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

Tidal Datums, Tidal Range, and Nuisance Flooding Levels for Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay

Metadata Updated: July 13, 2024

This U.S. Geological Survey data release provides data on spatial variations in tidal datums, tidal range, and nuisance flooding in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. Tidal datums are standard elevations that are defined based on average tidal water levels. Datums are used as references to measure local water levels and to delineate regions in coastal environments. Nuisance flooding refers to the sporadic inundation of low-lying coastal areas by the maximum tidal water levels during spring tides, especially perigean spring tides (also known as king tides). Nuisance flooding is independent of storm event flooding, and it represents a cumulative or chronic hazard. The data were obtained by following a consistent methodology and at sufficient spatial resolution to resolve the distinct and complex features of each bay system. Tidal water levels were simulated by using the ADCIRC model system for the entire 2016 year. The year 2016 was chosen because it corresponded with the maximum magnitude of the combined 18.6-year and 4.4-year tidal modulations. The estuarine and bay areas were resolved with horizontal resolutions on the order of tens to hundreds of meters. The ADCIRC simulations provide time series of water levels at each computational point of an unstructured grid that covers the entire area of interest—from the open ocean to overland areas up to approximately 15 meters above the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. The water-level time series were analyzed to provide estimates of tidal range (great diurnal range and mean range of tide), tidal datums (mean high water, mean higher high water, mean low water, and mean lower low water), and nuisance flooding (highest astronomical tide and monthly mean high water). The resulting data are provided at all points of the computational grid for Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and the surrounding coastal area.

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 13, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 13, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/1d37282e8548ce31efcd08456e756fe0
Identifier USGS:616d8715d34e653770012f3d
Data Last Modified 20240709
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 9a845426-445a-460f-b7af-4e6692cbb05c
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -77.511016,36.701001,-74.000498,40.233526
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 260dc9edcd8ad04cf327e69f1c4d7494907dfe5db835f0fed8a04aece17c1611
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -77.511016, 36.701001, -77.511016, 40.233526, -74.000498, 40.233526, -74.000498, 36.701001, -77.511016, 36.701001}

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