The USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program: Needs, Establishment, and Goals of a Water Census

Abstract

Many reports have recognized the need for a national water census for the United States and have called upon the U.S. Geological Survey to undertake this challenge. For example, the National Science and Technology Council stated: "The United States has a strong need for an ongoing census of water that describes the status of our Nation's water resource at any point in time and identifies trends over time." Responding to the need for this information, the U.S. Congress established the SECURE Water Act. The directives are to provide a more accurate assessment of the status of the water resources of the United States; determine the quantity of water available for beneficial uses; identify long-term trends in water availability; assist in determination of the quality of the water resources; and develop the basis for an improved ability to forecast the availability of water for future economic, energy production, and environmental uses. This article provides summary and new information on the process and progress on work to estimate water budget components nationwide, involvement of stakeholder interests, efforts to examine water-use characteristics throughout the Nation, studies of water availability in geographically focused areas and the initiation of methods to provide open access to existing and new water resources information contributing to Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) efforts and objectives.

Trends in U.S. Irrigated Agriculture: Increasing Resilience Under Water Supply Scarcity

“…While groundwater management is generally the purview of the States, Federal agencies provide critical resources for research on regional groundwater sustainability. USGS is conducting comprehensive groundwater availability assessments for major U.S. aquifers, helping provide foundational data to inform State and local groundwater policy-making (Michelsen et al, 2016;Evenson et al, 2018) (Gollehon and Winston, 2013;Brauer et al, 2017).…”

Featured Collection Introduction: Open Water Data Initiative

“…This activity demonstrates the importance of strong and transparent linkages between the data collection community and the user community. Michelsen et al (2016) describe the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Water Availability and Use Science Program (WAUSP). The WAUSP is striving to provide a wide array of data, including detailed water budgets, water availability and use studies, groundwater assessments, improved evapotranspiration and water use information, and geographic focus area studies information.…”

Re‐Purposing Groundwater Flow Models for Age Assessments: Important Characteristics

“…As demand for water has increased over recent decades, assessments of water availability have evolved to include limitations due to water quality (Michelsen et al 2016). Water quality issues can span from site‐specific contamination plumes requiring highly detailed flow and transport simulations (MacFarlane et al 1983; Frind and Hokkanen 1987) to nonpoint and regional contamination due to pesticides (Levy 1993), nitrate (Nolan et al 2018), and arsenic (Amini et al 2008), among others.…”