The Future of NHDPlus 2009 NHD Stewardship Conference Denver, CO April 14-17, NHD Stewardship Conference Denver, CO April 14-17, 2009 Tommy Dewald USEPA, Office of Water

1 Federal Geographic Data Committee Subcommittee on Spatial Water Data National Elevation Dataset National Hydrography Dataset Watershed Boundary Dataset Vision for a National Geospatial Surfacewater Framework

(‘wordled’ NHDPlus User Guide)

NHDPlus is a suite of application-ready geospatial products that build upon and extend the capabilities of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) by integrating it with the National Elevation Dataset and National Watershed Boundary Dataset. NHDPlus provides: Updated network relationships enable robust up/downstream navigation. Additional hydrographic feature names enable improved map labeling, query-by-name, and linking of water quality data. Fourteen different Value-Added Attributes, including stream order, are derived from the underlying NHD and enable advanced query, analysis and display functionality. Incremental and cumulative drainage areas for each stream segment in the NHD network enable analysis of associated landscape characteristics, including temperature, precipitation and land cover. Mean annual stream flow volume and velocity for each stream segment in the NHD network enable time-of-travel and pollutant dilution modeling. A rich set of hydrographic features for making maps. A stream addressing system for linking water quality data to the NHD network. A drainage network for supporting up/downstream query, analysis and modeling. The National Hydrography Dataset is a comprehensive set of digital geospatial data that contains information about surface water features such as streams, rivers and lakes. The NHD provides: Enhanced NHD Network & Names Value-Added Attributes Catchments With Attributes Flow Volume and Velocity Estimates Flow direction and accumulation grids associate the land surface (topography) with the NHD network enabling landscape analysis and characterization. Flow Direction & Accumulation Grids A National Geospatial Surfacewater Framework (

4 WATERS Geospatial Data Architecture National Hydrography Hydrography Dataset Plus Dataset Plus Nonpoint Source Grants GRTS Water Quality Standards WQSDB Water Quality Assessments, Impaired Waters & Total Maximum Daily Loads ATTAINS Water Quality Monitoring STORET Reach Address Database (RAD) (Watershed Assessment, Tracking & Environmental ResultS) (

NHDPlus Tools Drainage Area Delineator Catchment Allocation and Accumulation Tool Aquatic Exposure Tool WATERS Web services Batch indexing ‘raindrop’ method Up/downstream query of events Build/Refresh Toolset (under development) Drainage Area Delineator Catchment Allocation and Accumulation Tool Aquatic Exposure Tool WATERS Web services Batch indexing ‘raindrop’ method Up/downstream query of events Build/Refresh Toolset (under development)

Incident Command tool for protecting drinking water (ICWATER) Pesticide risk assessments Assessing recovery potential of impaired waters Impaired waters / FWS refuges and hatcheries USGS SPARROW modeling of surface-water quality And more … (Share your NHDPlus applications with others at Incident Command tool for protecting drinking water (ICWATER) Pesticide risk assessments Assessing recovery potential of impaired waters Impaired waters / FWS refuges and hatcheries USGS SPARROW modeling of surface-water quality And more … (Share your NHDPlus applications with others at NHDPlus Applications

7 National Aquatic Resource Surveys NHDPlus served as the basis for establishing the National Lakes Assessment sample frame – from which a representative set of sample sites (right) were randomly selected. NHDPlus will also be used to calculate drainage areas for lake sampling sites (left) to support data analysis. (

Landscape Metrics Arranged by Hydrological Proximity to Sites on Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers 8 Main channel and tributary riparian buffers nested within 10-km network watershed as navigated by hydrological proximity to a site using NHDPlus (USEPA – Office of Research and Development)

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10 StreamStats

Enhancements to Medium Resolution NHDPlus Complete build/refresh toolset (2010) National refresh using: Now completed WBD Latest NHD and NED Additional flow volume estimates? Improved velocity regression equations? Complete build/refresh toolset (2010) National refresh using: Now completed WBD Latest NHD and NED Additional flow volume estimates? Improved velocity regression equations?

High Resolution NHDPlus Opportunities Prepare HR NHD for NHDPlus processing NHDPlus NHD QAQC tool NHDGeoEdit tool for corrections (enhanced for queued edit?) Included in Maintenance Lite II processing? Compute Value-Added Attributes Complete NHDPlus Build/Refresh toolset (2010) Produce remaining NHDPlus components Modify NHD data model to accommodate geometry and attributes for NHDPlus and WBD Scheme for tagging derived NHDPlus data when underlying NHD/WBD changes between NHDPlus refresh cycles Prepare HR NHD for NHDPlus processing NHDPlus NHD QAQC tool NHDGeoEdit tool for corrections (enhanced for queued edit?) Included in Maintenance Lite II processing? Compute Value-Added Attributes Complete NHDPlus Build/Refresh toolset (2010) Produce remaining NHDPlus components Modify NHD data model to accommodate geometry and attributes for NHDPlus and WBD Scheme for tagging derived NHDPlus data when underlying NHD/WBD changes between NHDPlus refresh cycles

Questions? Tommy Dewald USEPA – Office of Water The Future of NHDPlus