A digital representation of the watersheds of 43 sites on large river systems sampled by the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) of the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2000 was created primarily from 1:250,000 hydrologic units(HUCs) in the United States. Watershed information from Canada and Mexico was incorporated to complete the areas draining to the sampling sites from outside the United States. The sampled rivers are in one of four major river systems: the Mississippi, the Colorado, the Rio Grande, or the Columbia.

This dataset and the accompanying Data Series report was created to assist in analysis and interpretation of water-quality data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) and the National Monitoring Network (NMN). The report describes the methods used to develop the geospatial data which was primarily derived from the National Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD12). The geospatial data contains polygon shapefiles of basin boundaries for 33 NASQAN and 5 NMN stations. In addition, 30 polygon shapefiles of the closed and noncontributing basins contained within the NASQAN or NMN boundaries where applicable are included. Also included is a point shapefile of the NASQAN and NMN gaging stations and associated basin and station attributes. The basin boundaries included in this dataset are for those sites implemented under the October 2007 design for the 5-years from 2008-2013 (http://water.usgs.gov/nasqan/).

This dataset and the accompanying Data Series report was created to assist in analysis and interpretation of water-quality data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) and the National Monitoring Network (NMN). The report describes the methods used to develop the geospatial data which was primarily derived from the National Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD12). The geospatial data contains polygon shapefiles of basin boundaries for 33 NASQAN and 5 NMN stations. In addition, 30 polygon shapefiles of the closed and noncontributing basins contained within the NASQAN or NMN boundaries where applicable are included. Also included is a point shapefile of the NASQAN and NMN gaging stations and associated basin and station attributes. The basin boundaries included in this dataset are for those sites implemented under the October 2007 design for the 5-years from 2008-2013 (http://water.usgs.gov/nasqan/).

In 2013, the Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) study was started as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project. One of the objectives of the RSQA is to characterize the relationships between water-quality stressors and stream ecology and subsequently determine the relative effects of these stressors on aquatic biota within the streams (Garrett and others, 2017; Journey and others, 2015; Coles and others, 2019; Sheibley and others, 2017; May and others, 2020). The study was implemented in five regions across the United States (U.S.); the Midwest (MSQA) in 2013, the Southeast (SESQA) in 2014, the Pacific Northwest (PNSQA) in 2015, the Northeast (NESQA) in 2016, and California (CSQA) in 2017. To meet this objective, a framework of fundamental geospatial data was required to develop physical and anthropogenic characteristics of each study region, sampled sites, and corresponding watersheds and riparian zones. This dataset represents the delineated watersheds for the 492 water-quality sites (including boundaries representing the lower 5 kilometers (km) of watersheds for 180 of the sites) within the five regional study areas sampled for the RSQA and is one of the four fundamental geospatial data layers that were developed for the RSQA study.

In 2013, the first of several Regional Stream Quality Assessments (RSQA) was done in the Midwest United States. The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment (MSQA) was a collaborative study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA). One of the objectives of the RSQA, and thus the MSQA, is to characterize the relationships between water-quality stressors and stream ecology and to determine the relative effects of these stressors on aquatic biota within the streams (U.S. Geological Survey, 2012a). To meet this objective, a framework of fundamental geospatial data was required to develop physical and anthropogenic characteristics of the study region, sampled sites and corresponding watersheds, and riparian zones. This dataset represents the boundaries for the 100 watersheds studied in the MSQA, and is one of the four fundamental geospatial data layers that were developed for the Midwest study.

In 2013, the first of several Regional Stream Quality Assessments (RSQA) was done in the Midwest United States. The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment (MSQA) was a collaborative study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA). One of the objectives of the RSQA, and thus the MSQA, is to characterize the relationships between water-quality stressors and stream ecology and to determine the relative effects of these stressors on aquatic biota within the streams (U.S. Geological Survey, 2012a). To meet this objective, a framework of fundamental geospatial data was required to develop physical and anthropogenic characteristics of the study region, sampled sites and corresponding watersheds, and riparian zones. This dataset represents the boundaries for the 100 watersheds studied in the MSQA, and is one of the four fundamental geospatial data layers that were developed for the Midwest study.

The National Water Quality Network (NWQN) for Rivers and Streams includes 113 surface-water river and stream sites monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Program (NWQP). The NWQN represents the consolidation of four historical national networks: the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project, the USGS National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN), the National Monitoring Network (NMN), and the Hydrologic Benchmark Network (HBN). The NWQN includes 22 large river coastal sites, 41 large river inland sites, 30 wadeable stream reference sites, 10 wadeable stream urban sites, and 10 wadeable stream agricultural sites. In addition to the 113 NWQN sites, 3 large inland river monitoring sites from the USGS Cooperative Matching Funds (Co-op) program are also included in this annual water-quality reporting Web site to be consistent with previous USGS studies of nutrient transport in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. This data release contains geo-referenced digital data and associated attributes of watershed boundaries for 113 NWQN and 3 Co-op sites. Two sites, "Wax Lake Outlet at Calumet, LA"; 07381590, and "Lower Atchafalaya River at Morgan City, LA"; 07381600, are outflow distributaries into the Gulf of Mexico. Watershed boundaries were delineated for the portion of the watersheds between "Red River near Alexandria, LA"; 07355500 and "Atchafalaya River at Melville, LA"; 07381495 to the two distributary sites respectively. Drainage area was undetermined for these two distributary sites because the main stream channel outflows into many smaller channels so that streamflow is no longer relative to the watershed area. NWQN watershed boundaries were derived from the Watershed Boundary Dataset-12-digit hydrologic units (WBD-12). The development of the WBD-12 was a coordinated effort between the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), the USGS, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2012). A hydrologic unit is a drainage area delineated to nest in a multi-level, hierarchical drainage system. Its boundaries are defined by hydrographic and topographic criteria that delineate an area of land upstream from a specific point on a river, stream or similar surface waters. The United States is divided and sub-divided into successively smaller hydrologic units identified by a unique hydrologic unit code (HUC) consisting of two to 12 digits based on the six levels of classification in the hydrologic unit system: regions, sub-regions, accounting units, cataloging units, watersheds, and sub-watersheds. NWQN watershed boundaries were delineated by selecting all sub-watershed polygons that flow into the most downstream WBD-12 polygon in which the NWQN site is located. The WBD-12 attribute table contains 8-digit, 10-digit, and 12-digit HUCs which were used to identify which sub-watersheds flow into the watershed pour point at the NWQN site location. When the NWQN site was located above the pour point of the most downstream sub-watershed, the sub-watershed was edited to make the NWQN site the pour point of that sub-watershed. To aid editing, USGS 1:24,000 digital topographic maps were used to determine the hydrologic divide from the sub-watershed boundary to the NWQN pour point. The number of sub-watersheds which are contained within the NWQN watersheds ranged from less than one to nearly 32,000 internal sub-watersheds. Internal sub-watershed boundaries were dissolved so that a single watershed boundary was generated for each NWQN watershed. Data from this release are presented at the USGS Tracking Water Quality page: http://cida.usgs.gov/quality/rivers/home (Deacon and others, 2015). Watershed boundaries delineated for this release do not take into account non-contributing area, diversions out of the watershed, or return flows into the watershed. Delineations are based

This product contains 1,297 watershed boundaries for water quality study sites of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Program (NWQP) Surface Water Trends project. These include sites where water quality information was collected by both USGS and non-USGS agencies. The data consist of 1,285 boundaries in the conterminous United States, and 12 in Puerto Rico. Twenty-seven percent of boundaries were assembled from other efforts within the USGS which are using the same sites, and 73 percent of boundaries were created new for this project. The data are posted as a single shapefile with separate polygons for each boundary.

This product contains 1,297 watershed boundaries for water quality study sites of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Program (NWQP) Surface Water Trends project. These include sites where water quality information was collected by both USGS and non-USGS agencies. The data consist of 1,285 boundaries in the conterminous United States, and 12 in Puerto Rico. Twenty-seven percent of boundaries were assembled from other efforts within the USGS which are using the same sites, and 73 percent of boundaries were created new for this project. The data are posted as a single shapefile with separate polygons for each boundary.

In 2013, the first of several Regional Stream Quality Assessments (RSQA) was done in the Midwest United States. The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment (MSQA) was a collaborative study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA). One of the objectives of the RSQA, and thus the MSQA, is to characterize the relationships between water-quality stressors and stream ecology and to determine the relative effects of these stressors on aquatic biota within the streams (U.S. Geological Survey, 2012). To meet this objective, a framework of fundamental geospatial data was required to develop physical and anthropogenic characteristics of the study region, sampled sites and corresponding watersheds, and riparian zones. This dataset represents the 100 water-chemistry sites sampled for the MSQA, and is one of the four fundamental geospatial data layers that were developed for the Midwest study.