Science activity

The USGS National Water Use Science Project (NWUSP), a component of the Water Availability and Use Science Program (WAUSP), facilitates the 5-year compilation of water use estimates for the United States as part of the National Water Census (NWC). The NWC, implemented as part of the SECURE (Science and Engineering to Comprehensively Understand and Responsibly Enhance) Water Act (Subtitle F of Public Law 111-11, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act), provides data and tools designed to support water managers in the accurate assessment of water availability at regional and national scales (https://water.usgs.gov/ watercensus/). Water managers across the United States require more complete, timely, and accurate water-availability information to support policy and decision-making, specifically, data associated with water withdrawals and consumptive use. Recognizing the limitations of current water-use data, the SECURE Water Act authorized a program that supports activities related to data collection and methods research and development at the State level. The USGS Water-Use Data and Research program (WUDR) will provide financial assistance through cooperative agreements with State water resource agencies to improve the availability, quality, compatibility, and delivery of water-use data that is collected or estimated by States. The Act requires that these State water use and availability datasets be integrated with appropriate datasets that are developed and/or maintained by the USGS.