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Cross-validation results for five statistical methods of daily streamflow estimation at 1,385 reference streamgages in the conterminous United States, Water Years 1981-2017

Metadata Updated: November 27, 2025

This data release contains daily time series estimates of natural streamflow for 1,385 streamgages in 19 study regions in the conterminous U.S. from October 1, 1980, through September 30, 2017. These estimates are provided for gages from mostly undisturbed watersheds as defined by Falcone (2011), using five statistical techniques: nearest-neighbor drainage area ratio (NNDAR), map-correlation drainage area ratio (MCDAR), nearest-neighbor nonlinear spatial interpolation using flow duration curves (NNQPPQ), map-correlation nonlinear spatial interpolation using flow duration curves (MCQPPQ), and ordinary kriging of the logarithms of discharge per unit area (OKDAR). Location information and basin characteristics for study gages were obtained from the "Reference" gages of the GAGES-II dataset (Falcone, 2011, https://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getspatial?gagesII_Sept2011). Observed daily streamflow data were retrieved from the National Water Information System (NWIS) on September 7, 2018. NNDAR, MCDAR, NNQPPQ, and MCQPPQ estimates were computed following methods described by Farmer and others (2014), with updates to the flow-duration curve modeling which is described by Over and others (2018). OKDAR estimates were computed using pooled variograms for each study region following methods described by Farmer (2016). Daily streamflow estimation was conducted in a leave-one-out-cross-validation approach where each streamgage was treated as if ungaged and all the remaining streamgages in a study region were used to calibrate each method and perform estimations at the "ungaged" site. The observed streamflow records were compared to the five simulated streamflow records to help assess performance of each method. These performance metrics are provided at each gage for all five statistical methods. References cited: Falcone, J.A., 2011, GAGES-II: Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow [digital spatial dataset] : U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources NSDI Node web page, https://water.usgs.gov/lookup/getspatial?gagesII_Sept2011. Farmer, W.H., Archfield, S.A., Over, T.M., Hay, L.E., LaFontaine, J.H., and Kiang, J.E., 2014, A comparison of methods to predict historical daily streamflow time series in the southeastern United States: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014–5231, 34 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20145231. Farmer, W. H., 2016, Ordinary kriging as a tool to estimate historical daily streamflow records, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 20, 2721-2735, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2721-2016. Over, T.M., Farmer, W.H., Russell, A.M., 2018, Refinement of a regression-based method for prediction of flow-duration curves of daily streamflow in the conterminous United States; U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2018–5072, https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20185072.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 27, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5df2c29ee4b02caea0f95b92
Data Last Modified 2020-08-13T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 25336b5c-bdb3-4158-8282-461d2d3dc10a
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 942cba319d1a483f28e7ef7af3b1bf7b1d086aeb36ad0db39020351a35e72ebe
Source Schema Version 1.1

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