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-  3D Hydrography Program 

#           Abridged History of Hydrography Datasets      

      By 3D Hydrography Program

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Over the last several decades, numerous geospatial hydrography datasets have been used in the United States. The overall trend has been to incorporate more hydrographic features represented with more spatial detail in each successive dataset. The table below lists many of the most commonly used hydrography datasets and includes information regarding how some of the datasets relate to each other.

A set of persistent, scale-independent unique identifiers known as mainstem identifiers have been developed for the hydrography of the conterminous United States (Blodgett and others, 2021, Blodgett, 2023). These mainstem identifiers have been used to develop crosswalks to identify corresponding features between many of the datasets listed in the table. The “MainstemIDs Available?” column in the table indicates whether mainstem identifiers are currently available (“Yes”) for features in the dataset being described, or whether these mainstem identifiers are currently in work for that dataset.  

Initially the mainstem identifiers were developed based on the NHDPlus V2.1, for just the stream network needed to connect the 12-digit Hydrologic Units (HU12s) for the conterminous United States (Blodgett and others, 2021). Current efforts include expanding the mainstem identifiers to include all the stream networks represented in the NHDPlus V2 and the NHDPlus High Resolution (Blodgett and others, 2024). These mainstem identifiers are being incorporated into the 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) dataset and provide crosswalk capabilities between many of the most-used historical hydrography datasets and the features represented in the 3DHP. These mainstem identifiers also are being used in the geospatial foundation of the Internet of Water. More information about mainstem identifiers and the software used to create and maintain the crosswalk tables may be found here.

For additional information on the historical development of geospatial hydrography networks for the United States, see Moore and Dewald (2016) and Dewald (2017).  

 

**References: **

                              - Blodgett, D., Johnson, J.M., Sondheim, M., Wieczorek, M., and Frazier, N., 2021, Mainstems: A logical data model implementing mainstem and drainage basin feature types based on WaterML2 Part 3: HY Features concepts: Environmental Modelling & Software, v. 135, p. 104927,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104927 . 

                              - Blodgett, D.L., 2023, Mainstem Rivers of the Conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, February 2023): U.S. Geological Survey data release,  https://doi.org/10.5066/P92U7ZUT . 

                              - Blodgett, D.L., Ritmiller, C.L, Gold, B.L., Hayes, Laura, and Wieczorek, Michael, 2024, Network Attributes for the Hi Res National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) based initial 3D Hydrography Program Network: U.S. Geological Survey,  https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/650cba99d34e823a0273a790 . 

                              - Dewald, 2017, Making the Digital Water Flow: The Evolution of Geospatial Surfacewater Frameworks,  https://dmap-data-commons-ow.s3.amazonaws.com/NHDPlusV21/Documentation/History/Making_the_Digital_Water_Flow.pdf , accessed March, 2024.  

                              - Moore, R.B., and T.G. Dewald. 2016. The Road to NHDPlus—Advancements in Digital Stream Networks and Associated Catchments: Journal of the American Water Resources Association 52(4): 890–900.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12389 .  

 

**Table 1. Listing of selected geospatial hydrographic datasets used in the United States, 1975-present.  **