What s New in Groundwater at the USGS: Data, Tools, Assessments, and Integrated Modeling

Transcription

1 What s New in Groundwater at the USGS: Data, Tools, Assessments, and Integrated Modeling William L. Cunningham Senior Science Advisor for Groundwater Director, Earth Systems Processes Division U.S. Geological Survey Ground Water Protection Council 2018 Annual Forum September 11, 2018 New Orleans, LA U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

2 Presentation Outline Groundwater Data National GW Monitoring Network Next Generation Observing Systems Groundwater Tools GW Toolbox (baseflow and recharge) GW Modeling Using suas to Assess GW/SW Exchange Groundwater Resource Assessments Regional Groundwater Availability National Water Quality Assessment Integrated, National-Scale Modeling National GW Model National Water Model

3 Subcommittee on Ground Water and the NGWMN The Subcommittee on Ground Water (SOGW) is part of the Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI). GWPC plays a leadership role in the SOGW. The initial purpose (2007) of the Subcommittee is to develop a collaborative National Ground-Water Monitoring Network ( NGWMN ). The Subcommittee developed the Framework Document (2009) which contains the network design and requirements Approach was tested in 5 pilots (2009), improved (2013), and initiated by Congress/USGS in 2015.

4 NGWMN Leadership in Data Sharing Approach acknowledged by the Council of Canadian Academies, 2009 Highlighted by the Aspen Institute s Internet of Water, 2017

5 NGWMN Design Elements Principal and major aquifers GW levels and quality, w/focus on availability Priority on sites with long-term data Network, not a Warehouse or Master Database Sites classified and selected by local experts/data providers Data provider remains the authoritative data source Data of known quality (not uniform quality) (ACWI Subcommittee on Ground Water, 2013)

6 NGWMN Information Portal

7 National Groundwater Monitoring Network Growth, April 2015 April 2016 April 2017 April 2018 >35 partners and growing! USGS WL State WL USGS WQ State WQ

8 Opportunity: 2019 Call for NGWMN Proposals 24 awards issued in opportunity is open September 4 November 30, 2018 Up to $2M available. From 15K-$150K per applicant. Candice Hopkins (USGS) NGWMN presentation today in the 1:30 pm session on GW Monitoring, Ballroom A. Lauren Schapker (NGWA), SOGW Executive Secretary Wednesday general session.

9 USGS Groundwater Watch 244 of 370 climate zones covered Monthly Bar Chart Drought Hydrograph

10 Water Level, in ft BLS Percentage of Water-Level Range New Groundwater Watch Tool: Index Composite Hydrographs California example, 89 Wells 23 Aquifers 30-year Composite Hydrograph California Coastal Basin Aquifers Water-Level Index (30 years) California Coastal Basin Aquifers

11 New Borehole Geophysical Log Web Interface: GeoLog Locator

12 FY19 Monitoring Initiative: NextGen Water Observing System The next-generation water observing system will provide high-fidelity, real-time data on water quantity and quality necessary to support modern water prediction and decision support systems for water emergencies and daily water operations. Pilot basin is the Delaware River Basin. Primarily surface observations. Potential for gage/well pairs; temperature monitoring; soil moisture.

13 GW Toolbox: GIS-based GUI for Analysis of Hydrologic Time-Series Data Hydrograph Analysis Base-flow separation (PART, HYSEP, BFI) Recharge estimation (RORA, RECESS) Interactively, Batch File, Batch Map Base-flow separation via digital filtering: Bflow and Eckhardt methods Groundwater level analysis In progress: Recharge estimation (water-table fluctuation method) (Barlow and others, 2014; 2016)

14 suas (Drones) for Groundwater Video Presentation: Efficient characterization of a remote stream corridor

15 New in Groundwater Modeling: MODFLOW 6: Major update allows for. Unstructured grids Simultaneous simulation of multiple flow models Coupling with other types of models A single forward run with parent (regional) and child (local) models. (See: USGS TMs 6A55 and 6A57)

16 MODFLOW 6 Example Simultaneous simulation of multiple aquifer systems Mississippi Embayment and Coastal Lowland Regional Aquifer Systems Regional grid for MERAS-CLAS-MAP within a National Hydrogeologic Grid (Clark and others, USGS data release, 2018)

17 GSFLOW: Coupled Groundwater (MODFLOW) and Surface-water (PRMS) FLOW Simulates all major hydrologic processes in watersheds at a daily time step Markstrom and others, 2008, TM6D1

18 Integrated Hydrologic-Operations Modeling: MODSIM-GSFLOW See Morway and others, 2016: Niswonger and others, 2017

19 Online GW Model Data Files Input/output from USGS GW Model applications available upon request since Available online since October USGS GW model datasets are archived on data.gov.

20 GWWebFlow Online Viewing of GW Models

21 Groundwater Resource Assessments

22 Principal Aquifers of the US Regional Groundwater Availability Studies Selected Priority Aquifers Hydraulic characteristics of aquifers Comprehensive hydrologic budget Recharge, storage, and discharge Numerical model of physical system 23

23 Assessing Water Quality: Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions of the Conterminous U.S. 69 Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions Areas in white are Principal Aquifers Belitz, Watson, Sharpe, and Johnson, 2018

24 National Assessment of Groundwater Quality Identify contaminants of concern and factors affecting groundwater quality o Human-health benchmarks provide context o Proportion of resource with high/moderate/low concentrations used to compare different constituents and different Principal Aquifers Emerging contaminants: radionuclides, hormones, PFAS, and others 18 Principal Aquifers 85 % of groundwater used for public supply 1,300 public-supply wells sampled

25 Assessing Trends in Groundwater Quality Decadal sampling, 80 networks of 20 to 30 wells each Continuous monitoring to assess short-term change o 8 networks of 3 wells each Age dating in nested networks to assess long-term change o networks of shallow wells and networks of deeper wells Benchmarks provide context for magnitude of change Change more likely in young, oxic water; less likely in old, anoxic water

26 National Assessment of Contaminants AT LEAST ONE CONTAMINANT OF CONCERN INORGANICS 14% 20% 66% ORGANICS 0% 2% HIGH MODERATE LOW concentration > benchmark < 0.5 of benchmarks for inorganics < 0.1 of benchmarks for organics 98%

27 Assessing Factors Affecting GW Quality: Age

28 Future USGS Goal: Integrated National-Scale Water Prediction National Groundwater Model CONUS-scale MODFLOW based model of the shallow groundwater system (in development). Depth of the water table below land surface Mean transit time of water from the land surface to the water table

29 Integrated National-Scale Water Prediction: Improving GW in the National Water Model The NWM simulates observed and forecast streamflow on 2.7 million stream reaches of the USGS NHD+ National Hydrography Dataset NWM core is the Weather Research and Forecasting Hydrologic Model (WRF-Hydro) Oversight is by the NOAA NWS Office of Water Prediction (OWP) Forecasts may be improved by better representing the role of groundwater in the modeling system. USGS has joined this multi-agency effort to help improve the NWM.

30 For Regular Updates of USGS Products: Monthly Groundwater Newsletter Simple newsletter released 1 st of each month via and website. Highlights include Groundwater news releases All USGS GW Publications Groundwater software Groundwater Flow and Transport Model Data Releases Subscribe at:

31 Thank you! For more information: Bill Cunningham Senior Science Advisor for Groundwater Director, Earth Systems Processes Division U.S. Geological Survey Reston, VA