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USGS2010

The importance of the riparian zone and in-stream processes in nitrate attenuation in undisturbed and agricultural watersheds – a review of the scientific literature

We reviewed published studies from primarily glaciated regions in the United States, Canada, and Europe of the (1) transport of nitrate from terrestrial ecosystems to aquatic ecosystems, (2) attenuation of nitrate in the riparian zone of undisturbed and agricultural watersheds, (3) processes contributing to nitrate attenuation in riparian zones, (4) variation in the attenuation of nitrate in the riparian zone, and (5) importance of in-stream and hyporheic processes for nitrate attenuation in the stream channel. Our objectives were to synthesize the results of these studies and suggest methodologies to (1) monitor regional trends in nitrate concentration in undisturbed 1st order watersheds and (2) reduce nitrate loads in streams draining agricultural watersheds. Our review reveals that undisturbed headwater watersheds have been shown to be very retentive of nitrogen, but the importance of biogeochemical and hydrological riparian zone processes in retaining nitrogen in these watersheds has not been demonstrated as it has for agricultural watersheds. An understanding of the role of the riparian zone in nitrate attenuation in undisturbed watersheds is crucial because these watersheds are increasingly subject to stressors, such as changes in land use and climate, wildfire, and increases in atmospheric nitrogen deposition. In general, understanding processes controlling the concentration and flux of nitrate is critical to identifying and mapping the vulnerability of watersheds to water quality changes due to a variety of stressors. In undisturbed and agricultural watersheds we propose that understanding the importance of riparian zone processes in 2nd order and larger watersheds is critical. Research is needed that addresses the relative importance of how the following sources of nitrate along any given stream reach might change as watersheds increase in size and with flow: (1) inputs upstream from the reach, (2) tributary inflow, (3) water derived from the riparian zone, (4) groundwater from outside the riparian zone (intermediate or regional sources), and (5) in-stream (hyporheic) processes.

Journal of Hydrology↗

USGS2012

Advancing representation of hydrologic processes in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) through integration of the TOPographic MODEL (TOPMODEL) features

This paper presents a study of the integration of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and the TOPographic MODEL (TOPMODEL) features for enhancing the physical representation of hydrologic processes. In SWAT, four hydrologic processes, which are surface runoff, baseflow, groundwater re-evaporation and deep aquifer percolation, are modeled by using a group of empirical equations. The empirical equations usually constrain the simulation capability of relevant processes. To replace these equations and to model the influences of topography and water table variation on streamflow generation, the TOPMODEL features are integrated into SWAT, and a new model, the so-called SWAT-TOP, is developed. In the new model, the process of deep aquifer percolation is removed, the concept of groundwater re-evaporation is refined, and the processes of surface runoff and baseflow are remodeled. Consequently, three parameters in SWAT are discarded, and two new parameters to reflect the TOPMODEL features are introduced. SWAT-TOP and SWAT are applied to the East River basin in South China, and the results reveal that, compared with SWAT, the new model can provide a more reasonable simulation of the hydrologic processes of surface runoff, groundwater re-evaporation, and baseflow. This study evidences that an established hydrologic model can be further improved by integrating the features of another model, which is a possible way to enhance our understanding of the workings of catchments.

Journal of Hydrology↗

USGS2001

Model coupling intraparticle diffusion/sorption, nonlinear sorption, and biodegradation processes

Diffusion, sorption and biodegradation are key processes impacting the efficiency of natural attenuation. While each process has been studied individually, limited information exists on the kinetic coupling of these processes. In this paper, a model is presented that couples nonlinear and nonequilibrium sorption (intraparticle diffusion) with biodegradation kinetics. Initially, these processes are studied independently (i.e., intraparticle diffusion, nonlinear sorption and biodegradation), with appropriate parameters determined from these independent studies. Then, the coupled processes are studied, with an initial data set used to determine biodegradation constants that were subsequently used to successfully predict the behavior of a second data set. The validated model is then used to conduct a sensitivity analysis, which reveals conditions where biodegradation becomes desorption rate-limited. If the chemical is not pre-equilibrated with the soil prior to the onset of biodegradation, then fast sorption will reduce aqueous concentrations and thus biodegradation rates. Another sensitivity analysis demonstrates the importance of including nonlinear sorption in a coupled diffusion/sorption and biodegradation model. While predictions based on linear sorption isotherms agree well with solution concentrations, for the conditions evaluated this approach overestimates the percentage of contaminant biodegraded by as much as 50%. This research demonstrates that nonlinear sorption should be coupled with diffusion/sorption and biodegradation models in order to accurately predict bioremediation and natural attenuation processes. To our knowledge this study is unique in studying nonlinear sorption coupled with intraparticle diffusion and biodegradation kinetics with natural media.

Journal of Contaminant Hydrology↗

USGS2000

Fracture process zone in granite

In uniaxial compression tests performed on Aue granite cores (diameter 50 mm, length 100 mm), a steel loading plate was used to induce the formation of a discrete shear fracture. A zone of distributed microcracks surrounds the tip of the propagating fracture. This process zone is imaged by locating acoustic emission events using 12 piezoceramic sensors attached to the samples. Propagation velocity of the process zone is varied by using the rate of acoustic emissions to control the applied axial force. The resulting velocities range from 2 mm/s in displacement-controlled tests to 2 μm/s in tests controlled by acoustic emission rate. Wave velocities and amplitudes are monitored during fault formation. P waves transmitted through the approaching process zone show a drop in amplitude of 26 dB, and ultrasonic velocities are reduced by 10%. The width of the process zone is ∼9 times the grain diameter inferred from acoustic data but is only 2 times the grain size from optical crack inspection. The process zone of fast propagating fractures is wider than for slow ones. The density of microcracks and acoustic emissions increases approaching the main fracture. Shear displacement scales linearly with fracture length. Fault plane solutions from acoustic events show similar orientation of nodal planes on both sides of the shear fracture. The ratio of the process zone width to the fault length in Aue granite ranges from 0.01 to 0.1 inferred from crack data and acoustic emissions, respectively. The fracture surface energy is estimated from microstructure analysis to be ∼2 J. A lower bound estimate for the energy dissipated by acoustic events is 0.1 J.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

USGS2005

Effective discharge analysis of ecological processes in streams

Discharge is a master variable that controls many processes in stream ecosystems. However, there is uncertainty of which discharges are most important for driving particular ecological processes and thus how flow regime may influence entire stream ecosystems. Here the analytical method of effective discharge from fluvial geomorphology is used to analyze the interaction between frequency and magnitude of discharge events that drive organic matter transport, algal growth, nutrient retention, macroinvertebrate disturbance, and habitat availability. We quantify the ecological effective discharge using a synthesis of previously published studies and modeling from a range of study sites. An analytical expression is then developed for a particular case of ecological effective discharge and is used to explore how effective discharge varies within variable hydrologic regimes. Our results suggest that a range of discharges is important for different ecological processes in an individual stream. Discharges are not equally important; instead, effective discharge values exist that correspond to near modal flows and moderate floods for the variable sets examined. We suggest four types of ecological response to discharge variability: discharge as a transport mechanism, regulator of habitat, process modulator, and disturbance. Effective discharge analysis will perform well when there is a unique, essentially instantaneous relationship between discharge and an ecological process and poorly when effects of discharge are delayed or confounded by legacy effects. Despite some limitations the conceptual and analytical utility of the effective discharge analysis allows exploring general questions about how hydrologic variability influences various ecological processes in streams.

Water Resources Research↗

USGS2021

Identifying geomorphic process domains in the synthetic landscapes of West Virginia, USA

Human activities such as mining, agriculture, and urbanization have resulted in severe, large‐scale alteration to landform organization and associated geomorphic processes. The mountaintop mining (MTM) region of West Virginia, USA has experienced dramatic topographic alteration, by removing steep slopes and introducing plateau‐like areas at ridgelines and benches on valley fills. The resulting engineered landforms create synthetic landscapes, disconnected from previous geomorphic processes. Invoking the process domain concept, we compare differences in slope‐area relations, cumulative area distributions (CADs), elevation, slope, upslope accumulated area, and a slope*area product before and after mining to adjacent unmined sub‐catchments in five study basins. Differences in the slope‐area relation include a 42% slope reduction in low drainage areas, corresponding to hillslopes, unchanneled valleys, and debris flow dominated channels, which may fall below thresholds required for debris flow processes. The curved slope‐area relation that represents valley incision by debris flows is replaced by slope‐area relations that resemble basins where gullying and the stream power law dominate. Extremely high chemical weathering of unconsolidated valley fills materials may facilitate process domain shifts from debris flows to gullying and fluvial erosion. The characteristic power law scaling break in CADs that represents the headward limit of the channelized network is subdued in post‐mined sites and may reflect headward channelized network extension in mined basins. Slope‐area relations and CADs present a unique topographic signature of MTM activity, potentially providing an analytical approach to assess impacts on underlying geomorphic processes for other synthetic landscapes such as cities or large‐scale agricultural production.

West Virginia↗

USGS2022

Infrasound single-channel noise reduction: Application to detection and localization of explosive volcanism in Alaska using backprojection and array processing

Infrasound sensors are deployed in a variety of spatial configurations and scales for geophysical monitoring, including networks of single sensors and networks of multisensor infrasound arrays. Infrasound signal detection strategies exploiting these data commonly make use of intersensor correlation and coherence (array processing, multichannel correlation); network-based tracking of signal features (e.g. reverse time migration); or a combination of these such as backazimuth cross-bearings for multiple arrays. Single-sensor trace-based denoising techniques offer significant potential to improve all of these various infrasound data processing strategies, but have not previously been investigated in detail. Single-sensor denoising represents a pre-processing step that could reduce the effects of ambient infrasound and wind noise in infrasound signal association and location workflows. We systematically investigate the utility of a range of single-sensor denoising methods for infrasound data processing, including noise gating, non-negative matrix factorization, and data-adaptive Wiener filtering. For the data testbed, we use the relatively dense regional infrasound network in Alaska, which records a high rate of volcanic eruptions with signals varying in power, duration, and waveform and spectral character. We primarily use data from the 2016–2017 Bogoslof volcanic eruption, which included multiple explosions, and synthetics. The Bogoslof volcanic sequence provides an opportunity to investigate regional infrasound detection, association, and location for a set of real sources with varying source spectra subject to anisotropic atmospheric propagation and varying noise levels (both incoherent wind noise and coherent ambient infrasound, primarily microbaroms). We illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of the different denoising methods in categories such as event detection, waveform distortion, the need for manual data labelling, and computational cost. For all approaches, denoising generally performs better for signals with higher signal-to-noise ratios and with less spectral and temporal overlap between signals and noise. Microbaroms are the most globally pervasive and repetitive coherent ambient infrasound noise source, with such noise often referred to as clutter or interference. We find that denoising offers significant potential for microbarom clutter reduction. Single-channel denoising of microbaroms prior to standard array processing enhances both the quantity and bandwidth of detectable volcanic events. We find that reduction of incoherent wind noise is more challenging using the denoising methods we investigate; thus, station hardware (wind noise reduction systems) and site selection remain critical and cannot be replaced by currently available digital denoising methodologies. Overall, we find that adding single-channel denoising as a component in the processing workflow can benefit a variety of infrasound signal detection, association, and location schemes. The denoising methods can also isolate the noise itself, with utility in statistically characterizing ambient infrasound noise.

Alaska↗

USGS2025

Integrating the resist–accept–direct framework into natural resource decision-making processes for climate adaptation

The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework for climate adaptation is a useful tool, particularly when conservation practitioners know they need to address climate change but do not know where to start or when they struggle to implement conservation actions that are outside the status quo. Some conservation practitioners may view RAD as a decision process that will lead them through selecting climate adaptation actions to meet their objectives; however, RAD may be better suited for use with existing decision processes. RAD can improve adaptation planning processes by helping conservation practitioners examine a broader portfolio of climate adaptation actions. Choosing the actions that meet organizational objectives and long-term goals relies on a sound decision process through which to select RAD-generated actions to implement across space and time. The good news for conservation practitioners is that RAD can easily be integrated into the decision processes they are already using—that is, a new decision process for RAD is not necessary. We examined 6 commonly used decision frameworks in the context of RAD for climate adaptation: structured decision-making, adaptive management, conservation standards, climate-smart conservation, strategic habitat conservation, and scenario planning. Each decision framework can easily incorporate RAD methodologies to create climate adaptation menus and portfolios within existing structures, allowing conservation practitioners to continue to utilize existing frameworks for their valuable decision-making tools. Integrating the RAD framework can enhance them by explicitly considering future uncertainties and providing a menu of climate adaptation actions for navigating changing ecosystems.

Conservation Biology↗

USGS2013

Estimating animal resource selection from telemetry data using point process models

Analyses of animal resource selection functions (RSF) using data collected from relocations of individuals via remote telemetry devices have become commonplace. Increasing technological advances, however, have produced statistical challenges in analysing such highly autocorrelated data. Weighted distribution methods have been proposed for analysing RSFs with telemetry data. However, they can be computationally challenging due to an intractable normalizing constant and cannot be aggregated (i.e. collapsed) over time to make space-only inference. In this study, we take a conceptually different approach to modelling animal telemetry data for making RSF inference. We consider the telemetry data to be a realization of a space–time point process. Under the point process paradigm, the times of the relocations are also considered to be random rather than fixed. We show the point process models we propose are a generalization of the weighted distribution telemetry models. By generalizing the weighted model, we can access several numerical techniques for evaluating point process likelihoods that make use of common statistical software. Thus, the analysis methods can be readily implemented by animal ecologists. In addition to ease of computation, the point process models can be aggregated over time by marginalizing over the temporal component of the model. This allows a full range of models to be constructed for RSF analysis at the individual movement level up to the study area level. To demonstrate the analysis of telemetry data with the point process approach, we analysed a data set of telemetry locations from northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Both a space–time and an aggregated space-only model were fitted. At the individual level, the space–time analysis showed little selection relative to the habitat covariates. However, at the study area level, the space-only model showed strong selection relative to the covariates.

Alaska↗

USGS2002

Archiving, processing, and disseminating ASTER products at the USGS EROS Data Center

The U.S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center archives, processes, and disseminates Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data products. The ASTER instrument is one of five sensors onboard the Earth Observing System's Terra satellite launched December 18, 1999. ASTER collects broad spectral coverage with high spatial resolution at near infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal infrared wavelengths with ground resolutions of 15, 30, and 90 meters, respectively. The ASTER data are used in many ways to understand local and regional earth-surface processes. Applications include land-surface climatology, volcanology, hazards monitoring, geology, agronomy, land cover change, and hydrology. The ASTER data are available for purchase from the ASTER Ground Data System in Japan and from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center in the United States, which receives level 1A and level 1B data from Japan on a routine basis. These products are archived and made available to the public within 48 hours of receipt. The level 1A and level 1B data are used to generate higher level products that include routine and on-demand decorrelation stretch, brightness temperature at the sensor, emissivity, surface reflectance, surface kinetic temperature, surface radiance, polar surface and cloud classification, and digital elevation models. This paper describes the processes and procedures used to archive, process, and disseminate standard and on-demand higher level ASTER products at the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center.

Conference Paper↗

USGS1979

Digital image processing system For Landsat 3

The Department of Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have entered into a joint program to provide a digital image processing system in support of the Landsat 3 mission. NASA will provide the data reception and pre-processing facilities, while the DOI provides the production image processing system that generates film products and computer compatible tapes for users. The system procured by the DOI's U.S. Geological Survey was installed at the Earth Resources Observation System Data Center (EDC) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The EDC Digital Image Processing System (EDIPS) is capable of operating in standard or special formats. During 13 hours of operation, the system can process up to 200 five-band Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scenes and 160 Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) subscenes in the standard mode plus up to 60 scenes/subscenes in the special-order mode. The input media for the system are High Density Tapes (HDT's) generated by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). These tapes contain two types of data: those that have been radiometrically and geometrically corrected with resampling of the data to fit a known map projection, and those that have been radiometrically corrected but have not been geometrically corrected or resampled. The system can provide 185 mm (MSS) and 198 mm (RBV) black and white film products for each MSS band or RBV subscene via a high resolution laser beam recorder. The CCT's generated by the system are compatible with the HDT format, and are available either in Band Sequential (BSQ) or Band Interleaved by Line (BIL) data. This paper will present both an overview of the total NASA/DOI system and a detailed discussion of the EDC Digital Image Processing System that is installed at the USGS facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

South Dakota↗

USGS2011

The indication of Martian gully formation processes by slope-area analysis

The formation process of recent gullies on Mars is currently under debate. This study aims to discriminate between the proposed formation processes - pure water flow, debris flow and dry mass wasting - through the application of geomorphological indices commonly used in terrestrial geomorphology. High-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) of Earth and Mars were used to evaluate the drainage characteristics of small slope sections. Data from Earth were used to validate the hillslope, debris-flow and alluvial process domains previously found for large fluvial catchments on Earth, and these domains were applied to gullied and ungullied slopes on Mars. In accordance with other studies, our results indicate that debris flow is one of the main processes forming the Martian gullies that were being examined. The source of the water is predominantly distributed surface melting, not an underground aquifer. Evidence is also presented indicating that other processes may have shaped Martian crater slopes, such as ice-assisted creep and solifluction, in agreement with the proposed recent Martian glacial and periglacial climate. Our results suggest that, within impact craters, different processes are acting on differently oriented slopes, but further work is needed to investigate the potential link between these observations and changes in Martian climate.

Geological Society Special Publication↗

USGS2009

Processes that initiate turbidity currents and their influence on turbidites: A marine geology perspective

How the processes that initiate turbidity currents influence turbidite deposition is poorly understood, and many discussions in the literature rely on concepts that are overly simplistic. Marine geological studies provide information on the initiation and flow path of turbidity currents, including their response to gradient. In case studies of late Quaternary turbidites on the eastern Canadian and western U.S. margins, initiation processes are inferred either from real-time data for historical flows or indirectly from the age and contemporary paleogeography, erosional features, and depositional record. Three major types of initiation process are recognized: transformation of failed sediment, hyperpycnal flow from rivers or ice margins, and resuspension of sediment near the shelf edge by oceanographic processes. Many high-concentration flows result from hyperpycnal supply of hyperconcentrated bedload, or liquefaction failure of coarse-grained sediment, and most tend to deposit in slope conduits and on gradients < 0.5° at the base of slope and on the mid fan. Highly turbulent flows, from transformation of retrogressive failures and from ignitive flows that are triggered by oceanographic processes, tend to cannibalize these more proximal sediments and redeposit them on lower gradients on the basin plain. Such conduit flushing provides most of the sediment in large turbidites. Initiation mechanism exerts a strong control on the duration of turbidity flows. In most basins, there is a complex feedback between different types of turbidity-current initiation, the transformation of the flows, and the associated slope morphology. As a result, there is no simple relationship between initiating process and type of deposit.

Journal of Sedimentary Research↗

USGS2015

Coastal landforms and processes at the Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts—A primer

Anyone who spends more than a few days on Cape Cod (the Cape) quickly becomes a coastal geologist, quickly learning the rhythms of daily tides and the seasonal cycles of beaches growing and being swept away by storms; swimmers and surfers track how the breakers appear, and dog-walkers notice the hard-packed sand blanketed overnight by an airy layer that leaves deep labored tracks. Careful observers whose paths wander to the ocean’s edge will observe many of the landforms and coastal processes described in this book and if we have done our job well, the stories told here will seem familiar. Watchful experience brings insights; indeed, this is how scientists and perhaps how artists work, describing patterns that explain and predict. When is the next high tide? What will the winter bring? Where do we build, fish, swim? How do wind and waves offshore in the North Atlantic help arrange the plants and dunes and hollows on the beach? And most of all, as human animals drawn to live and play on the edge of the ocean, how do we get the benefits of this complex natural system of geology and biology? How do we affect coastal processes; how is the coast changing now and how is the coast likely to change in years ahead with climate warming and climate change? This book is about the highly dynamic coastal landforms of Cape Cod—the beaches, bluffs, spits, dunes, barrier beaches, estuaries, and salt marshes. What they are, why they are where they are, how they behave with respect to the greater Cape Cod coastal system—how the landforms respond to day-to-day and long-term geologic processes, such as waves and currents, change in sediment transport, relative sea-level rise, and meteorological processes such as hurricanes, nor’easters, and cold front passages. It is also about how the landforms got to be where they are and the way they are and where they are headed in the near future with the predicted effects of global climate warming and change. Our objective is to provide a single source of understandable and readable scientific information for those who live, play, and work on outer Cape Cod and at the Cape Cod National Seashore, as well as to provide an introduction to Cape Cod’s coastal landforms for anyone with an interest in Earth science and nature who wants a better understanding of coastal systems and processes. Basic to an understanding of coastal landforms is the fact that they work together—they interact—as elements of many systems, and therefore our ultimate concern is not the individual landform itself but rather the geologic systems that make up Cape Cod and the Cape Cod National Seashore. Much of this discussion can be applied as well to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and other coastal regions. The coast of outer Cape Cod, about 15,000 years old and about 30 miles (mi; 50 kilometers [km]) long, is but a tiny piece of the global Earth system that operates within a much larger realm of space and time. Cape Cod’s coastal landforms are temporary holding patterns within a continual interplay of land, sea, atmosphere, climate, ice, and life, including a variety of human activities that both affect and are affected by these processes. These interactions produce the landforms, and the landforms alter the interactions. The resulting landforms provide habitats for a wide variety of coastal plants and animals. The habitats along with their inhabitants and the interacting environmental factors controlling them constitute the Cape’s complex and varied ecosystems. But for now, we are here to enjoy it. We welcome you to delight and wonder at the perpetually changing handshake between the ocean and shore at New England’s Great Beach.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2002

Beowulf Distributed Processing and the United States Geological Survey

Introduction In recent years, the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) National Mapping Discipline (NMD) has expanded its scientific and research activities. Work is being conducted in areas such as emergency response research, scientific visualization, urban prediction, and other simulation activities. Custom-produced digital data have become essential for these types of activities. High-resolution, remotely sensed datasets are also seeing increased use. Unfortunately, the NMD is also finding that it lacks the resources required to perform some of these activities. Many of these projects require large amounts of computer processing resources. Complex urban-prediction simulations, for example, involve large amounts of processor-intensive calculations on large amounts of input data. This project was undertaken to learn and understand the concepts of distributed processing. Experience was needed in developing these types of applications. The idea was that this type of technology could significantly aid the needs of the NMD scientific and research programs. Porting a numerically intensive application currently being used by an NMD science program to run in a distributed fashion would demonstrate the usefulness of this technology. There are several benefits that this type of technology can bring to the USGS's research programs. Projects can be performed that were previously impossible due to a lack of computing resources. Other projects can be performed on a larger scale than previously possible. For example, distributed processing can enable urban dynamics research to perform simulations on larger areas without making huge sacrifices in resolution. The processing can also be done in a more reasonable amount of time than with traditional single-threaded methods (a scaled version of Chester County, Pennsylvania, took about fifty days to finish its first calibration phase with a single-threaded program). This paper has several goals regarding distributed processing technology. It will describe the benefits of the technology. Real data about a distributed application will be presented as an example of the benefits that this technology can bring to USGS scientific programs. Finally, some of the issues with distributed processing that relate to USGS work will be discussed.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2006

Integrating Stakeholders and Users into the Geography Discipline's Research Process

Future research priorities of Geography emphasize the discipline's leadership role in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in multidisciplinary and integrated research on human and environmental systems and how these systems are interrelated and respond to change Geography's research priorities also emphasize providing science that is usable to society and creating decision support products applicable to given customer problems. To achieve these goals, we must understand the relationship between our research and our customer, and how to integrate the customer into the research process. This report details the elements of the research process that help achieve the degree of stakeholder involvement necessary to ensure a successful end-product. It offers suggestions that can help researchers better understand stakeholders and customers and involve them in the research process more effectively, while preserving the integrity of the science. Its aim is to help researchers understand the problems and challenges faced by our customers and communicate the ways in which Geography can help address their problems. Adopting these guidelines can improve the efficiency of the research process and lead to higher quality output. We will be able to conduct better research because we will have an improved understanding of the research problem and the stakeholders involved. This report covers a broad range of topics, from identifying and communicating with stakeholders and users, to the use of language, to how to effectively present scientific information to the user. It does not offer a 'one size fits all' method. Instead, perhaps only specific sections are suitable for a given project and customers, depending on project scope and needs. This report is based on the objectives of Geography's strategic plan, U. S. Geological Survey's strategic plan, and Department of Interior's strategic plan. Section 2 of these guidelines describes the purpose of the research process in Geography and the need for better user involvement in the process. Section 3 explains how to conduct a stakeholder analysis. Section 4 explains how to conduct a user-needs assessment.

Open-File Report↗

USGS1994

Field guide for collecting and processing stream-water samples for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment program includes extensive data- collection efforts to assess the quality of the Nations's streams. These studies require analyses of stream samples for major ions, nutrients, sediments, and organic contaminants. For the information to be comparable among studies in different parts of the Nation, consistent procedures specifically designed to produce uncontaminated samples for trace analysis in the laboratory are critical. This field guide describes the standard procedures for collecting and processing samples for major ions, nutrients, organic contaminants, sediment, and field analyses of conductivity, pH, alkalinity, and dissolved oxygen. Samples are collected and processed using modified and newly designed equipment made of Teflon to avoid contamination, including nonmetallic samplers (D-77 and DH-81) and a Teflon sample splitter. Field solid-phase extraction procedures developed to process samples for organic constituent analyses produce an extracted sample with stabilized compounds for more accurate results. Improvements to standard operational procedures include the use of processing chambers and capsule filtering systems. A modified collecting and processing procedure for organic carbon is designed to avoid contamination from equipment cleaned with methanol. Quality assurance is maintained by strict collecting and processing procedures, replicate sampling, equipment blank samples, and a rigid cleaning procedure using detergent, hydrochloric acid, and methanol.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2007

Development of the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process for Determining Environmental Flows for New Jersey Streams

The natural flow regime paradigm and parallel stream ecological concepts and theories have established the benefits of maintaining or restoring the full range of natural hydrologic variation for physiochemical processes, biodiversity, and the evolutionary potential of aquatic and riparian communities. A synthesis of recent advances in hydroecological research coupled with stream classification has resulted in a new process to determine environmental flows and assess hydrologic alteration. This process has national and international applicability. It allows classification of streams into hydrologic stream classes and identification of a set of non-redundant and ecologically relevant hydrologic indices for 10 critical sub-components of flow. Three computer programs have been developed for implementing the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process (HIP): (1) the Hydrologic Indices Tool (HIT), which calculates 171 ecologically relevant hydrologic indices on the basis of daily-flow and peak-flow stream-gage data; (2) the New Jersey Hydrologic Assessment Tool (NJHAT), which can be used to establish a hydrologic baseline period, provide options for setting baseline environmental-flow standards, and compare past and proposed streamflow alterations; and (3) the New Jersey Stream Classification Tool (NJSCT), designed for placing unclassified streams into pre-defined stream classes. Biological and multivariate response models including principal-component, cluster, and discriminant-function analyses aided in the development of software and implementation of the HIP for New Jersey. A pilot effort is currently underway by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in which the HIP is being used to evaluate the effects of past and proposed surface-water use, ground-water extraction, and land-use changes on stream ecosystems while determining the most effective way to integrate the process into ongoing regulatory programs. Ultimately, this scientifically defensible process will help to quantify the effects of anthropogenic changes and development on hydrologic variability and help planners and resource managers balance current and future water requirements with ecological needs.

Scientific Investigations Report↗