Drainage basins of the 123 Non-Tidal Monitoring Stations in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Freshwater salinization is an emerging issue for freshwater environments in the Chesapeake Bay, USA region. Salinization is often described by measurements of specific conductance (SC). This data release contains specific conductance observations collected by multiple regional agencies for streams within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This inventory compiles and harmonizes data from the Water Quality Portal (WQP), which is a data repository developed by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council and supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS). Both discrete measures of SC, which are single measures taken on a particular time and day, and continuous measures of SC, which are repeated measures of SC taken at regular, short intervals, such as 15-minute or hourly intervals, were compiled for this data release. The discrete data were also processed to screen out non-relevant observations and harmonize units. The WQP uses "MonitoringLocationIdentifier" to identify each unique site and monitoring activities, and this term is used throughout the data release to differentiate among unique sites and monitoring activities as well. The data release includes four items: 1. ["Site_inventory_for_specific_conductance_measures.csv"]: This is a site inventory of all locations where SC data had been collected and compiled for the data release. This file includes information on the monitoring location (coordinates, state, and county), the organization responsible for the data collection, the type of data available (discrete, continuous, or both) and its unique monitoring location and activity. 2. ["Discrete_specific_conductance_results.txt"]: This file contains all discrete SC observations. Identifying information (coordinates, monitoring location name and identifier), along with the observation value, units, and multiple flagging columns which denoted whether any changes were made to the observation or units during the processing steps. Full details are included in the "readme_file_for_Ches_Bay_specific_conductance_inventory.pdf" file. 3. ["Continuous_specific_conductance_results.zip"]: This zipped folder contains 89 .csv files for all the continuous USGS SC data available in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Each file name includes each unique MonitoringLocationIdentifier. 4. ["readme_file_for_Ches_Bay_specific_conductance_inventory.pdf"]: This document describes all the processing and harmonization steps to generate the site inventory and discrete SC dataset, and for downloading the high frequency SC datasets.

Freshwater salinization is an emerging issue for freshwater environments in the Chesapeake Bay, USA region. Salinization is often described by measurements of specific conductance (SC). This data release contains specific conductance observations collected by multiple regional agencies for streams within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This inventory compiles and harmonizes data from the Water Quality Portal (WQP), which is a data repository developed by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council and supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS). Both discrete measures of SC, which are single measures taken on a particular time and day, and continuous measures of SC, which are repeated measures of SC taken at regular, short intervals, such as 15-minute or hourly intervals, were compiled for this data release. The discrete data were also processed to screen out non-relevant observations and harmonize units. The WQP uses "MonitoringLocationIdentifier" to identify each unique site and monitoring activities, and this term is used throughout the data release to differentiate among unique sites and monitoring activities as well. The data release includes four items: 1. ["Site_inventory_for_specific_conductance_measures.csv"]: This is a site inventory of all locations where SC data had been collected and compiled for the data release. This file includes information on the monitoring location (coordinates, state, and county), the organization responsible for the data collection, the type of data available (discrete, continuous, or both) and its unique monitoring location and activity. 2. ["Discrete_specific_conductance_results.txt"]: This file contains all discrete SC observations. Identifying information (coordinates, monitoring location name and identifier), along with the observation value, units, and multiple flagging columns which denoted whether any changes were made to the observation or units during the processing steps. Full details are included in the "readme_file_for_Ches_Bay_specific_conductance_inventory.pdf" file. 3. ["Continuous_specific_conductance_results.zip"]: This zipped folder contains 89 .csv files for all the continuous USGS SC data available in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Each file name includes each unique MonitoringLocationIdentifier. 4. ["readme_file_for_Ches_Bay_specific_conductance_inventory.pdf"]: This document describes all the processing and harmonization steps to generate the site inventory and discrete SC dataset, and for downloading the high frequency SC datasets.

This data release contains three 10-meter resolution GeoTIFFs representing 10-meter (35-foot), 30-meter (100-foot) and 90-meter (300-foot) riparian buffer zones along shorelines, rivers, streams, and other lotic (flowing) water features. The layers are binary, where the value of each cell represents the presence or absence of the buffer zone. In addition, the data release contains shapefile layers that document the extent of corrections that were made to the data to address errors in the stream network (see processing steps section for more details).. The methodology combines various fine-scale input layers, including a 1:24k stream network and Chesapeake Bay 1-meter resolution Land Use/Land Cover to approximate banks of stream channels and waterbodies to better define the riparian zone (CBP, 2023; Hopkins and others, 2020). For shorelines and large rivers, the width of the buffer zone (10, 30, 90 meters) begins at the banks, where land meets water. For finer scale (1:24k) stream features, the buffer zone includes both water and riparian land area, where the buffered width begins at the estimated top of bank. Each 10-meter resolution riparian buffer zone GeoTIFF dataset is contained in an individual .zip file (CBW_riparian_10m_24k_2024.zip, CBW_riparian_30m_24k_2024.zip, CBW_riparian_90m_24k_2024.zip). The shapefile layers that contain the data correction extents are available in the correction_layers.zip file.

This data release contains three 10-meter resolution GeoTIFFs representing 10-meter (35-foot), 30-meter (100-foot) and 90-meter (300-foot) riparian buffer zones along shorelines, rivers, streams, and other lotic (flowing) water features. The layers are binary, where the value of each cell represents the presence or absence of the buffer zone. In addition, the data release contains shapefile layers that document the extent of corrections that were made to the data to address errors in the stream network (see processing steps section for more details).. The methodology combines various fine-scale input layers, including a 1:24k stream network and Chesapeake Bay 1-meter resolution Land Use/Land Cover to approximate banks of stream channels and waterbodies to better define the riparian zone (CBP, 2023; Hopkins and others, 2020). For shorelines and large rivers, the width of the buffer zone (10, 30, 90 meters) begins at the banks, where land meets water. For finer scale (1:24k) stream features, the buffer zone includes both water and riparian land area, where the buffered width begins at the estimated top of bank. Each 10-meter resolution riparian buffer zone GeoTIFF dataset is contained in an individual .zip file (CBW_riparian_10m_24k_2024.zip, CBW_riparian_30m_24k_2024.zip, CBW_riparian_90m_24k_2024.zip). The shapefile layers that contain the data correction extents are available in the correction_layers.zip file.

This metadata report documents a shapefile of watershed boundaries for 84 selected United States Geological Survey (USGS) water quality stations that are part of the Chesapeake Bay non-tidal network (NTN).

This metadata report documents a shapefile of watershed boundaries for 84 selected United States Geological Survey (USGS) water quality stations that are part of the Chesapeake Bay non-tidal network (NTN).

This is an ArcGIS dataset depicting watershed segments in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and adjacent states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Thirty-meter-resolution Digital Elevation Model data were used to delineate watersheds for each stream reach. State watershed boundaries replaced the Digital Elevation Model-derived watersheds where coincident. The data are projected to the UTM grid coordinate system - Zone 18 NAD27.

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release contains estimated daily streamflow and base flow for HUC12 in the nontidal areas of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, monthly average streamflow and base flow, flow statistics, MATLAB scripts, and a document that describes how to create similar datasets in other watersheds. Daily streamflow was estimated for all the nontidal parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed with the program "Unit Flows in Networks of Channels" (UFINCH; Holtschlag, 2016), together with the observations of measured streamflow at gages at the downstream ends of major rivers. The estimated streamflow was aggregated at the HUC12 level and reformatted as an Optimal Hydrograph Separation (OHS) input file using MATLAB scripts. Base flow was calculated at each HUC12 outlet using the base flow index (BFI) hydrograph separation methods developed by Wahl and Wahl (Wahl and Wahl, 1988; Wahl and Wahl, 1995) and by Eckhardt (Eckhardt, 2005) with the parameter estimation method developed by Collischonn and Fan (Collischonn and Fan, 2013) which are incorporated into the OHS program (Raffensperger and others, 2017). This data release supports the following publication: • Buffington, P.C., and Capel, P.D., 2020, Estimating streamflow and base flow within the nontidal Chesapeake Bay riverine system: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5055, 26 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20205055. References cited: • Collischonn, W. and Fan, F.M., 2013, Defining parameters for Eckhardt's digital baseflow filter: Hydrological Processes, v. 27, no. 18, p. 2614-2622, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9391. • Eckhardt, K., 2005, How to construct recursive digital filters for baseflow separation: Hydrological Processes, v. 19, no. 2, p. 507-515, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5675. • Holtschlag, D.J., 2016, UFINCH-A method for simulating unit and daily flows in networks of channels described by NHDPlus using continuous flow data at U.S. Geological Survey streamgages: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5074, 17 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20165074. • Raffensperger, J.P., Baker, A.C., Blomquist, J.D., and Hopple, J.A., 2017, Optimal hydrograph separation using a recursive digital filter constrained by chemical mass balance, with application to selected Chesapeake Bay watersheds: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5034, 51 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175034. • Wahl, K.L., and Wahl, T.L., 1988, Effects of regional ground water declines on streamflows in the Oklahoma Panhandle, in Symposium on Water-Use Data for Water Resources Management, Tucson, Arizona, American Water Resources Association, p. 239-249. • Wahl, K.L., and Wahl, T.L., 1995, Determining the flow of Comal Springs at New Braunfels, Texas, Texas Water '95: San Antonio, Texas, American Society of Civil Engineers, p. 77-86, http://www.usbr.gov/tsc/techreferences/hydraulics_lab/pubs/PAP/PAP-0708.pdf.

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release contains estimated daily streamflow and base flow for HUC12 in the nontidal areas of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, monthly average streamflow and base flow, flow statistics, MATLAB scripts, and a document that describes how to create similar datasets in other watersheds. Daily streamflow was estimated for all the nontidal parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed with the program "Unit Flows in Networks of Channels" (UFINCH; Holtschlag, 2016), together with the observations of measured streamflow at gages at the downstream ends of major rivers. The estimated streamflow was aggregated at the HUC12 level and reformatted as an Optimal Hydrograph Separation (OHS) input file using MATLAB scripts. Base flow was calculated at each HUC12 outlet using the base flow index (BFI) hydrograph separation methods developed by Wahl and Wahl (Wahl and Wahl, 1988; Wahl and Wahl, 1995) and by Eckhardt (Eckhardt, 2005) with the parameter estimation method developed by Collischonn and Fan (Collischonn and Fan, 2013) which are incorporated into the OHS program (Raffensperger and others, 2017). This data release supports the following publication: • Buffington, P.C., and Capel, P.D., 2020, Estimating streamflow and base flow within the nontidal Chesapeake Bay riverine system: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5055, 26 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20205055. References cited: • Collischonn, W. and Fan, F.M., 2013, Defining parameters for Eckhardt's digital baseflow filter: Hydrological Processes, v. 27, no. 18, p. 2614-2622, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9391. • Eckhardt, K., 2005, How to construct recursive digital filters for baseflow separation: Hydrological Processes, v. 19, no. 2, p. 507-515, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5675. • Holtschlag, D.J., 2016, UFINCH-A method for simulating unit and daily flows in networks of channels described by NHDPlus using continuous flow data at U.S. Geological Survey streamgages: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5074, 17 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20165074. • Raffensperger, J.P., Baker, A.C., Blomquist, J.D., and Hopple, J.A., 2017, Optimal hydrograph separation using a recursive digital filter constrained by chemical mass balance, with application to selected Chesapeake Bay watersheds: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5034, 51 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175034. • Wahl, K.L., and Wahl, T.L., 1988, Effects of regional ground water declines on streamflows in the Oklahoma Panhandle, in Symposium on Water-Use Data for Water Resources Management, Tucson, Arizona, American Water Resources Association, p. 239-249. • Wahl, K.L., and Wahl, T.L., 1995, Determining the flow of Comal Springs at New Braunfels, Texas, Texas Water '95: San Antonio, Texas, American Society of Civil Engineers, p. 77-86, http://www.usbr.gov/tsc/techreferences/hydraulics_lab/pubs/PAP/PAP-0708.pdf.