Estimating Water-Quality Conditions in Unmonitored Water Resources

Ideally, direct measurements of contaminant concentrations in streams and ground water would be available to characterize the exposure of aquatic organisms or the potential exposure of humans to contaminants in waters used as sources of drinking water. Because of the costs of such measurements, however, this is possible for a relatively small number of streams or wells. In addition, many strategies and challenges in water-resource management are related to predicting water-quality conditions in the future. Thus, concentrations of contaminants often must be indirectly estimated for unsampled locations and time using statistical and simulation models.

Additional information on U.S. Geological Survey watershed processes and modeling can be found at: http://ks.water.usgs.gov/studies/watershed/

Wolock, D.M., and Kauffman, L.K., 2002, Estimating water-quality conditions in unmonitored water resources [abst.]: Water Resources IMPACT, v. 4, no. 4, p. 26-31.