The coastal region which includes areas within the Pee Dee, Cape Fear, and Neuse-Pamlico River Basins in South Carolina and North Carolina was chosen as a focus area study (FAS) for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Census (NWC) in 2016. The objective of the NWC is to place technical information and tools in the hands of stake holders so that they can make informed decisions on water availability. The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, comprised of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, conducted a 3-year study of water use and availability, climate change, and population growth to provide information related to the competing societal and ecological water needs in the Southeastern Atlantic Coastal Basins of the Carolinas. One task to meet this objective was compiling water withdrawal and return data and other water use information from local, regional, and state-scale data sources. This information was used to develop water-use estimates used in a surface-water model, a groundwater model, and an ecological flow model. The simulations produced by these models were subsequently used to make predictions about future water availability and needs in the Coastal Carolina study area. This data release presents groundwater-withdrawals for Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina within the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

The Pee Dee and Cape Fear River Basins in North Carolina and South Carolina were chosen as a focus area study (FAS) for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Census (NWC) in 2016. The objective of the NWC is to place technical information and tools in the hands of stake holders so that they can make decisions on water availability. The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, comprised of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, conducted a 3-year study of water use and availability to provide information related to the competing societal and ecological water needs in the Southeastern Atlantic Coastal Basins of the Carolinas. One task to meet this objective was compiling water withdrawal and return data by category from local, regional, and state-scale data sources so that those data could be utilized in surface-water models, a groundwater model, an ecological flow model, and for predictions of future water needs. This dataset presents wastewater-return estimates from years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 which are aggregated to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model catchment-area level developed for the Pee Dee and Cape Fear River Basins.

The Cape Fear and Pee Dee River Basins in North Carolina and South Carolina were chosen as a focus area study (FAS) for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Census (NWC) in 2016. The objective of the NWC is to place technical information and tools in the hands of stake holders so that they can make decisions on water availability. The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, comprised of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, conducted a 3-year study of water use and availability to provide information related to the competing societal and ecological water needs in the Southeastern Atlantic Coastal Basins of the Carolinas. The Coastal Carolinas study area includes the Pee Dee and Cape Fear River Basins and the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Brunswick, Georgia, to near Greenville, North Carolina. The study is divided into 5 main components: 1) Societal Water-Use Data Compilation and Refinement, 2) Land-Use, Population, Water-Use and Climate Change Scenarios, 3) Surface-Water Modeling, 4) Ecological Response Modeling, and 5) Groundwater Modeling. One task to meet this objective was to compile water withdrawal and return data by water-use category from local, regional, and state-scale data sources in order to utilize those data in surface-water models, a groundwater model, an ecological flow model, and for predictions of future water needs. This data release contains (1) Groundwater withdrawals for Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina aggregated by groundwater MODFLOW model cell area, year, and water-use category; (2) Surface-water withdrawal estimates for years 1983 – 2017 aggregated to the Soil and Water Assessment (SWAT) model catchment level developed for the Pee Dee and Cape Fear River Basins; (3) Wastewater return estimates from years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 aggregated to the Soil and Water Assessment (SWAT) model catchment level developed for the Pee Dee and Cape Fear River Basins; and (4) Surface-water and groundwater off-stream water-use estimates in the Coastal Carolinas study area for selected water-use categories from years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 aggregated to the 8-digit (subbasin) hydrologic unit level within state boundaries in the Coastal Carolinas study area.

A Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model was developed to estimate annual net infiltration below the root-zone for the Greater Wake County area, North Carolina for the period 1981 through 2019. The model was developed as part of a study to assess groundwater availability in the fractured-rock aquifers underlying Wake County. Curve number, maximum net infiltration rate, and root-zone depth parameters for all land cover classes were adjusted in the SWB model to manually test parameter sensitivity and adjust for best fit. Annual net infiltration estimates from the SWB model were also compared with annual base flow estimates from the PART hydrograph separation technique using the USGS Groundwater Toolbox (Barlow and others, 2015) for available years of streamflow record at 6 sites within the model area (02089000, 02087570, 02087324, 02087359, 02088500, 02097314), as base flow is assumed to be nearly equivalent to effective groundwater recharge (Nelms and others, 1997). This USGS data release contains all the input and output files for the simulations described in the associated model documentation report (https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20225041), as well as model output comparisons with base flow estimates. Also included in this data release is the map of hydrogeologic units in Wake County used in this study.

Groundwater recharge is an important part of water budget estimation and is a critical data component used in creating and calibrating groundwater flow models such as MODFLOW. Soil Water Balance Models (SWB) can be used to estimate potential groundwater recharge across spatial domains and through time. This metadata record describes an SWB archive for parts of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, eastern United States. The model was run for various land cover build out scenarios and several downscaled climate models (SWB) The model’s pixel resolution is 609.9-meters (m) and it was run for the for the period 1979 - 2060. The SWB model executable code is detailed in the report SWB—A Modified Thornthwaite-Mather Soil-Water-Balance Code for Estimating Groundwater Recharge; Chapter 31 of Section A, Groundwater, of Book 6, Modeling Techniques By S.M. Westenbroek, V.A. Kelson,W.R. Dripps,R.J. Hunt, and K.R. Bradbury (https://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/tm6-a31/) The SWB model was not calibrated; however, various water budget components from the model output compared reasonably well with other estimates. Due to size limitations climate data used in the production of this model are not included in this archive, URLs to locate the climate data are included.

A soil-water balance model (SWB) was developed to estimate potential recharge and irrigation water demand from the groundwater flow system in Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina for the period 1895 through 2010. This SWB model executable code detailed in the report SWB—A Modified Thornthwaite-Mather Soil-Water-Balance Code for Estimating Groundwater Recharge; Chapter 31 of Section A, Groundwater, of Book 6, Modeling Techniques By S.M. Westenbroek, V.A. Kelson,W.R. Dripps,R.J. Hunt, and K.R. Bradbury (https://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/tm6-a31/) The SWB model was not calibrated; however, various water budget components from the model output compared reasonably well with other estimates including irrigation pumpage quantities reported by the States of Florida and Georgia. Irrigation water demand for 6 crop types (citrus, field crops, hay, sod, sugar cane, and vegetables) were calculated for the period 1950-2010. This USGS data release contains all of the input and output files except climate data for the simulations described in this data release. Due to size limitations climate data used in the production of this model are not included in this archive, URLs to locate the climate data are included.

A soil-water balance model (SWB) was developed to estimate recharge to the groundwater flow system in Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina for the period 1995 through 2010. The model was not calibrated; however, various water budget components from the model output compared reasonably well with other estimates. The model was used to estimate recharge to the groundwater flow system as part of a preliminary water budget exercise described in the associated report (http://doi.org/10.3133/sir20185030).

A soil-water balance model (SWB) was developed to estimate potential recharge to the groundwater system in Brunswick, New Hanover, and Pender counties North Carolina 1980 through 2016 to support a regional groundwater flow model being produced for the surficial, Castle Hayne, and Peedee Aquifer System. The SWB model was not calibrated; however, various water budget components from the model output compared reasonably well with other estimates including evapotranspiration rates reported by NASA's MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite platform. This USGS data release contains all the input and output files for the simulations described in this data release.

A dataset of modeled nearshore water levels (WLs) was developed for the North and South Carolina coastlines. Water levels, defined for this dataset as the linear sum of tides and non-tidal residuals (NTR), were produced by Muis and others (2016) using a global tide and surge model (GTSM) forced by global atmospheric fields -. Water level outputs were extracted from the global grid at approximately 20 km resolution along the coastlines. These data were then statistically downscaled using a signal-specific set of corrections to improve skill in comparison to tide gauge observations (Parker and others, 2023). Hindcast water levels were forced by ERA5 atmospheric forcing provided by the dataset of Hersbach and others (2020). ERA5 is a reanalysis product, incorporating observations and data assimilation to best represent the experienced climate. Therefore, data from this version of the dataset are comparable to observed WLs along the study region.

The coastal region which includes areas within South Carolina and North Carolina was chosen as a focus area study (FAS) for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Census (NWC) in 2016. The objective of the NWC is to place technical information and tools in the hands of stake holders so that they can make informed decisions on water availability. The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, comprised of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, conducted a 3-year study of water use and availability, climate change, and population growth to provide information related to the competing societal and ecological water needs in the Southeastern Atlantic Coastal Basins of the Carolinas. The Coastal Carolinas study area includes lower parts of the Yadkin/Pee Dee/Waccamaw River, Cape Fear River, and New River Basins extending from Georgetown, South Carolina up through Jacksonville, North Carolina area. One task to meet this objective was compiling water withdrawal and return data and other water-use information from local, regional, and state-scale data sources. This information was used to develop water-use estimates that could be used in a surface-water model, a groundwater model, and an ecological flow model. The simulations produced by these models could then be used to make predictions about future water availability and needs in the Coastal Carolina study area. This data release presents surface-water and groundwater off-stream water-use estimates for selected water use categories; for areas bounded by HUC8 and state boundaries within the Coastal Carolinas study area; from years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015.