This software release provides the database application that runs the Massachusetts Sustainable-Yield Estimator (MA SYE) computer program (version 2.0). The MA SYE was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, to provide a planning-level decision-support tool designed to help decision makers estimate daily mean streamflows and selected streamflow statistics that can be used to assess sustainable water use at ungaged sites in Massachusetts. The MA SYE provides estimates of unaltered streamflow (which is assumed to include effects of minimal human development but not the effects of instream regulation or water use), net streamflow alterations caused by water use, water-use-adjusted streamflow, streamflow yields (estimated unaltered streamflow minus user-defined flow targets), and estimates of the accuracy and uncertainty of estimated unaltered streamflow. The MA SYE uses basin characteristics and water-use volumes (water withdrawals and wastewater-return flows) obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey online StreamStats application to estimate the unaltered and water-use-adjusted streamflows. The MA SYE is a database application with a graphical user interface developed by using Visual Basic for Applications with the 32-bit version of Microsoft Access©. The graphical user interface is designed to include full documentation for users: an introductory instruction form and onscreen help within each interactive form, including explanation buttons, context-sensitive help buttons, and tool-tip and status-bar messages.

Spatial data layers of stream crossing point locations, cross-section polyline, centerline polyline, and bank polyline shapefiles have been developed for selected stream crossings in the Squannacook River basin, Massachusetts. The spatial data and calculated attribute values are model input data for U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) hydraulic models. The stream crossing point locations were derived from the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaboration (NAACC) database. The stream channel cross-sections, centerlines, and bank polylines were derived using automated methods in a Geographic Information System (GIS) using ArcGIS Pro and Python programming language. The polyline shapefiles are Z-enabled and have elevation data derived from Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) Digital Elevation Models (DEM) for Z-coordinate vertex values in units of feet. The polyline shapefiles are also M-enabled and have profile stationing values for the M-coordinate vertex values in units of feet. The automated GIS processes delineated a series of stream channel cross-sections along lidar-derived stream centerlines and have stream channel bathymetry estimated from Massachusetts bankfull channel geometry equations (Bent and Waite, 2013). The bankfull equations were also used to derive stream bank polylines. This data release contains the following shapefiles in the Spatial_Data_Layers.zip file: 1. Stream_Crossing_Locations.shp - Esri point shapefile derived from the NAACC stream crossing database. 2. Stream_Crossing_Watersheds.shp - Esri polygon shapefile of lidar-derived watershed boundaries that estimate the upstream drainage area for each stream crossing location. 3. Model_Cross_Sections.shp - Esri Z- and M-enabled polyline shapefile of the cross-section data used for hydraulic model input. 4. Model_Flowpaths.shp - Esri Z- and M-enabled polyline shapefile of the stream centerline and stream bank line data used for hydraulic model input. References: Bent, G.C., and Waite, A.M., 2013, Equations for estimating bankfull channel geometry and discharge for streams in Massachusetts: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5155, 62 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20135155

This data release contains links to two child items containing hydrology and hydraulic modeling data and supplemental geospatial data for selected stream crossing sites in the Squannacook River Basin in north-central Massachusetts. The child item named “Hydraulic model data for selected stream crossing sites in the Squannacook River Basin, North-Central Massachusetts” contains U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) hydraulic model files along with field survey data associated with each stream crossing location. This data release also includes a data dictionary defining culvert designs, site locations, modeled flows and water surface elevations, and aquatic habitat and stream connectivity restoration potential. The chile item named “Spatial Data Layers for Selected Stream Crossing Sites in the Squannacook River Basin, North-Central Massachusetts” contains geospatial data files of stream cross sections, stream centerlines, stream bank lines, and stream crossing location points used as input for hydraulic models. Additionally, these preliminary culvert designs and associated selected data are hosted on the U.S. Geological Survey StreamStats web application (https://streamstats.usgs.gov/ss/) for Massachusetts.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC), has compiled Geographic Information Systems (GIS) datasets. The spatial data layers provided in this data release are hydrography data derived from high-resolution lidar digital elevation models (DEM). They include a hydroline polyline shapefile used to hydro-enforce the high-resolution lidar DEM; a stream network centerline polyline shapefile derived from the hydro-enforcement that shows stream location; a sub-basin polygon shapefile derived from the hydro-enforcement representing watershed areas for all stream network centerline polylines; a flow direction raster, predicting the direction of flow based on direction of steepest drop; and a flow accumulation raster, predicting the number of upstream cells flowing into each one-meter cell. Field verification was conducted for locations where the high-resolution lidar digital elevation models were unclear on hydraulic connection. Photographs were captured to confirm the conveyance of flow. The datasets are provided in separate child items.

The USGS Water Mission Area (WMA) - Ecosystems Mission Area (EMA) EcoDrought project is comprised of interdisciplinary teams in five pilot regions across the country. The over-arching project goal is to measure streamflow in headwater streams and to relate flow variation to stream fish population dynamics. In the northeast, the New England Water Science Center (NewEngWSC) partnered with the fish ecology group at the S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab (Conte), a part of the EMA’s Eastern Ecological Science Center. The Conte fish ecology team has been collecting ecological and stream water temperature data in the West Brook watershed located in Whately, Massachusetts, since 1997, where they developed novel methods to track individual fish and populations. The Conte team has leveraged these data to understand growth, survival, habitat use, genetic structure, population abundance and movement of Atlantic Salmon, Brook Trout and Brown Trout as well as stream temperature impacts on Brook Trout in the West Brook. However, they have not historically had the expertise or equipment to accurately measure discharge in these headwater streams, which hindered their ability to examine the role of streamflow in fish ecology. Starting in August of 2019 the NewEngWSC trained a team from Conte to install and maintain in-stream pressure gaging sites including surveying to monitor and account for any movement of the pressure sensor, performing streamflow measurements, developing rating curves to relate gage height and discharge, and carrying out routine and emergency maintenance. This data set is comprised of the continuous gage height, discharge, water temperature, air temperature, and air pressure data, as well as discrete discharge measurements and site information for ten headwater stream gaging stations located in the West Brook watershed in Whately, Massachusetts. The date range for this data set is 2019-04-01 through 2025-01-03. Once collected, the continuous gage height data were reviewed, and offsets were applied to correct for instrument movement and instrument drift under the guidance of NewEngWSC Hydrologic Monitoring Program staff. Continuous gage height is converted to a continuous discharge record by relating discrete gage height and discharge measurements with a rating model developed in accordance with USGS WMA standards. Please note that the "EcoDrought_Continuous_MA.csv" data file has over 1.7 million rows, meaning it is too large to open and manipulate in Microsoft Excel. Please take caution when working with these data in Excel.

This dataset contains U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) field survey data at nine dam-removal and culvert-retrofit sites in the northeastern United States (Olson and Simeone, 2021). The USGS field data survey are used to support the development of one-dimensional and two-dimensional U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) models for the post-dam removal and culvert-retrofit conditions. The referenced models were used to evaluate fish passage and flood risk along the simulated reaches in the various states simulated. The field survey data consists of Global Navigation Satellite System-derived orthometric heights in the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 and projected horizontal coordinates in the North American Datum of 1983 State Plane for the respective State the sites are located in.

The U.S. Geological Survey has developed tools for projecting twenty-first century climate and hydrologic risk in Massachusetts in collaboration with Cornell University and Tufts University. These tools included a Stochastic Weather Generator (SWG). Output from the SWG is in this data release. The release includes daily precipitation and minimum and maximum air temperature for a 64-year period in the Nashua River watershed (that includes the Squannacook River) in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There are 100 ensembles from the SWG for warming scenarios of 0 to 8 degrees Celsius in 0.5-degree increments. The SWG data were converted to a format utilized by the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS; https://www.usgs.gov/software/precipitation-runoff-modeling-system-prms) and input to a PRMS model for the Squannacook River watershed. The PRMS input and output files for the 100 ensembles of each of the 17 warming scenarios are also included in this data release. The 1,700 PRMS output files were utilized by a Stochastic Watershed Modeling tool to correct modeling biases that are inherent with a deterministic model such as PRMS. This data release includes the output from this Stochastic Watershed Model (SWM). For each of the 100 ensembles, the SWM was used to generate 10,000 ensembles, resulting in 1 million ensembles of 64-year periods for each of the warming scenarios. For each ensemble, streamflow characteristics of the annual maximum daily discharge at the 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year recurrence interval and of the annual 7-day low flow at the 2- and 10-year recurrence interval were determined.

A series of three-dimensional, hypothetical, groundwater models (MODFLOW-NWT) were developed to investigate the effects of a variety of factors on the flow of arsenic-containing water into a well. The well is of novel design with a constructed aquifer providing storage. The models simulate a hillslope with till overlying a fractured bedrock aquifer as is common in New England. Backwards particle tracking using MODPATH was used to track the particles from the constructed aquifer to the recharge location. A new program, EndPoint Analyzer, was used to determine the fraction of the flow that passed through the bedrock. The bedrock is assumed to be the source of arsenic contamination so the fraction of the flow passing through bedrock could be used to assess the potential for arsenic contamination. MT3DMS simulations were used for comparison purposes. This USGS data release contains all of the input and output files for the simulations described in the associated model journal article (Winston and Ayotte, 2017). This data release also includes (1) MODFLOW-NWT (v 1.1.2) source code, (2) MODPATH version (v. 6.0) source code, (3) MT3DMS (v 5.3) source code, and (4) Endpoint Analyzer source code.

Groundwater flow models have the potential to predict spatial groundwater discharge dynamics within river networks, but models are often not evaluated against discharge dynamics. The objective of this study was to understand the variation in simulated discharge dynamics (discharge location, flowpath depth, and subsurface travel time) for models with common, but varying frameworks and assumptions. The University of Connecticut in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey developed a groundwater flow model (MODFLOW-NWT) for the Farmington River Watershed (1,570 km2) in the northeastern United States and systematically varied the type of typical calibration data (well head and stream elevation); calibration parameters; parameters related to permeability of the surficial materials, bedrock, and riverbed sediments; control of river-aquifer exchange directionality; and model resolution. Each model variation has an associated particle tracking (MODPATH) model. Subsequent work, not described in this model archive, compared with simulated spatial patterns of groundwater discharge with patterns observed with hand-held thermal infrared imagery. This dataset contains model inputs and outputs, post-processing python scripts, and pest calibration input files for 12 model variations described in the associated journal article (https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028027)