This geospatial dataset includes a one-point feature-class shapefile, one-polygon feature-class shapefile, and associated FGDC-compliant metadata to define 193 streamflow and 299 basin characteristics at 1,320 U.S. Geological Survey streamflow gaging stations. Sites included in the dataset either (1) drain to the Gulf of Mexico or (2) are adjacent to watersheds that flow to the Gulf of Mexico and are considered both physiographically similar and valuable for analysis. Drainage area to the sites varies from less than 1 to approximately 67,500 square miles. Data presented describe the streamflow regime (Rossman, 1990; Thompson and Archfield, 2014), climate (Daly and others, 2008), land use and land-use change (Sohl and others, 2014; Sohl and others, 2016), and anthropogenic features. Basins were identified following Hirsch and DiCicco (2015), and daily value streamflow data were retrieved from the USGS National Water Information System (U.S. Geological Survey, 2017). Daily value streamflow data were available beginning in 1892 through the 2016 water year (a 12-month period beginning October 1, for any given year through September 30 of the following year). All characteristics based on time series (streamflow, climate, land use for example) were summarized in terms of period of record and 10 water year increments (for example, 1930 – 1939). Data presented provide a numerical foundation supporting the: (1) development of statistical models of streamflow characteristics; (2) evaluation of spatial and temporal trends in streamflow characteristics; and (3) development of network optimization analysis. Basin characteristics will be used as independent variables to estimate streamflow characteristics (measures of the magnitude, duration, frequency, timing, and rate of change of the annual hydrograph) in a manner similar to Knight and others (2012).
Daly, C., Halbleib, M., Smith, J.I., Gibson, W.P., Doggett, M.K., Taylor, G.H., Curtis, J., and Pasteris, P.P., 2008, Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States: International Journal of Climatology, v. 28, no. 15, p. 2031–2064. Dunne, T., and Black, R., 1970. “An experimental investigation of runoff production in permeable soils.” Water Resour. Res., 6(2), 478–490 ESRI 2011. ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10.4.1 Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute. Falcone, J.A., Carlisle, D.M., Wolock, D.M., and Meador, M.R., 2010b. GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and altered flow conditions in the conterminous United States, Ecology, 91 (2), p 621; Data Paper in Ecological
Archives E091-045-D1; available online at: http://esapubs.org/Archive/ecol/E091/045/metadata.htm. Hamon, W.R., 1961. Estimating Potential Evaporation. Journal of the Hydraulics Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers 87:107-120. Horton, Robert E. (1933) "The role of infiltration in the hydrologic cycle" Transactions of the American Geophysics Union, 14th Annual Meeting, pp. 446–460. Hirsch, R.M., and DiCicco, L.A., 2015, User guide to Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends (EGRET) and dataRetrieval: R packages for hydrologic data (version 2.0, February 2015):, accessed at https://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/04/a10/. Juracek, K.E., 1999, Estimation of potential runoff contributing areas in the Kansas-Lower Republican River Basin, Kansas: U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 99-4089, 24 p Kjelstrom, L.C., 1998, Methods for estimating selected flow-duration and flood-frequency characteristics at ungaged sites in central Idaho: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4120, 10 p Knight, R.R., Gain, W.S., and Wolfe, W.J., 2012, Modelling ecological flow regime: an example from the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins: Ecohydrology, v. 5, no. 5, p. 613–627. NAWQA- U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. [Washington, D.C.] USGS NAWQA, 1999. PRISM- PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, available at http://prism.oregonstate.edu Reed JR, J.C, and Bush, C.A,. 2005. Generalized Geologic Map of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. U.S. Geological Survey—The National Atlas available at https://pubs.usgs.gov/atlas/geologic/. Rossman, L.A., 1990, DFLOW User’s Manual: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ries III, Kernell G. and others, 2008. StreamStats : a Water Resources Web Application. [Reston, Va.] :U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2008. Print. Available at https://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/ Sanford, W. E., and D. L. Selnick (2013), Estimation of evapotranspiration across the conterminous United States using a regression with climate and land-cover data, J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 49(1), 217–230, doi:10.1111/jawr.12010 STATSGO- Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. U.S. General Soil Map (STATSGO2). Available online at https://sdmdataaccess.sc.egov.usda.gov. SSURGO- Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database. Available online at https://sdmdataaccess.sc.egov.usda.gov. Sohl, T., Reker, R., Bouchard, M., Sayler, K., Dornbierer, J., Wika, S., Quenzer, R., and Friesz, A., 2016, Modeled historical land use and land cover for the conterminous United States: Journal of Land Use Science, v. 11, no. 4, p. 476–499. Sohl, T.L., Sayler, K.L., Bouchard, M.A., Reker, R.R., Friesz, A.M., Bennett, S.L., Sleeter, B.M., Sleeter, R.R., Wilson, T., Soulard, C., Knuppe, M., and Van Hofwegen, T., 2014, Spatially explicit modeling of 1992–2100 land cover and forest stand age for the conterminous United States: Ecological Applications, v. 24, no. 5, p. 1015–1036. Thompson, J., and Archfield, S., 2014, The EflowStats R package: Introduction to EflowStats. U.S. Geological Survey, 2017 USACE National Inventory of Dams- U.S Army Corps of Engineers, 1998. National Inventory of Dams, —Web interface, available at http://geo.usace.army.mil/pgis/f?p=397:12 USEPA National Pollution Discharge Elimination System- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1972, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System —Web interface, available at https://www3.epa.gov/region1/npdes/history.html USGS National Water Information System- U.S. Geological Survey, 2016, National Water Information System—Web interface, available September 28, 2016, at http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7P55KJN USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset- U.S. Geological Survey—Web interface, available http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov Wolock, D. M. 1997 STATSGO soil characteristics for the conterminous United States Open-File Report 97-656 656 Reston, Virginia U.S. Geological Survey. Available online at https://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getspatial?muid Wolock, D. M., and McCabe, G. J., 1995. Comparison of single and multiple flow direction algorithms for computing topographic parameters in TOPMODEL. Water Resources Research, 31(5), 1315-1324. [doi:10.1029/95WR00471]