The Delaware Geological Survey will review recent scientific literature and assessments of sea-level change in Delaware and identify appropriate scenarios to use for planning purposes throughout the state. This project will also develop new inundation maps along Delaware's coast that correspond to the identified scenarios.

In 2015, staff of the DNREC Water Supply Section made DGS aware of a situation east of Dover where there is potential for overpumping of the Columbia aquifer by the City of Dover’s Long Point Road wellfield (LPRW) and numerous large-capacity irrigation wells in the surrounding area (Figure 1).

Geologic maps at the DGS are created as primary deliverables of a project and as derivatives of other projects. Primary deliverables are mainly those that are the result of outside funding sources such as the AASG-USGS cooperative StateMap. Derivative maps are those that have primary data collected for reasons other than geologic mapping can be used to create geologic maps or that geologic maps are derivative products of a project rather than the primary goal of a project.

DGS is collaborating with climate scientist Kevin Brinson (DEOS) and Tracy DeLiberty (Dept. of Geography) to develop and test methods to estimate and map annual and seasonal distribution of evapotranspiration (ET) for Sussex County, Delaware. Remotely sensed data from Landsat 7 ETM+ and MODIS platforms will be used to estimate regional energy balance and water flux. These estimates are calibrated by comparison to ET estimates determined by direct point measurements (Eddy Covariance and atmometer) and models driven by meteorological data such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and soil moisture. The results have the potential to improve accuracy and precision of ET models and will be valuable for efforts that use water budgets for resource management, agriculture, wetland assessment, and research.
A final report was submitted for publication as a DGS Report of Investigations in January 2019.

The DGS will research past performance of the Water Conditions Index (WCI) for Northern New Castle County, as compared with other established drought indicators, and investigate modifying the WCI, if needed. We will also investigate the feasibility of quantifying water conditions in Kent and Sussex Counties by analyzing factors that are most important to these regions (i.e., precipitation, groundwater for agricultural irrigation, etc….)

This project will study the water level behavior throughout the Delaware Inland Bays, with a focus on populated areas, during times of both storm and non-storm events through analysis of observational data from tide gages. It will also support the inclusion of the Delaware Inland Bays into the Delaware CFMS by developing a statistical relationships between the water levels along the Atlantic Ocean coast near the mouth of the Inland B

DGS is building a database and web distribution system to collect, manage, and display high water marks (HWMs) that are observed throughout Delaware as a result of flooding events. Historical peak water levels can be extracted for past storms or for a selected geographic area. Development is being done in partnership with the Office of the Delaware State Climatologist, the Delaware Environmental Observing System (DEOS) and the Delaware Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center (DEMAC).