temporal variation in transition probabilities, as both extinction and colonization rates varied with hydrologic conditions. Specifically, local extinctions were more frequent during drought periods, particularly at sites without reliable surface water. Colonization rates increased when larval and dispersal periods were wetter than normal, which increased the probability that potential emigrants metamorphosed and reached neighboring sites. Extirpation of frogs from one watershed during a period of severe drought demonstrated the influence of site-level features, as frogs persisted only in areas where most sites held water consistently and where the amount of sediment deposited from high-elevation wildfires was low. Application of our model provided novel insights into how climate-related processes affected the distribution and population dynamics of an arid-land amphibian. The approach we describe has application to a wide array of species that inhabit patchy environments, can improve our understanding of factors that govern metapopulation dynamics, and can inform strategies for conservation of imperiled species.

Arizona↗
USGS2020

Assessment of existing groundwater quality data in the Green-Duwamish watershed, Washington

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provided technical support to the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) in their assessment of the role groundwater plays in contributing pollutant loading to the Green-Duwamish River near Seattle, Washington. Ecology is developing watershed hydrology models of the Green-Duwamish watershed, and need to assign realistic contaminant concentrations to the various Hydrologic Response Units represented in their models. The USGS compiled existing groundwater quality data in the Green-Duwamish watershed, and this report summarizes results and interpretation of the dataset, including identifying data gaps and needs for further research and monitoring. The sources of existing data were the USGS’s National Water Information System, Ecology’s Environmental Information Management System, and a compilation of several studies by Leidos, a scientific research company. The water-quality parameters of interest included polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Aroclors and congeners, phthalates, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs), arsenic, copper, and zinc. Results were grouped into the four subwatersheds delineated in Ecology’s hydrology models: Duwamish, Lower Green, Soos, and Upper Green. Results from the Duwamish subwatershed were further sub-divided by the USGS into the Lower Duwamish, containing land adjacent to the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site, and the Upper Duwamish, containing the remaining area of the Duwamish subwatershed. Groundwater quality data in the Lower Duwamish were treated separately because there is known contamination in this area. The availability of water quality data varied by subwatershed as follows: phthalate data was only available within the Duwamish, PCB data was available within the Duwamish and Lower Green, cPAH data was available within the Duwamish, Lower Green, and Soos, and data for arsenic, copper, and zinc were available within all four subwatersheds. More than 99 percent of the available data was within the Duwamish subwatershed, identifying a need for additional monitoring of groundwater quality in the other subwatersheds.

Washington↗
USGS2004

The National Assessment of Shoreline Change: A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

Introduction The Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey has generated a comprehensive database of digital vector shorelines and shoreline change rates for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. These data, which are presented herein, were compiled as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project. Beach erosion is a chronic problem along most open-ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to grow and community infrastructures are threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information including rates and trends of shoreline migration. There is also a critical need for shoreline change data that is consistent from one coastal region to another. One purpose of this work is to develop standard repeatable methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that periodic updates regarding coastal erosion and land loss can be made nationally that are systematic and internally consistent. This data compilation for open-ocean, sandy shorelines of the Gulf of Mexico is the first in a series that will eventually include the Atlantic Coast, Pacific Coast, and parts of Hawaii and Alaska. Short- and long-term shoreline change evaluations are based on merging three historical shorelines with a modern shoreline derived from lidar (light detection and ranging) topographic surveys. Historical shorelines generally represent the following time periods: 1800s, 1920s-1930s, and 1970s. The most recent shoreline is derived from data collected over the period of 1998-2002. Long-term rates of change are calculated by linear regression using all four shorelines. Short-term rates of change are simple end-point rate calculations using the two most recent shorelines. Please refer to our full report on shoreline change in the Gulf of Mexico, National Assessment of Shoreline Change: Part 1, Historical Shoreline Changes and Associated Coastal Land Loss Along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (USGS Open File Report 2004-1043) for additional information regarding methods and results. Data in this report are organized into data layers by state and are provided as single-point vector datasets with metadata. Vector shorelines may represent a compilation of data from one or more sources and these sources are attributed in the dataset. All data are intended to be GIS-ready inasmuch as the data should not require any additional cleanup, formatting, or renaming of fields in order to use the data in a Geographic Information System (GIS). This project employs the Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcView as its GIS mapping tool and contains several data layers (or themes) that are used to create a geographic view of the margin off the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. These vector data form a basemap comprised of polygon and line themes that include a U.S. coastline (1:80,000), U.S. cities, and state boundaries.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2008

Flood of June 7-9, 2008, in Central and Southern Indiana

On June 6-7, 2008, heavy rainfall of 2 to more than 10 inches fell upon saturated soils and added to already high streamflows from a wetter than normal spring in central and southern Indiana. The heavy rainfall resulted in severe flooding on many streams within the White River Basin during June 7-9, causing three deaths, evacuation of thousands of residents, and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to residences, businesses, infrastructure, and agricultural lands. In all, 39 Indiana counties were declared Federal disaster areas. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages at nine locations recorded new record peak streamflows for the respective periods of record as a result of the heavy rainfall. Recurrence intervals of flood-peak streamflows were estimated to be greater than 100 years at five streamgages and 50-100 years at two streamgages. Peak-gage-height data, peak-streamflow data, and recurrence intervals are tabulated for 19 USGS streamgages in central and southern Indiana. Peak-streamflow estimates are tabulated for four ungaged locations, and estimated recurrence intervals are tabulated for three ungaged locations. The estimated recurrence interval for an ungaged location on Haw Creek in Columbus was greater than 100 years and for an ungaged location on Hurricane Creek in Franklin was 50-100 years. Because flooding was particularly severe in the communities of Columbus, Edinburgh, Franklin, Paragon, Seymour, Spencer, Martinsville, Newberry, and Worthington, high-water-mark data collected after the flood were tabulated for those communities. Flood peak inundation maps and water-surface profiles for selected streams were made in a geographic information system by combining the high-water-mark data with the highest-resolution digital elevation model data available.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1995

Water-quality assessment of the Kentucky River Basin, Kentucky: Distribution of metals and other trace elements in sediment and water, 1987-90

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is designed to provide a nationally consistent description of the current status of water quality, to define water-quality trends, and to relate past and present water-quality conditions to natural features, uses of land and water, and other water-quality effects from human activities. The Kentucky River Basin is one of four NAWQA pilot projects that focused primarily on the quality of surface water. Water, sediment, and bedrock samples were collected in the Kentucky River Basin during 1987-90 for the purpose of (1) describing the spatial distribution, transport, and temporal variability of metals and other trace elements in streams of the basin; (2) estimating mean annual loads, yields, and trends of constituent concentrations and identifying potential causes (or sources) of spatial patterns; (3) providing baseline information for concentrations of metals in streambed and suspended sediments; (4) identifying stream reaches in the Kentucky River Basin with chronic water-quality problems; and (5) evaluating the merits of the NAWQA pilot study-approach for the assessment of metals and other trace elements in a river system. The spatial distribution of metals and other trace elements in streambed sediments of the Kentucky River Basin is associated with regional differences of geology, land use and cover, and the results of human activities. Median concentrations of constituents differed significantly among physiographic regions of the basin because of relations to bedrock geochemistry and land disturbance. Concentrations of potentially toxic metals were large in urban and industrial areas of the basin. Elevated concentrations of certain metals were also found in streambed sediments of the Knobs Region because of the presence of Devonian shale bedrock. Elevated concentrations of lead and zinc found in streambed sediments of the Bluegrass Region are likely associated with urban stormwater runoff, point-source discharges, and waste-management practices. Concentrations of cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, and silver were elevated in streambed sediments downstream from wastewater-treatment plant discharges. Streambed-sediment concentrations of barium, chromium, and lithium were elevated in streams that receive brine discharges from oil production. Elevated concentrations of antimony, arsenic, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, uranium, and vanadium in streambed sediments of the Kentucky River Basin were generally associated with natural sources. Concentrations of metals and other trace elements in water samples from fixed stations (stations where water-quality samples were collected for 3.5 years) in the Kentucky River Basin were generally related to stream discharge and the concentration of suspended sediment, whereas constituent concentrations in the suspended-sediment matrix were indicative of natural and human sources. Estimated mean annual loads and yields for most metals and other trace elements were associated with the transport of suspended sediment. Land disturbance, such as surface mining and agriculture, contribute to increased transport of sediment in streams, thereby increasing concentrations of metals in water samples during periods of intense or prolonged rainfall and increased stream discharge. Concentrations of many metals and trace elements were reduced during low streamflow. Although total-recoverable and dissolved concentrations of certain metals and trace elements were large in streams affected by land disturbance, concentrations of constituents in the suspendedsediment matrix were commonly large in streams in the Knobs and Eastern Coal Field Regions (because of relations with bedrock geochemistry) and in streams that receive wastewater or oil-well-brine discharges. Concentrations and mean annual load estimates for aluminum, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, and mercury were larger than those obtained from data collected by a State agency, probably because of differences in sample-collection methodology, the range of discharge associated with water-quality samples, and laboratory analytical procedures. However, concentrations, loads, and yields of arsenic, barium, and zinc were similar to those determined from the State data. Significant upward trends in the concentrations of aluminum, iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc were indicated at one or more fixed stations in the Kentucky River Basin during the past 10 to 15 years. Upward trends for concentrations of aluminum, iron, and manganese were found at sites that receive drainage from coal mines in the upper Kentucky River Basin, whereas upward trends for zinc may be associated with urban sources. Water-quality criteria established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) or the State of Kentucky for concentrations of aluminum, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, silver, and zinc were exceeded at one or more fixed stations in the Kentucky River Basin. On a qualitative basis, dissolved concentrations of certain metals and trace elements were large during low streamflow at sites where (1) concentrations of these constituents in underlying streambed sediments were large, or (2) dissolvedoxygen concentrations were small. Concentrations of barium, lithium, and strontium were large during low streamflow, which indicates the influence of ground-water baseflows on the quality of surface water during low flow. The effects of point-source discharges, landfills, and other wastemanagement practices are somewhat localized in the Kentucky River Basin and are best indicated by the spatial distribution of metals and other trace elements in streambed sediments and in the suspended-sediment fraction of water samples at stream locations near the source. It was not possible to quantify the contribution of point sources to the total transport of metals and other trace elements at fixed stations because data were not available for wastewater effluents. Quantification of baseline concentrations of metals and other trace elements in streambed sediments provides a basis for the detection of water-quality changes that may result from improvements in wastewater treatment or the implementation of best-management practices for controlling contamination from nonpoint sources in the Kentucky River Basin.

Kentucky↗
USGS2021

U.S. Geological Survey landscape science strategy 2020–2030

Across our Nation, multiple Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments are working with stakeholders and landowners to restore, conserve, and manage lands and resources to benefit fish, wildlife, and people. One of the largest Federal efforts is led by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), with multiple DOI agencies working to conserve and manage public lands, resources, and cultural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations. As a science provider within the DOI, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has an important role in developing actionable science products that can inform decision making on public lands and across all of our Nation’s landscapes. Our landscapes and resources are undergoing continual change from a complex and interacting suite of stressors that include traditional and nontraditional land uses, a changing climate, a dynamic economy, and a culturally diverse and ever-changing society. Landscape science seeks to understand how the physical, biological, and social components of ecosystems and landscapes interact with each other and are affected by these stressors across local to global scales. The USGS has developed this landscape science strategy to focus and strengthen the agency’s efforts to inform critical conservation, restoration, and management decisions for American landscapes. The strategy directly supports the overarching 21st-century science strategy of the USGS and expands our perspective and focus on partnerships, including with internal, external, traditional, and nontraditional partners. The vision for USGS landscape science is to integrate multiple disciplines and approaches to create and deliver relevant, timely, and scientifically sound products that enable our partners to make informed decisions about how to manage complex interacting natural and human systems across changing American landscapes. This strategy seeks to leverage the expertise, data, analytical capacity, and tools of the agency and to strengthen integration of science efforts across programs and scales. A cornerstone of the strategy is working closely with landowners and resource managers to identify the science that is needed to inform management actions, and then working collaboratively with those same partners to coproduce science and data products that are timely, practical, and useful for their decision making. Many individual efforts within the USGS already embrace landscape science ideas and practices. With the development of this strategy, we are seeking to build on these efforts and to focus agency attention and expertise on expanding, connecting, and institutionalizing core practices and approaches for landscape science that produces actionable science products and tools that decision makers can use to help conserve and manage American landscapes.

Circular↗
USGS2018

A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database: Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released four National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. To continue the legacy of NLCD and further establish a long-term monitoring capability for the Nation’s land resources, the USGS has designed a new generation of NLCD products named NLCD 2016. The NLCD 2016 design aims to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land cover and land cover change database from 2001 to 2016 at 2–3-year intervals. Comprehensive research was conducted and resulted in developed strategies for NLCD 2016: a streamlined process for assembling and preprocessing Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a multi-source integrated training data development and decision-tree based land cover classifications; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a hierarchical theme-based post-classification and integration protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and an automated scripted operational system for the NLCD 2016 production. The performance of the developed strategies and methods were tested in twenty World Reference System-2 path/row throughout the conterminous U.S. An overall agreement ranging from 71% to 97% between land cover classification and reference data was achieved for all tested area and all years. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2016 operational mapping.

Conterminous United States↗
USGS2004

Monitoring Colonias Development along the United States-Mexico Border: A Process Application using GIS and Remote Sensing in Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have developed a joint project to create Internet-enabled geographic information systems (GIS) that will help cities along the United States-Mexico border deal with issues related to colonias. HUD defines colonias as rural neighborhoods in the United States-Mexico border region that lack adequate infrastructure or housing and other basic services. They typically have high poverty rates that make it difficult for residents to pay for roads, sanitary water and sewer systems, decent housing, street lighting, and other services through assessment. Many Federal agencies recognize colonias designations and provide funding assistance. It is the intention of this project to empower Arizona-Sonora borderland neighborhoods and community members by recognizing them as colonias. This recognition will result in eligibility for available economic subsidies and accessibility to geospatial tools and information for urban planning. The steps to achieve this goal include delineation of colonia-like neighborhoods, identification of their urbanization over time, development of geospatial databases describing their infrastructure, and establishment of a framework for distributing Web-based GIS decision support systems. A combination of imagery and infrastructure information was used to help delineate colonia boundaries. A land-use change analysis, focused on urbanization in the cities over a 30-year timeframe, was implemented. The results of this project are being served over the Internet, providing data to the public as well as to participating agencies. One of the initial study areas for this project was the City of Douglas, Ariz., and its Mexican sister-city Agua Prieta, Sonora, which are described herein. Because of its location on the border, this twin-cities area is especially well suited to international manufacturing and commerce, which has, in turn, led to an uncontrolled spread of colonias. The USGS worked with local organizations in developing the Web-based GIS database. Community involvement ensured that the database and map server would meet the current and long-term needs of the communities and end users. Partners include Federal agencies, State agencies, county officials, town representatives, universities, and youth organizations, as well as interested local advocacy groups and individuals. A significant component of this project was development of relationships and partnerships in the border towns for facilitating binational approaches to land management.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2021

Hydrogeology and simulation of groundwater flow in Columbia County, Wisconsin

This report describes the regional hydrogeology and groundwater resources of Columbia County, Wisconsin, and documents a regional groundwater flow model developed for the county. Regional hydrostratigraphic units include the unlithified aquifer, the upper bedrock aquifer, and the Elk Mound aquifer. The unlithified aquifer consists of deposits that range in composition from sand and gravel outwash and stream deposits to silty, sandy till. This aquifer is less than 25 ft thick in much of eastern Columbia County, but consists of permeable sand and gravel extending to over 250 ft in depth in the Wisconsin River valley bottom. The upper bedrock aquifer consists of Ordovician and upper Cambrian sedimentary formations, including sandstone, siltstone and dolomitic strata. The upper bedrock aquifer underlies the unlithified aquifer in eastern portions of the County, but is absent to the west, where these formations are largely eroded. The contact between the Tunnel City Group and Wonewoc Formation (Top of Elk Mound Group) forms the base of the upper bedrock aquifer. Bedding plane fractures are common to this aquifer, although only a portion of the observed fractures appear to be hydraulically active. The upper bedrock aquifer is a significant source of groundwater at a regional scale. Measurements of hydraulic head showed a difference of several feet across the bottom of this aquifer to the underlying Wonewoc sandstone, indicating that the basal facies of the Tunnel City Group functions as an aquitard separating the upper bedrock aquifer from the Elk Mound aquifer. Conditions vary considerably within this aquifer, depending on the local lithostratigraphy. For example, where present, the St. Lawrence Fm. and fine-grained intervals of the Tunnel City Group may be locally-extensive aquitards. The Elk Mound aquifer consists of Cambrian sandstone of the Wonewoc, Eau Claire, and Mount Simon Formations. It is thin to absent in several locations but ranges up to 600 ft in thickness over much of southern Columbia County. The variation in thickness is due in large part to the irregular topography of the underlying Precambrian crystalline rock, which generally serves as the base of the groundwater system. In neighboring counties, a fine-grained facies within the Eau Claire Fm. acts as a regionally extensive aquitard, referred to as the Eau Claire aquitard. Much of the data collected and compiled for this study suggest that shale or dolomite within the Eau Claire Fm., which is the equivalent of the Eau Claire aquitard, occurs only within southwestern Columbia County. There is little to no evidence of the Eau Claire aquitard over most of the county. Where the dolomite and shale are absent, the Elk Mound aquifer is relatively homogenous and does not include a mappable aquitard. A three-dimensional steady-state flow model presented here represents long-term, average conditions in the regional groundwater system since about 1970. The model was constructed with the U.S. Geological Survey’s MODFLOW-NWT code; it has six layers with a uniform grid of 300 ft x 300 ft cells. Layers 1 and 2 simulate the unlithified aquifer and layer 3 represents the upper bedrock aquifer. The Elk Mound aquifer is simulated by layers 4, 5 and 6, representing the Wonewoc, Eau Claire, and Mount Simon Formations, respectively. The model extends beyond the boundaries of Columbia County to ensure that hydrologic conditions simulated within the County are consistent with regional conditions. Recharge to the groundwater flow model is based on results from a GIS-based soil-water-balance model. Recharge was simulated with the unsaturated zone flow (UZF) package in MODFLOW. This approach is particularly useful for quantifying groundwater discharge to riparian wetlands because UZF tracks recharge that would lead to the simulated water table exceeding the land surface (represented by the top of model layer 1) and reroutes it to nearby stream segments. The model includes pumping from 256 wells, and 178 of these are located within Columbia County. Pumping totaled about 28 million gallons per day (mgd) on average since 1970, with 7.2 mgd of the withdrawal from within the County. Model calibration was performed with the PEST parameter estimation code. Calibration targets included approximately 3,900 head measurements and 91 stream flow measurements. Four vertical-head differences across hydrogeologic units, calculated from data collected during packer testing in wells in Columbia County, were also used in model calibration. Results from the calibrated model provide a groundwater balance for the region. About 83 percent of groundwater originates as recharge to the water table, 12 percent comes from leakage from streams, and about 5 percent of the groundwater flows into the model domain from surrounding areas. About 95 percent of the simulated groundwater discharges to steams and other surface water features, about 3 percent flows across model boundaries to surrounding areas of the groundwater system, and pumping accounts for 2 percent of discharge. Simulated flow paths are relatively local, from recharge in upland areas to discharge in nearby streams and wetlands. The model has many potential applications, including simulation of the effects of existing or proposed high-capacity wells, estimating the zone of contribution for these wells, and understanding relationships between surface water and groundwater. Future refinements to the model, such as incorporating new information about the extent and hydraulic characteristics of the Tunnel City Group, will improve its utility in understanding advective flow between the upper bedrock and Elk Mound aquifers. If seasonal or annual variations in the groundwater system are of interest, this steady-state model could be brought into a transient mode.

Wisconsin↗
USGS2012

Bioclimatic predictors for supporting ecological applications in the conterminous United States

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed climate indices, referred to as bioclimatic predictors, which highlight climate conditions best related to species physiology. A set of 20 bioclimatic predictors were developed as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) continuous raster surfaces for each year between 1895 and 2009. The Parameter-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) and down-scaled PRISM data, which included both averaged multi-year and averaged monthly climate summaries, was used to develop these multi-scale bioclimatic predictors. Bioclimatic predictors capture information about annual conditions (annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, annual range in temperature and precipitation), as well as seasonal mean climate conditions and intra-year seasonality (temperature of the coldest and warmest months, precipitation of the wettest and driest quarters). Examining climate over time is useful when quantifying the effects of climate changes on species' distributions for past, current, and forecasted scenarios. These data, which have not been readily available to scientists, can provide biologists and ecologists with relevant and multi-scaled climate data to augment research on the responses of species to changing climate conditions. The relationships established between species demographics and distributions with bioclimatic predictors can inform land managers of climatic effects on species during decisionmaking processes.

Data Series↗
USGS2011

Geodatabase of Wyoming statewide oil and gas drilling activity to 2010

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) compiled a geographic information system (GIS) of Wyoming statewide historical oil and gas drilling activity for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). The WLCI is representative of the partnerships being formed by the USGS with other Department of the Interior bureaus, State and local agencies, industry, academia, and private landowners that are committed to maintaining healthy landscapes, sustaining wildlife, and preserving recreational and grazing uses as energy resources development progresses in southwestern Wyoming. This product complements the 2009 USGS publication on oil and gas development in southwestern Wyoming http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/437/) by approximating, based on database attributes, the time frame of drilling activity for each well (start and stop dates). This GIS product also adds current oil and gas drilling activity not only in the area encompassing the WLCI, but also statewide. Oil and gas data, documentation, and spatial data processing capabilities are available and can be downloaded from the USGS website. These data originated from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC), represent decades of oil and gas drilling (1900 to 2010), and will facilitate a landscape-level approach to integrated science-based assessments, resource management and land-use decision making.

Wyoming↗
USGS2021

Using microbial source tracking to identify fecal contamination sources in an embayment in Hempstead Harbor on Long Island, New York

The U.S. Geological Survey worked collaboratively with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the potential sources of fecal contamination entering Hempstead Harbor, an embayment on the northern shore of Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Water samples are routinely collected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the harbor and analyzed for fecal coliform bacteria, an indicator of fecal contamination, to determine the need for closure of shellfish beds for harvest and consumption. Fecal coliform and other bacteria are an indicator of the potential presence of pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria. However, indicator bacteria alone cannot determine the biological or geographical sources of contamination; therefore, microbial source tracking was implemented to determine various biological sources of contamination. In addition, information such as the location, weather and season, surrounding land use, and additional water-quality data (including nutrient and stable isotopes of nitrate analyses) for the location where a sample was collected help determine the geographical source and conveyance of land-based water to the embayment. Our analysis revealed an abundance of human and canine fecal contamination throughout the Hempstead Harbor landscape and that water from municipal separate storm sewer system conveyances was the most likely transport mechanism of this fecal contamination. Resuspension of bed sediment may contribute to fecal contamination in the harbor, but more targeted analyses are needed to support this finding. There was little evidence of groundwater-contributing fecal bacteria by direct discharge from the subsurface. A classification scheme was developed to convey the degree of fecal contamination to stakeholders and resource managers. Based on this classification scheme, the culvert at Glenwood Road and the outfall and the spillway at Skillman Street were identified as locations that contribute substantial fecal contamination to Hempstead Harbor.

New York↗
USGS2024

System characterization report on Vision-1

Executive Summary This report addresses system characterization of the Airbus Vision-1 satellite and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for characterization; present technical and operational information about the specific sensing system being evaluated; and provide a summary of test measurements, data retention practices, data analysis results, and conclusions. Vision-1 is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite launched in September 2018 as a collaborative effort between Airbus and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. It features a Newtonian telescope with a refractive relay, capturing images in panchromatic and multispectral bands. Operating in a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 583 kilometers, Vision-1 ensures consistent illumination conditions during image acquisition. It has a revisit time of 1 to 8 days depending on latitude and viewing angle, and it features an off-pointing agility of plus or minus 45 degrees, allowing for multiple target captures in a single pass using spot, strip, and mosaic imaging modes. The panchromatic band offers a resolution of 0.87 meter (m), whereas the multispectral bands (blue, green, red, and near infrared) provide a resolution of 3.48 m. These capabilities support a variety of applications including urban planning, agricultural monitoring, land classification, natural resource management, and disaster response. More information on the Vision-1 satellite and sensors is available in the “2022 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote Sensing Satellite Compendium.” The Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence system characterization team completed data analyses to characterize the geometric (interior and exterior), radiometric, and spatial performances. Results of these analyses indicate that the Vision-1 satellite has an interior geometric performance in the range of 0 to 0.02 m in easting and −0.01 to 0.03 m in northing in band-to-band registration, an exterior geometric performance of 1.7 to 2.2 m in easting and −1.1 to −0.7 m in northing offset with a 90-percent circular error of 3.4 to 3.7 m, a radiometric performance in the range of −0.029 to 0.017 in offset and 0.884 to 0.984 in slope, and a spatial performance in the range of 0.992 to 1.092 pixels for multispectral full width at half maximum and 1.895 pixels for the panchromatic band full width at half maximum, with a modulation transfer function at a Nyquist frequency in the range of 0.29 to 0.36 for the multispectral bands and 0.05 for the panchromatic band.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2012

Data resources for range-wide assessment of livestock grazing across the sagebrush biome

The data contained in this series were compiled, modified, and analyzed for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report "Range-Wide Assessment of Livestock Grazing Across the Sagebrush Biome." This report can be accessed through the USGS Publications Warehouse (online linkage: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1263/). The dataset contains spatial and tabular data related to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Grazing Allotments. We reviewed the BLM national grazing allotment spatial dataset available from the GeoCommunicator National Integrated Land System (NILS) website in 2007 (http://www.geocommunicator.gov). We identified several limitations in those data and learned that some BLM State and/or field offices had updated their spatial data to rectify these limitations, but maintained the data outside of NILS. We contacted appropriate BLM offices (State or field, 25 in all) to obtain the most recent data, assessed the data, established a data development protocol, and compiled data into a topologically enforced dataset throughout the area of interest for this project (that is, the pre-settlement distribution of Greater Sage-Grouse in the Western United States). The final database includes three spatial datasets: Allotments (BLM Grazing Allotments), OUT_Polygons (nonallotment polygons used to ensure topology), and Duplicate_Polygon_Allotments. See Appendix 1 of the aforementioned report for complete methods. The tabular data presented here consists of information synthesized by the Land Health Standard (LHS) analysis (Appendix 2), and data obtained from the BLM Rangeland Administration System (http://www.blm.gov/ras/). In 2008, available LHS data for all allotments in all regions were compiled by BLM in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by a private organization. The BLM provided us with a copy of these data. These data provided three major types of information that were of interest: (1) date(s) (if any) of the most recent LHS evaluation for each allotment; (2) whether if evaluated, each region-specific standard (3–8 LHS depending on region) had been met on a given allotment; and (3) whether livestock contributed to any of these standards not being met. A description of how we processed the original data to prepare for analysis is described in Appendix 2, and the synthesized dataset can be found in the table "lhs_x_walk." Permitted use dates, livestock type (horse, sheep or cattle), number of livestock, and Animal Unit Months [the number of animal units (1,000-pound animal equivalents) that can be grazed for 31 days with the available forage in a sustainable manner] are the legal maximum grazing amounts for a given allotment, and legal adjustments to these numbers occur infrequently. We summarized permitted use by BLM allotment in the table "Permitted_Use." Billed use records are used for calculations of permittees' annual grazing bills. We summarized billed use by allotment for BLM grazing year in the table "Billed_Use." All three tables can be joined with the allotment spatial data in a geographic information system (GIS) environment, using the IDENT attribute as the primary key.

Data Series↗
USGS2000

Sensitivity of ground water to contamination in Lawrence County, South Dakota

Ground-water supplies in Lawrence County, South Dakota, can be contaminated by agricultural, urban, suburban, commercial, and industrial land uses. To address this issue, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Lawrence County and the City of Spearfish mapped the sensitivity of ground water to contamination in Lawrence County. Sensitivity of ground water to contamination was determined by delineating hydrogeologic settings with common hydrogeologic characteristics as described in the DRASTIC method, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Water Well Association. Within the framework of 11 hydrogeologic settings, sensitivity to contamination was ranked for six intrinsic hydrogeologic characteristics: (1) aquifer media, (2) unsaturated media (3) hydraulic conductivity, (4) recharge rate, (5) depth to water, and (6) land-surface slope. The rating conventions of DRASTIC were modified to provide a relative ranking of hydrogeologic characteristics without assignment of a combined numerical score. Soil characteristics were not included as a map layer because detailed digital data were not available; however, the general distribution of two soil characteristics were shown. A total of 956 polygons were delineated and assigned a sensitivity-unit code that represented unique groups of sensitivity rank for the six intrinsic hydrogeologic characteristics. The polygons were created by overlaying and intersecting maps that describe the geology, precipitation, land-surface elevation, and depth to water using a geographic information system. Thirty drainage areas upstream from potential streamflow-loss zones were delineated to describe an additional mechanism of transport of potential contamination. The sensitivity of ground water to contamination was presented on a 1:100,000-scale map with code and label explanations. Limitations of the sensitivity map are described to facilitate appropriate use of the map as a screening tool to compare sensitivity to contamination.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗