This database was developed for the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER) for the Delaware River Basin (DRB), a decision support tool that provides a consistent and objective method of simulating streamflow under historical, forecasted, and managed conditions (Williamson and others, 2015). This database provides historical spatial and climatic data for simulating streamflow for 2001–11, in addition to land-cover forecasts and general circulation model (global climate model; GCM) projections that focus on 2030 and 2060. The database provides for geospatial sampling, at a 10-30 m resolution, of landscape characteristics, including topographic and soil properties, land cover and impervious surface, water use, and GCM change factors for precipitation, temperature, and a radiation-based potential evapotranspiration. These data are available as a cohesive unit, that provides the file structure required by the hydrologic tool, in addition to some layers being provided as individual files. Williamson, T.N., Lant, J.G., Claggett, P.R., Nystrom, E.A., Milly, P.C.D., Nelson, H.L., Hoffman, S.A., Colarullo, S.J., and Fischer, J.M., 2015. Summary of hydrologic modeling for the Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5143, 68 p., http://doi.org/10.3133/sir20155143.

The Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER-KY; Williamson and others, 2009) provides the ability to simulate streamflow for ungaged basins. This model integrates TOPMODEL (Beven and Kirkby, 1979) for pervious portions of the landscape with simulation of flow generated from impervious surfaces (USDA, 1986). A restructured version of this decision support tool translates the abilities of WATER to a format that can be used without proprietary software (Williamson and others, 2021). Additional functionality has also been added to include hydrologic response units (HRUs) that are defined based on three fundamental land-use categories: forest, agricultural land, and developed areas, based on subsequent development of WATER for the Delaware River Basin (Williamson and others, 2015). This refinement for agricultural areas, combined with the new software environment that enables easy substitution of precipitation and temperature data was used to develop a method focused on recent conditions in order to simulate daily peak streamflow for forecasted precipitation totals as well as the associated stage in order to identify if flood conditions are possible. Beven, K.J., and Kirkby, M.J., 1979, A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology / Un modèle à base physique de zone d'appel variable de l'hydrologie du bassin versant: Hydrological Sciences Bulletin v. 24, p. 43-69, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667909491834. U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], 1986, Urban hydrology for small watersheds: Natural Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Engineering Division, Technical Release 55, Revised June 1986, Update of Appendix A January 1999, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1421/ML14219A437.pdf. Williamson, T.N., Hoefling, D.J., Headman, A.O., and Gerzan, M.N., 2021, Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources for the Commonwealth of Kentucky updated for 2019: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9AQH027. Williamson, T.N., Lant, J.G., Claggett, P.R., Nystrom, E.A., Milly, P.C.D., Nelson, H.L., Hoffman, S.A., Colarullo, S.J., and Fischer, J.M., 2015, Summary of hydrologic modeling for the Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015–5143, 68 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20155143. Williamson, T.N., Odom, K.R., Newson, J.K., Downs, A.C., Nelson Jr., H.L., Cinotto, P.J., and Ayers, M.A., 2009, The Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER)—A water-budget modeling approach for managing water-supply resources in Kentucky—Phase I—Data processing, model development, and application to non-karst areas:U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5248, 34 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20095248.

In 2009, the Kentucky Water Science Center completed the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER-KY), which provided the ability to simulate streamflow for the period 1980-2000. This model integrated TOPMODEL (Beven and Kirkby, 1979) for pervious portions of the landscape with simulation of flow generated from impervious surfaces (USDA, 1986). Associated products included a flow-duration curve, load-duration curves when water-quality data were available, and general water balance. WATER-KY required a dedicated ArcGIS license with the Spatial Analyst extension, which made it difficult to use for some cooperators and limited integration with other hydrologic approaches. This new version translates the abilities of WATER to a format that can be used without proprietary software or local updating of software. Additional functionality has also been added to include hydrologic response units (HRUs) that are defined based on three fundamental land-use categories: forest, agricultural land, and developed areas, based on subsequent development of WATER for the Delaware Basin (Williamson and others, 2015). Beven, K.J., and Kirkby, M.J., 1979, A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology / Un modèle à base physique de zone d'appel variable de l'hydrologie du bassin versant: Hydrological Sciences Bulletin v. 24, p. 43-69, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667909491834. U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], 1986, Urban hydrology for small watersheds: Natural Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Engineering Division, Technical Release 55, Revised June 1986, Update of Appendix A January 1999, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1044171.pdf. Williamson, T.N., Lant, J.G., Claggett, P.R., Nystrom, E.A., Milly, P.C.D., Nelson, H.L., Hoffman, S.A., Colarullo, S.J., and Fischer, J.M., 2015, Summary of hydrologic modeling for the Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015–5143, 68 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20155143.

These data include those for soil characteristics and TOPMODEL-specific variables that are derived from soils data.

These data include land-cover, water bodies, and topographic data.

These data include land-cover, water bodies, and topographic data.

This data release contains information to support water quality modeling in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). These data support both process-based and machine learning approaches to water quality modeling, including the prediction of stream temperature. This section provides spatial data files that describe the rivers, reservoirs, and observational data in the Delaware River Basin included in this release. One shapefile of polylines describes the 459 river reaches that define the modeling network, and another shapefile of polygons includes the three reservoirs (Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink) for which data are included in this release. Additionally, a point shapefile contains locations of monitoring sites along the reaches with supporting attributes that describe the monitoring location.

This data release contains information to support water quality modeling in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). These data support both process-based and machine learning approaches to water quality modeling, including the prediction of stream temperature. This section includes model drivers such as gridded weather data (NOAA GEFS and GridMET), and the stream network distance matrix for the Delaware River Basin. Additionally, inputs and outputs from an uncalibrated process-based stream temperature model (PRMS-SNTemp) are included.