USGS: National Hydrography Dataset

National Hydrography Dataset

NHD Applications

USFS Reprojection Tool - This tool was developed by the U.S.D.A.--Forest Service for the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) NHDinGEO format, but can function on any personal geodatabase.The USFS Reprojection Toolbar changes geographic projection and can transform datums using all available ESRI ArcObjects algorithms. This is an add-on toolbar written for ESRI's ArcGIS 9.x (ArcCatalog). The advantage is that it reprojects whole personal geodatabases at once, and updates the metadata at both the Geodatabase, Dataset, and Feature class levels in both the Data Quality and Spatial Reference sections of standard FGDC metadata--or creates its own metadata if there is none.
EventMaker - This software was developed by the U.S. Forest Service to fill a hole in the linear referencing tools available in ArcMap, which is the ability to interactively create a linear event based on endpoints. The software also creates point events and is available for ArcGIS 8.3 and 9.0.
NHD Watershed - This application employs the NHD and other supporting data layers to delineate a watershed from any point on any NHD reach.
NHD Watershed Characteristics - This application employs the NHD and other supporting data layers to compute characteristics of choice for watersheds delineated using NHD Watershed.
West Fork Cedar River Demo - This application demonstrates how the NHD can used to facilitate the integration of water resources information.

NHDPlus Offers New Geospatial Data and Tools for Water Quality Managers - Between 1996 and 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other federal, state and local agencies collaborated to produce the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), a comprehensive set of digital geospatial data about surface water features such as streams, rivers and lakes. These data can be used by water quality managers to make maps, perform upstream/downstream queries, and link other water-related information to the NHD network.

In 2006, this interagency collaboration produced NHDPlus, a suite of application-ready geospatial products that build upon, and extend, the capabilities of the medium-resolution NHD. NHDPlus integrates the NHD with the National Elevation Dataset (NED) and the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD). It includes an enhanced NHD stream network with improved names, value-added attributes (such as stream order), incremental drainage areas with landscape characteristics, and flow volume and velocity estimates for pollutant dilution modeling. EPA and USGS have linked many water quality databases to NHDPlus, including stream gaging stations, water quality monitoring sites, and impaired waters, enabling these databases to be queried and analyzed in upstream/downstream order. NHDPlus greatly enhances the ability of researchers and water quality managers to analyze and model water quality data. For more information on NHDPlus, visit www.epa.gov/waters. Click on the NHDPlus Quick Link on the right side of the web page.
WATERS - Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental ResultS (WATERS) employs the NHD as the spatial framework for integrating EPA water program databases.
NRIS Water - The U.S. Forest Service Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) Water module employs the NHD as its common hydrologic framework to support aquatic resource decision-making on National Forests.
New England SPARROW - This NHD-based version of the USGS SPARROW water-quality model aids the development of regional nutrient water-quality criteria and total maximum daily loads (TMDL) for New England streams.
Fish Passage Decision Support System The FPDSS is a web-based application, funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, that provides policy makers and the public with information on barriers to fish passage. It uses the NHD for mapping and barrier removal modeling operations.
Vermont Flow-Frequency Tool - The USGS in cooperation with the Vermont Agency of Transportation developed this NHD-based tool to automate the calculation of basin characteristics required by flow-frequency equations that estimate peak-flow frequency and flow duration.

Disclaimers:

USFS Reprojection Tool

Developer: Natural Resource Information System - U.S. Forest Service

Software Environment: ArcGIS 9.1 or 9.2 (ArcCatalog); Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0; Windows Installer 3.0. Also, it is expected that all feature classes in a given geodatabase are using the same projection parameters. The input geodatabase coordinate system must be defined (can not be "Unknown").

Purpose: The USFS Reprojection Toolbar changes geographic projection and can transform Datum using all available ESRI ArcObjects model algorithms. This is an add-on toolbar written for ESRI's ArcGIS 9.x (ArcCatalog). Once a geodatabase is highlighted and the toolbar's button is pushed, a user interface appears. User must name a new output personal geodatabase, and select the desired projection and datum. ESRI handles network manipulations in an incomplete fashion. Personal geodatabases that include network features were found to lose all directionality when ESRI's tools copy or attempt to re-use an existing network. Therefore, upon detection of a network, the user interface reports that this tool will drop any network(s) that exist and the user is directed to rebuild them easily with a variety of custom and ESRI out-of-the box native tools. Both extent and precision are customizable. The tool was developed in the realm of National Hydrography Datasets (NHD), but is generic in order to function on any personal geodatabase. Average NHD datasets often exceed 12,000 records in their NHDFlowline feature class alone. That feature class and all others included in the standard NHDinGEO datasets are typically reprojected in 3 minutes with this tool. A progress report at the lower left corner of ArcCatalog shows current status at all times during processing. FGDC compliant metadata is updated in both the Data Quality Information and the Spatial Reference Information sections. The "NHD Network Builder" can be downloaded at:

http://nhd.usgs.gov/tools.html

Loading and Installing:

Check your Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs to find the Microsoft .NET Framework you have installed on your PC. Determine if your computer uses Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 or 2.0.
Close ArcCatalog if it is currently running.
Highlight or double-click one of the appropriate files below for the version of MSN .NET installed on your computer. Choose Reprojection_Tool_USFS_version_1.2.1.zip if your PC uses .NET 1.1, or Reprojection_Tool_USFS_version_1.3.1.zip if your PC uses .NET 2.0. You will be able to automatically download or extract (unzip) the files to your personal computer. Keep all files together in the same folder anywhere on your computer.
Double-click on the .msi file to install the tool. Depending on your local environment and operating system, Administrative privileges may be needed to install this on your PC. A Wizard will guide you through the process.

Using USFS Reprojection Tool:

EventMaker

Developer: Natural Resource Information System - U.S. Forest Service

Software Environment: EventMaker runs under ArcGIS 8.3 or ArcGIS 9.0 (select correct file)

Purpose: Separate versions are available for ArcGIS 8.3 and 9.0. The documentation is included with each file. The EventMaker tool creates polyline or point features in geodatabases with network addresses using reach codes and measures. This permits the analysis of event relationships within the hydrographic network. Points or linear endpoints chosen by the user in this interface determine the spatial location of these features. Features are tied to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) geodatabase topology and NHDFlowline routes. Features that include more than one NHD reach code are sometimes referred to as Event groups or Segments. Where more than one NHD feature is detected during point creation, the user is given a choice of NHD features that the new point will be associated to.

Linear features that are created by the user may cover multiple NHD reaches and the output can either report the two endpoint reach identifiers and measures (m-values), or report all reaches and their measures covered by the newly created segment. The user may create links to their own external database(s) by Name and ID field entries that are populated during the creation of each new feature. These fields may be left blank (are nullable), but doing so makes the spatial data less useful. Duplicate Names and IDs are detected and reported to the user, but uniqueness is not enforced. It is up to the user to determine the appropriateness of their point or line label(s). Polyline length is recorded for each feature. Length is based on the unit of measure within the shape field of the NHDFlowline ArcMap is referencing with the EventMaker tool.

Loading and Installing:

Unzip the contents of EventMaker_Extension_forArcGIS83.zip or EventMaker_Extension_forArcGIS90.zipfile to a directory. The directory and its contents need to be kept together to use the tool.
Navigate to the directory where the unzipped files reside. Double-click "Install.bat" to install the EventMaker tool as an extension into ArcMap. (An Uninstall.bat is also provided for removing the program at a later date).

Using EventMaker:

segments

points

Flashed

Map Tips

Note:

NHD Watershed

Developer:

Peter Steeves

Current Version:

Software Environment:

NHD ArcView Toolkit

Purpose:

NHD ArcView Toolkit

from any point

Downloading and Installing:

For preprocessed supporting data layers, you have the following 3 options. (NHD Watershed will prompt you for the directory location of these data layers.)
1. Download the sample pre-processed supporting data layers for Vermont's White River subbasin (01080105), which are in Vermont State Plane Projection.
  - High-Res NHD workspace in shapefile format:
    - Download 01080105_24shp.tgz (6.8 MB)
  - NHD WATershed SUPport (WATSUP) data layers workspace:
    - Download 01080105_ws.tgz (23 MB)
2. Contact the NHD Watershed developer to determine if this preprocessing has already been performed for your subbasin(s) of interest.
3. Preprocess your own NHD WATershed SUPport (WATSUP) data layers workspace (in a subbasin of interest that is not yet preprocessed) as described in the preprocessing instructions, "NHD Watershed Tool - Instructions for Preprocessing Supporting Data Layers" HTML | PDF (915K) .
Download and install the NHD ArcView Toolkit
Within the Toolkit directory (by default the directory is named �NHDToolkit�), create a new directory named �NHDWatershed' and download the NHD Watershed Help files (right-click, choose "save link as" or "save target as") into the new directory
Download the NHD Watershed extension into the Arcview ext32 directory
- If you have ArcView Spatial Analyst:
  1. Download nhdWatershed.avx (right-click, choose "save link as" or "save target as" - if your browser adds a .txt extension to this file you will need to remove it before proceeding)
  2. Open the extensions menu
  3. Turn on Spatial Analyst (before the other extensions)
  4. Quit out of the extension menu
- If you do NOT have ArcView Spatial Analyst, download nhdWatershedNS.avx (right-click, choose "save link as" or "save target as" - if your browser adds a .txt extension to this file you will need to remove it before proceeding)
Open the extensions menu and turn on the NHD Watershed extension
Follow the �NHD Load/Unload Workspace� instructions under the Help menu to load your NHD workspace
Follow the �NHD Watershed� instructions under the Help menu to load an NHD WATershed SUPport (WATSUP) data layers workspace

Using NHD Watershed:

Downloading and Installing

Step 1.a.

NHD Watershed Characteristics

Developer:

Peter Steeves

Current Version:

Software Environment:

NHD ArcView Toolkit

Purpose:

Downloading and Installing:

NHD Watershed Characteristics is part ArcView project and part ArcView extension. The project includes a set of un-encrypted scripts for users to modify to summarize their own characteristics.

Download the default ArcView project
To use the ArcView project without modifying the scripts, download the sample data layers for Vermont's White River subbasin (01080105), which are in Vermont State Plane projection.
1. High-Res NHD workspace in shapefile format:
  - Download 01080105_24shp.tgz (6.8 MB)
2. NHD WATershed SUPport (WATSUP) data layers workspace:
  - Download 01080105_ws.tgz (23 MB)
3. NHD Watershed Characteristics workspace:
  - Download 01080105_ff.tar.gz (1 MB)
Download and install the NHD ArcView Toolkit
Download and install the NHD Watershed Tool
Within the Toolkit directory (by default the directory is named NHDToolkit), create a new directory named NHDWCharacterisitcs' and download the NHD Watershed Characteristics Help files (right-click, choose "save link as" or "save target as") into the new directory.
Download the NHD Watershed Characteristics extension into the ArcView ext32 directory:
- Download nhdwcharacteristics.avx (right-click, choose "save link as" or "save target as" - if your browser adds a .txt extension to this file you will need to remove it before proceeding)
Follow the NHD Watershed tool steps for turning on relevant extensions (NHD Watershed 'Downloading and Installing' steps 4 and 5)
Follow the NHD Load/Unload Workspace instructions under the Help menu to load your NHD workspace
Follow the NHD Watershed instructions under the Help menu to load an NHD Watershed workspace
Follow the NHD Watershed Characteristics instructions under the Help menu to load an NHD Watershed Characteristics workspace
Download additional characteristic summary examples

Using NHD Watershed Characteristics:

Downloading and Installing

Step 2.

NHD West Fork Cedar River Demo

Developer:

NHD Support Team

Current Version:

Software Environment:

Purpose:

Technical References

Data

Downloading and Installing:

Download NHD West Fork Cedar River Demo

Please Note: The NHDinARC data used by the demo contains empty tables (0 bytes in size). This presents a problem for some types of decompression software which do not retain empty files. Please see the PC-Compatible Compression Tools discussion for more details.

Using the NHD West Fork Cedar River Demo:

In Microsoft Word format (211k)
In Adobe Acrobat PDF format (335k)

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://nhd.usgs.gov/applications.html
Questions or Assistance: Contact USGS
Last modified: Friday, 22-Jun-2007 14:06:42 EDT