Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Surface Water Trends for the Conterminous United States using monthly DSWEmod Surface Water Maps, 2003–2019

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The Dynamic Surface Water Extent MODIS (DSWEmod) surface water maps for the conterminous United States were used for a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Patterns in the Landscape - Analyses of Cause and Effect (PLACE) team quantifying seasonal and annual surface water trends within Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level I and Level III Ecoregions (Omernik, 1987) across the U.S. from 2003 through 2019. The overarching objectives of this study were to, (i) generate the monthly DSWEmod maps for the conterminous United States, (ii) review the spatial and temporal dynamics of surface water extent across ecoregions, and (iii) compare surface water area trends to streamgage discharge trends to determine where and how well different approaches to measuring water dynamics align. The DSWEmod model classifies the landscape (i.e., each 250-meter Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, pixel) into different classes of surface water based on quantified levels of confidence, including, (i) high-confidence surface water (class 1), (ii) moderate-confidence surface water (class 2), (iii) potential wetland (class 3), and (iv) low-confidence water/wetland (class 4), as well as a not-water class (class 0) and a no-data class (class 9). The confidence level is based on thresholds within various water- and vegetation-based indices. The level of confidence is based on how many, and, which index thresholds are met. Only high-confidence surface water (class 1) was considered in this study. This data release includes a vector shapefile consisting of 85 polygons, delineating EPA Level III Ecoregions for the conterminous United States. For each Level III Ecoregion, we include attributes identifying, (i) their respective Level I Ecoregion name and identification number, (ii) quantified seasonal and overall mean water area, (iii) comparisons with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) streamgage discharge trends, (iv) mean surface water extent statistics (mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, percent of ecoregion), and (v) seasonal and overall results from the Mann-Kendall statistical analysis. An associated manuscript describes the methodology, results, and conclusions from this study.

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

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/e40884ea3f38497c560a9e7f38c2942c
Identifier USGS:60b7b2fed34e86b938872434
Data Last Modified 20220805
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://datainventory.doi.gov/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 fa50fb5f-05f7-4900-b4f1-8607d938d46e
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -124.7332,24.515,-66.9499,49.3844
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 3dca52a8d43cf269031145090200e5461e47da53658aad370a197314f5449e0a
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -124.7332, 24.515, -124.7332, 49.3844, -66.9499, 49.3844, -66.9499, 24.515, -124.7332, 24.515}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.