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Groundwater Modeling Comparison

September 3, 2025

Investigate similarities and differences in approaches used to develop Central Valley hydrologic models.

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Due to the importance of water resources to the California Central Valley, efforts have been undertaken at both the Federal and State level to improve understanding of groundwater occurrence and movement. The result has been the parallel development of models simulating the water resources of the Central Valley. 
 
Over time, questions have been asked about how the Federal and State models compare. As a result, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and California Department of Water Resources (CA DWR) have worked together to investigate the similarities and differences in approach _ used to develop the models. 
 
The two models being compared are the California Central Valley Groundwater-Surface Water Simulation Model – Fine Grid (C2VSimFG) Version 1.01 developed by CA DWR and the updated Central Valley Hydrologic Model Version 2 (CVHM2) developed by the USGS. This interactive visualization includes the comparison of five input datasets for C2VSimFG and CVHM2-- land use, stream inflows, precipitation, small watershed boundary recharge and runoff, and urban pumping-- as links to download the respective datasets. 
 

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Central Valley Hydrologic Model version 2 (CVHM2): Decision support tool for groundwater and land subsidence management Central Valley Hydrologic Model version 2 (CVHM2): Decision support tool for groundwater and land subsidence management

The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) of California is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. Reliance on groundwater has led to some of the greatest rates of human-induced land subsidence in the world in the 20th century, as well as more recently. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has recently developed an integrated surface–subsurface hydrologic model, the Central...
Authors
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Related

Central Valley Hydrologic Model version 2 (CVHM2): Decision support tool for groundwater and land subsidence management Central Valley Hydrologic Model version 2 (CVHM2): Decision support tool for groundwater and land subsidence management

The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) of California is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. Reliance on groundwater has led to some of the greatest rates of human-induced land subsidence in the world in the 20th century, as well as more recently. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has recently developed an integrated surface–subsurface hydrologic model, the Central...
Authors
Kirk Nelson, Nigel Quinn, Jonathan Traum
By
California Water Science Center
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