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Crosswalk Table Between NHDPlus V2.1 and its Accompanying Watershed Boundary Dataset Snapshot of 12-Digit Hydrologic Units

Metadata Updated: December 11, 2025

A crosswalk table between NHDPlus version 2.1 flowlines (using the unique field COMID) and the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) 12-digit-hydrologic units (HU-12) is provided for the 48 contiguous United States. The crosswalk table provides a WBD HU-12 assignment for every networked flowline in the NHDPlus. In this way, the network developed for navigation and modeling, NHDPlus, is aligned with accounting units of the WBD HU-12s to the extent possible given the assumptions that were made in creating each. A crosswalk table for NHDPlus isolated sinks was produced by a simple overlay process where the sinks were assigned HU-12 values based on their position relative to the WBD snapshot HU-12s. This table was integrated with the flowline associations into one crosswalk table for both feature types. There is good alignment between aggregated NHDPlus catchments and WBD HU-12 units in many locations. These are areas where the flows and chemical or nutrient loads that are accumulated leave the HU-12 at a single outlet and are passed down to the next HU-12 downstream (or to the coast) as is assumed in the WBD model. A second pass through the data was made to account for any secondary outlet from each HU-12. The location of a secondary outlet with a significant drainage from that HU was identified in the alignment with NHDPlus. This resulted in a reduction in areas of mismatch as well as an improved crosswalk table. The crosswalk table should be used with caution in areas where efforts could be made to improve the data. For example, with medium-resolution NHD, a better definition of flow direction of the flowlines in Southern Florida would result in more flowlines being included in the “networked” flowlines with catchments, and that, in turn, would result in better alignment between NHDPlus catchments and HU-12s. Correcting errors in either the medium-resolution NHD or WBD would improve the alignment between the two datasets.

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.

Downloads & Resources

No file downloads have been provided. The publisher may provide downloads in the future or they may be available from their other links.

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5c86a747e4b09388244b3da1
Data Last Modified 2022-08-24T00:00:00Z
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 18734861-534e-45c8-a1d6-d356be893a96
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ea32fc18968b4c8d0d98187e77ca51ab754e464c4fd7ca301d75183e19dbb0d7
Source Schema Version 1.1

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