The USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) service from The National Map (TNM) is a comprehensive set of digital spatial data that encodes information about naturally occurring and constructed bodies of surface water (lakes, ponds, and reservoirs), paths through which water flows (canals, ditches, streams, and rivers), and related entities such as point features (springs, wells, stream gages, and dams). The information encoded about these features includes classification and other characteristics, delineation, geographic name, position and related measures, a "reach code" through which other information can be related to the NHD, and the direction of water flow. The network of reach codes delineating water and transported material flow allows users to trace movement in upstream and downstream directions. In addition to this geographic information, the dataset contains metadata that supports the exchange of future updates and improvements to the data. The NHD is available nationwide in two seamless datasets, one based on 1:24,000-scale maps and referred to as high resolution NHD, and the other based on 1:100,000-scale maps and referred to as medium resolution NHD. Additional selected areas in the United States are available based on larger scales, such as 1:5,000-scale or greater, and referred to as local resolution NHD. The NHD from The National Map supports many applications, such as making maps, geocoding observations, flow modeling, data maintenance, and stewardship. For additional information on the NHD, go to https://nhd.usgs.gov/index.html. The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is a companion dataset to the NHD. It defines the perimeter of drainage areas formed by the terrain and other landscape characteristics. The drainage areas are nested within each other so that a large drainage area, such as the Upper Mississippi River, will be composed of multiple smaller drainage areas, such as the Wisconsin River. Each of these smaller areas can further be subdivided into smaller and smaller drainage areas. The WBD uses six different levels in this hierarchy, with the smallest averaging about 30,000 acres. The WBD is made up of polygons nested into six levels of data respectively defined by Regions, Subregions, Basins, Subbasins, Watersheds, and Subwatersheds. For additional information on the WBD, go to https://nhd.usgs.gov/wbd.html. The National Map hydrography data is commonly combined with other data themes, such as boundaries, elevation, structures, and transportation, to produce general reference base maps. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain NHD and WBD data in either Esri File or Personal Geodatabase, or Shapefile formats.

HYDRoSWOT – HYDRoacoustic dataset in support of Surface Water Oceanographic Topography – is a data set that aggregates channel and flow data collected from the USGS streamgaging network and includes 200,000+ records of USGS acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) discharge measurements. The data set includes a variety of fields including: mean depth, mean velocity, discharge, stage, water-surface width, maximum depth, maximum velocity, and streamgage metadata for more than 5,000 stations in the United States. The hydraulic and channel geometry data is stored in the USGS hydroacoustic Doppler current profiler tables reported in the SiteVisit field measurement database and polled from 45 individual National Water Information System (NWIS) hosts. The database tables were de-normalized into a single flat file intended for further study in various analytical software, such as a spreadsheet or data frame. Each station can possess multiple measurements, as indicated by the measurement number recorded in the q_meas_no field. An individual measurement may have multiple sub-measurements when flow occurs in multiple channels. The multiple channels are recorded in the q_meas_chan_nu field. This dataset only contains ADCP measurement data. In the event of a multiple channel measurement, where other methods were used to measure flow, only ADCP measurements will be represented.

HYDRoSWOT – HYDRoacoustic dataset in support of Surface Water Oceanographic Topography – is a data set that aggregates channel and flow data collected from the USGS streamgaging network and includes 200,000+ records of USGS acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) discharge measurements. The data set includes a variety of fields including: mean depth, mean velocity, discharge, stage, water-surface width, maximum depth, maximum velocity, and streamgage metadata for more than 5,000 stations in the United States. The hydraulic and channel geometry data is stored in the USGS hydroacoustic Doppler current profiler tables reported in the SiteVisit field measurement database and polled from 45 individual National Water Information System (NWIS) hosts. The database tables were de-normalized into a single flat file intended for further study in various analytical software, such as a spreadsheet or data frame. Each station can possess multiple measurements, as indicated by the measurement number recorded in the q_meas_no field. An individual measurement may have multiple sub-measurements when flow occurs in multiple channels. The multiple channels are recorded in the q_meas_chan_nu field. This dataset only contains ADCP measurement data. In the event of a multiple channel measurement, where other methods were used to measure flow, only ADCP measurements will be represented.

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, not 1:100,000 scale.) Like the 1:100,000-scale NHD, high resolution NHD contains reach codes for networked features and isolated lakes, flow direction, names, stream level, and centerline representations for areal water bodies. Reaches are also defined to represent waterbodies and the approximate shorelines of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. The NHD also incorporates the National Spatial Data Infrastructure framework criteria set out by the Federal Geographic Data Committee.

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, not 1:100,000 scale.) Like the 1:100,000-scale NHD, high resolution NHD contains reach codes for networked features and isolated lakes, flow direction, names, stream level, and centerline representations for areal water bodies. Reaches are also defined to represent waterbodies and the approximate shorelines of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. The NHD also incorporates the National Spatial Data Infrastructure framework criteria set out by the Federal Geographic Data Committee.

This page is meant to act as an archival repository for previous versions of the statewide National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) which includes the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) released by USGS. All data are presented in their original, unmodified format as downloaded from USGS. Be aware that the data do not come with a geometric network; directions for building the geometric network can be found in the text file on this resource page called "How to Create NHD Network".

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release includes locations for 12,422 USGS streamgages as indexed along the network of streams (flowlines) in NHDPlus Version 2.1 (NHDPlus v2, Moore and Dewald, 2016). The dataset is one of two datasets developed for the Streamgage Watershed InforMation (SWIM) project. This dataset, which is referred to as “SWIM streamgage locations,” was created in support of the second dataset of basin characteristics and disturbance indexes. The streamgages are located in the conterminous United States and have a minimum record length of 20 years of daily streamflow values or at least 20 years of peak flows (USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database, U.S. Geological Survey, 2016). This dataset has a total of 13,248 streamgages, 826 of which could not be indexed to NHDPlus v2.1. A custom ArcGIS tool was programmed to conduct linear referencing, which moved each point representing a streamgage to intersect with the nearest flowline and calculated the measure along the segment (expressed as a percentage from its downstream end). The tool then performed a series of automated tests to identify potentially inaccurate locations that were, in turn, individually checked. Comments collected during multiple levels of review were retained in raw form to aid future decisions about the accuracy of the streamgage locations along the medium-resolution (1:100,000-scale) NHDPlus stream segments. The results include the unique flowline identifier (COMID) and measure along the flowline, the reach code and measure along its reach (stream feature that consists of one or more flowlines), review notes, plus the latitude and longitude of the stream-referenced location for each streamgage. This designated position along the NHDPlus network may also be referred to as the hydrographic address of the streamgage. References: Falcone, J.A., 2011, GAGES-II: Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow: U.S. Geological Survey dataset, https://doi.org/10.3133/70046617 Moore, R.B., and Dewald, T.G., 2016, The Road to NHDPlus — Advancements in digital stream networks and associated catchments: Journal of the American Water Resources Association, https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12389 U.S. Geological Survey, 2016, USGS water data for the Nation: U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System database, accessed October 2016, at https://doi.org/10.5066/F7P55KJN