MAPPING HYDROLOGIC UNITS FOR THE NATIONAL WATERSHED BOUNDARY DATASET¹

Abstract

In 2002, Wyoming became the first state to complete development of a statewide 1:24,000‐scale Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) under the new Federal Standards for Delineation of Hydrologic Unit Boundaries. The product was developed through the coordinated efforts of numerous state, federal, and local entities both within Wyoming and in neighboring states. Development of a comprehensive, standardized hydrologic unit boundary dataset in a “headwaters” state such as Wyoming poses a number of unique challenges. This paper details the WBD's development in Wyoming, highlighting technical methodology development and interagency coordination strategies. Evolution of the WBD standard is reviewed, addressing inconsistencies between definitions for hydro‐logic units and “true” watershed delineations. While automated methods are improving, manual and semi‐automated techniques continue to serve as valuable approaches to hydrologic unit boundary delineation given the quality of digital terrain models and the multijurisdictional nature of watershed based management. This case study provides insight on future development and maintenance of the WBD within and across other states and regions of the country and on opportunities for linking the WBD to related water resource geospatial data products like the National Hydrography Dataset.

Influence of basin characteristics on the effectiveness and downstream reach of interbasin water transfers: displacing a problem

“…For each of the remaining 233 IBTs, we identified the 8-digit US Geological Survey hydrologic unit code (HUC8) associated with both the source and destination, and where appropriate we updated original 1:100 000 HUC8 identifiers (Seaber et al 1987) with values from the more recent US Geological Survey Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD 2015). The source and destination locations of each IBT were visually inspected to confirm correct WBD-derived HUC8 assignments, and components of only 3 IBTs (all located in California) were assigned new HUC8s due to differences between the original HUC8 boundaries and the WBD-derived HUC8 boundaries (e.g., Berelson et al 2004). Five additional IBTs were excluded from further analysis because their basins crossed international borders, preventing computation of areally standardized hydrologic fluxes.…”

Physics-guided probabilistic modeling of extreme precipitation under climate change

“…For the years 2065-2089, runs from the greenhouse gas scenario RCP8.5 are used. The model presented shortly is run for all 18 continental U.S. Hydrologic Unit 2 (HU2) watersheds provided by the United States Geological Survey's Watershed Boundary Dataset (USGS WBD) 45 . We include the metadata on the ESMs and watersheds used in the supplementary material.…”

Hidrología superficial de la Región Hidrográfica del río Gallegos (Sur de la provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina)

“…La cuenca hidrográfica constituye la unidad territorial más apropiada para la planificación y gestión integral, la conservación y el aprovechamiento sostenido y coordinado de los recursos hídricos considerando sus dimensiones social, productiva y natural, permitiendo la detección de las mejores oportunidades para el aprovechamiento y conservación, minimizando conflictos o impactos negativos para los recursos contenidos en la cuenca (Solanez y Villarreal, 1999;Berelson et al, 2004;COHIFE, 2013). Esta conceptualización geográfica y territorial hace centro en el recurso agua, el más importante para la sustentación de todo aspecto de la vida y de tal forma, presenta una relevancia determinante en la conformación de los paisajes, los ambientes, sus componentes e interacciones, el desarrollo de las actividades humanas y su supervivencia (Dourojeanni et al, 2002;SUBDERE-CEPAL, 2013).…”