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River Science at the U.S. Geological Survey
Recommendation: The USGS should employ innovative managerial approaches to combine the best elements of existing Water andBiological Resources river programs and other USGS programs,and refocus a portion of existing research and field team effortson examining and answering nationally important river sciencequestions.
Overall, society’s linkages to rivers run deep and these linkages—from agriculture to transportation and from water supply to recreation—drive a broad need for advances in river science. The USGS, by virtue of its unique strengths among the many actors in river science, has an important part to play in meeting this need. By showing leadership in monitoring, modeling, surveying, synthesizing, and data management—concerning topics such as environmental flows, behavior of sediment, and groundwater and surface-water interactions—the USGS can contribute a great deal toward answering some of the most difficult and interdisciplinary questions involving rivers. Wise application of the knowledge gained will lead to better, more informed policy and management decisions throughout the nation.
