Monthly Water Balance Model Futures

A monthly water balance model (MWBM) was driven with precipitation and temperature using a station-based dataset for current conditions (1949 to 2010) and selected statistically-downscaled general circulation models (GCMs) for current and future conditions (1950 to 2099) across the conterminous United States (CONUS) using hydrologic response units from the Geospatial Fabric for National Hydrologic Modeling (Viger and Bock, 2014). Six MWBM output variables (actual evapotranspiration (AET), potential evapotranspiration (PET), runoff (RO), streamflow (STRM), soil moisture storage (SOIL), and snow water equivalent (SWE)) and the two MWBM input variables (atmospheric temperature (TAVE) and precipitation (PPT)) were summarized for hydrologic response units and aggregated at points of interest on a stream network. Results were organized into the Monthly Water Balance Model Futures database, and accessed through the Monthly Water Balance Model Futures Portal (https://my.usgs.gov/mows/). Note that the data release changed names in January 2017 from "Hydrology Futures" to "Monthly Water Balance Model Futures" due to "Hydrology Futures" being a copyright trademark. Methods used to calibrate and parameterize the MWBM are detailed in the Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) paper "Parameter regionalization of a monthly water balance model for the conterminous United States" by Bock and others (2016). See the link in the "Related External Resources" section for access. Supplemental data files related to the plots and data analysis in Bock and others (2016) can be found in the HESS-2015-325.zip folder in the "Attached Files" section. Detailed information on the files and data can be found in the ReadMe.txt contained within the zipped folder. The data release accompanying the Earth Interactions article “Do downscaled general circulation models reliably simulate historical climatic conditions?” (Bock and others, 2018) and Advances in Water Resources article "Quantifying Uncertainty in Simulated Streamflow and Runoff from a Continental-scale Monthly Water Balance Model" is available as a child items to this page.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
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identifier USGS:55fc3f98e4b05d6c4e5029a1
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20200814
old-spatial -127.9042, 22.9469, -65.3483, 51.6517
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash d390ba6325d3f2387e17c5aa18b4ef5c6648feef
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spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-127.9042, 22.9469], [-127.9042, 51.6517], [ -65.3483, 51.6517], [ -65.3483, 22.9469], [-127.9042, 22.9469]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • geo
  • geoss
  • hydrology
  • inlandwaters
  • national
  • north-america
  • precipitation
  • runoff
  • streamflow
  • united-states
  • usgs-55fc3f98e4b05d6c4e5029a1
  • water-cycle
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Andrew Bock
maintainer_email abock@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T10:23:04.343714
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T10:23:04.343718
notes A monthly water balance model (MWBM) was driven with precipitation and temperature using a station-based dataset for current conditions (1949 to 2010) and selected statistically-downscaled general circulation models (GCMs) for current and future conditions (1950 to 2099) across the conterminous United States (CONUS) using hydrologic response units from the Geospatial Fabric for National Hydrologic Modeling (Viger and Bock, 2014). Six MWBM output variables (actual evapotranspiration (AET), potential evapotranspiration (PET), runoff (RO), streamflow (STRM), soil moisture storage (SOIL), and snow water equivalent (SWE)) and the two MWBM input variables (atmospheric temperature (TAVE) and precipitation (PPT)) were summarized for hydrologic response units and aggregated at points of interest on a stream network. Results were organized into the Monthly Water Balance Model Futures database, and accessed through the Monthly Water Balance Model Futures Portal (https://my.usgs.gov/mows/). Note that the data release changed names in January 2017 from "Hydrology Futures" to "Monthly Water Balance Model Futures" due to "Hydrology Futures" being a copyright trademark. Methods used to calibrate and parameterize the MWBM are detailed in the Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) paper "Parameter regionalization of a monthly water balance model for the conterminous United States" by Bock and others (2016). See the link in the "Related External Resources" section for access. Supplemental data files related to the plots and data analysis in Bock and others (2016) can be found in the HESS-2015-325.zip folder in the "Attached Files" section. Detailed information on the files and data can be found in the ReadMe.txt contained within the zipped folder. The data release accompanying the Earth Interactions article “Do downscaled general circulation models reliably simulate historical climatic conditions?” (Bock and others, 2018) and Advances in Water Resources article "Quantifying Uncertainty in Simulated Streamflow and Runoff from a Continental-scale Monthly Water Balance Model" is available as a child items to this page.
num_resources 2
num_tags 15
title Monthly Water Balance Model Futures