{"accessLevel": "public", "bureauCode": ["010:12"], "contactPoint": {"@type": "vcard:Contact", "fn": "Connor Haugh", "hasEmail": "mailto:cjhaugh@usgs.gov"}, "description": "A three-dimensional groundwater flow model (MODFLOW-2005) of the Mississippi embayment, \nSouth-Central United States, was developed as part of a national project initiated by the U.S. \nGeological Survey Groundwater Resources Program to provide updated assessments of \ngroundwater availability in important principal aquifers across the United States. The goals \nof the national assessment are to document effects of human activities on water levels and \ngroundwater storage, explore climate variability effects on the regional water budget, and \nevaluate the adequacy of data networks at a regional scale. The Mississippi embayment \nwas chosen because of the substantial dependency on groundwater for agriculture and \nmunicipal needs. \n\t\t\nSince the development of the original Mississippi Embayment Regional Aquifer system \n(MERAS) model in 2009, the model has been updated and enhanced and is proving an \ninvaluable tool to evaluate and develop water management pumping strategies.  The \nconstruction and calibration of the original model (MERAS 1.0) is documented in the \nU.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5172 \n(https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20095172).  MERAS 1.0 contains one transient simulation \nthat quantifies the groundwater availability in the aquifer system from January 1870 to \nApril 2007.  The USGS Professional Paper 1785 (https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1785) \ndescribes the historical background of the hydrologic system, analyses of the transient \nwater budget, effects of climate change on the groundwater system, and evaluation of the \ngroundwater monitoring network.  Minor modifications were done to the model to improve \nthe simulation of groundwater flow (MERAS 1.1) and two climate scenarios were completed \nusing this model. USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5161 \n(https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20135161) investigated ways to improve the match of observed \nto simulated groundwater levels within the Mississippi River Valley alluvial and middle \nClaiborne (Sparta) aquifers. The model was updated with improved water-use estimates \nand refined parameter estimation by using pilot points (MERAS 2.0). Three water-supply \nscenarios considered by the State of Arkansas were completed with the MERAS 2.0 model.\n\t\t\nTo assess proposed alternative water-supply scenarios and their impact on future water-supply \nin the Mississippi Delta, the USGS and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality \ncollaborated to update and enhance the MERAS 2.0 model.  The MERAS 2.0 model has been \nupdated to April 2014 with the most recent water-use data, precipitation and recharge data, \nand streamflow and water-level observation data to make MERAS version 2.1 \n(https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20195116).  Five different water-supply options (with a total of 22 \nsub-scenarios) are run using the MERAS 2.1 model and include: irrigation efficiency, on-farm \nstorage and tailwater recovery, weirs for surface-water augmentation, surface-water transfer, \nand groundwater transfer and injection.  All scenarios are compared with a base scenario \nwhich provides a standard for the alternate water-management scenarios. This USGS data \nrelease contains all of the input and output files for the simulation of these water-supply \noption using the new MERAS 2.1 model described in the associated model documentation \nreport (https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20195116).", "distribution": [{"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5066/P9906VM5", "description": "Landing page for access to the data", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "application/http", "title": "Digital Data"}, {"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.d6ae85bd-6e66-4d2a-b990-33eee484fda5.xml", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "title": "Original Metadata"}], "identifier": "http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_d6ae85bd-6e66-4d2a-b990-33eee484fda5", "keyword": ["Alabama", "Arkansas", "Cane River Formation", "Carrizo Sand", "Claiborne Group Undifferentiated", "Cockfield Formation", "Cook Mountain Formation", "East Gulf Coastal Plain", "Groundwater", "Groundwater Model", "Illinois", "InlandWaters", "Kentucky", "Louisiana", "MODFLOW-2005", "Memphis Sand", "Midway Group", "Mississippi", "Mississippi Alluvial Plain", "Missouri", "Sparta Sand", "Tennessee", "USGS:d6ae85bd-6e66-4d2a-b990-33eee484fda5", "Vicksburg Group and Jackson Group", "West Gulf Coastal Plain", "Wilcox Group", "Yazoo River Basin", "environment", "geoscientificInformation", "inlandWaters", "usgsgroundwatermodel", "water availability"], "modified": "2020-11-17T00:00:00Z", "publisher": {"@type": "org:Organization", "name": "U.S. Geological Survey"}, "spatial": "-94.114588, 31.192468, -86.753673, 37.465044", "theme": ["geospatial"], "title": "MODFLOW-2005 model used to evaluate water-management scenarios for the Mississippi Delta"}