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  1. Water Mission Area National Spatial Data Infrastructure Datasets
  2. National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

Dates

Release Date
2001-01-01
Start Date
2001
Publication Date

Citation

Office of the Associate Director for Water, 2001, National Hydrography Dataset (NHD): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P933X6VB.

Summary

These data were released prior to the October 1, 2016 effective date for the USGS’s policy dictating the review, approval, and release of scientific data as referenced in USGS Survey Manual Chapter 502.8 Fundamental Science Practices: Review and Approval of Scientific Data for Release. The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a feature-based database that interconnects and uniquely identifies the stream segments or reaches that make up the nation's surface water drainage system. NHD data was originally developed at 1:100,000 scale and exists at that scale for the whole country. High resolution NHD adds detail to the original 1:100,000-scale NHD. (Data for Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands was developed at high-resolution, [...]

Contacts

Point of Contact :
U.S. Geological Survey, Office of the Associate Director for Water
Originator :
U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other State and local partners (see dataset specific metadata under Data_Set_Credit for details)
Metadata Contact :
U.S. Geological Survey
SDC Data Owner :
Office of the Associate Director for Water
USGS Mission Area :
Water Resources

Attached Files

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nhd.xml
Original FGDC Metadata
View 		14.26 KB application/fgdc+xml

Purpose

NHD is used with other data themes such as elevation, boundaries, and transportation to produce general reference maps. The NHD is often used by scientists using GIS technology. GIS takes advantage of a rich set of attributes that can be processed to generate specialized information. These analyses are possible because the NHD contains a flow direction network that traces the water downstream or upstream. The NHD also uses an addressing system to link specific information about the water such as discharge rates, water quality, and fish population. Using the basic NHD attributes, flow network, linked information, and other characteristics, it is possible to study cause and affect relationships such as how a source of poor water quality upstream might affect a fish population downstream. The features in the NHD are organized into polygons, lines and points. The polygons most commonly portray waterbodies such as lakes while lines commonly portray streams. The stream lines are broken into shorter segments stretching from confluence-to-confluence. The segments are then linked together to trace the flow of water across the landscape. Flowlines attributed as artificial paths are added inside water bodies to maintain the flow network.
Web site and further information pertaining to the National Hydrography Dataset.
Web site and further information pertaining to the National Hydrography Dataset.

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Communities

  • Model Data Management Function (MDMF)

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Provenance

These data were originally released on the Water Mission Area National Spatial Data Infrastructure Node and were migrated to sciencebase.gov in 2023. These data were released prior to the October 1, 2016 effective date for the USGS's policy dictating the review, approval, and release of scientific data as referenced in USGS Survey Manual Chapter 502.8 Fundamental Science Practices: Review and Approval of Scientific Data for Release.

Additional Information

Identifiers

Type Scheme Key
DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P933X6VB

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