Researchers have been coupling geographic information systems (GIS) data handling and processing capability to watershed and waterquality models for many years. This capability is suited for the development of databases appropriate for water modeling. However, it is rare for GIS to provide direct inputs to the models. To demonstrate the logical procedure of coupling GIS for model parameter extr...

This latest Perspective on Aquatic Processes focuses on a topic of great value but one that receives little attention—that of the need for water quality monitoring. Research often gets more attention from the public and from funding agencies, but it is monitoring—particularly long term programs—that provide the necessary data to determine trends in assessing ecosystem health. Monitoring program...

Introduction Gwinnett County, in metropolitan Atlanta, Ga., is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the United States. Nonpoint-source pollution is highly complex because it arises from varied, but unknown sources especially in areas of urban growth. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Gwinnett County, Department of Public Utilities, established a water-quality monitoring...

Groundwater nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) transport from ditch-drained, cultivated fields has not been adequately investigated in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.We monitored hydrology and groundwater Nand P concentrations in 26 shallow (~3 m [10 ft]) wells for 27 months on a heavily ditched, poultry-grain farm on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore. Water tables fluctuated above and below shallow di...

Artificial recharge of groundwater is achieved by putting surface water in basins. furrows, ditches, or other facilities where it infiltrates into the soil and moves downward to recharge aquifers. Artificial recharge is increasingly used for shortor long-term underground storage. where it has several advantages over surface storage, and in water reuse. Artificial recharge requires permeable sur...

Across western Europe and eastern North America, rates of acid deposition are falling in response to reductions in atmospheric S emissions (1, 2), and the water-quality of acidified surface waters is beginning to improve (1, 3). To aid in the management of S emissions, biogeochemical models designed to predict socalled “critical acid loads” (4), are now being used to predict the degree of water...

Many studies in the USA have noted inequities with regard to the socioeconomic status or racial character of communities and their relative exposure to environmental disamenities. In this paper the authors focus particularly on the environmental equity of air pollution in the English city of Birmingham. Using statistical methodologies they examine the pattern of exposure to two key air pollutan...

We collected, examined, and analyzed 1378 fish of 22 species from 47 sites in the Mississippi River basin (MRB) during 1995 and from a reference site in 1996. The sampling sites in the MRB represented National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (NCBP) stations situated at key points on major rivers and National WaterQuality Assessment Program (NAWQA) stations located on lower-order rivers and st...

Across western Europe and eastern North America, rates of acid deposition are falling in response to reductions in atmospheric S emissions (1, 2), and the water-quality of acidified surface waters is beginning to improve (1, 3). To aid in the management of S emissions, biogeochemical models designed to predict socalled “critical acid loads” (4), are now being used to predict the degree of water...