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Abridged History of Hydrography Datasets

By 3D Hydrography Program

Over the last several decades, numerous geospatial hydrography datasets have been used in the United States. The overall trend has been to incorporate more hydrographic features represented with more spatial detail in each successive dataset. The table below lists many of the most commonly used hydrography datasets and includes information regarding how some of the datasets relate to each other.

A set of persistent, scale-independent unique identifiers known as mainstem identifiers have been developed for the hydrography of the conterminous United States (Blodgett and others, 2021, Blodgett, 2023). These mainstem identifiers have been used to develop crosswalks to identify corresponding features between many of the datasets listed in the table. The “MainstemIDs Available?” column in the table indicates whether mainstem identifiers are currently available (“Yes”) for features in the dataset being described, or whether these mainstem identifiers are currently in work for that dataset.  

Initially the mainstem identifiers were developed based on the NHDPlus V2.1, for just the stream network needed to connect the 12-digit Hydrologic Units (HU12s) for the conterminous United States (Blodgett and others, 2021). Current efforts include expanding the mainstem identifiers to include all the stream networks represented in the NHDPlus V2 and the NHDPlus High Resolution (Blodgett and others, 2024). These mainstem identifiers are being incorporated into the 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) dataset and provide crosswalk capabilities between many of the most-used historical hydrography datasets and the features represented in the 3DHP. These mainstem identifiers also are being used in the geospatial foundation of the Internet of Water. More information about mainstem identifiers and the software used to create and maintain the crosswalk tables may be found USGS Code Website.

For additional information on the historical development of geospatial hydrography networks for the United States, see the References below.  

 

Media
Holston River NHD to 3DHP Animation
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Holston River, TN NHD to 3DHP Animation  

 

  • 1975

    • Reach File Version 1.0 (RF1)

      • First digital geospatial data for US hydrography. Based on 1:500,000-scale maps, ~68,000 reaches. Enabled upstream/downstream trace functionality. Had drainage area from gages for about 8000 gages, and estimated Mean Annual and 7Q10 flows at 4112 gages, extended to all reaches in 1982.
      • MainstemIDs Available via ERF1 (see below)
      • Link to data
      • Link to data

  • late 1980's

    • Reach File Version 2.0 (RF2)

      • Added reaches, to total approximately 170,000 reaches.
      • MainstemIDs Not Available

  • 1998

    • Reach File Version 3.0 (RF3)

      • Based on 1:100,000-scale maps from the USGS Digital Line Graph (DLG) hydrography data. Important attributes from RF3, including Reach Codes, were conflated onto the USGS DLG Hydrography to create NHD MR.
      • MainstemIDs Not Available
      • Link to data

  • 2000-2012

    • National Hydrography Dataset Medium Resolution (NHD MR)

      • First version of NHD. Based on 1:100,000-scale maps and included attributes from RF3. Continuously updated for several years. Snapshots were included in NHDPlus V1 (2006) and V2 (2012).
      • MainstemIDs Mostly Available, via NHDPlus V2
      • Link to data

  • 1999

    • Enhanced River Reach File 1.2 (ERF1)

      • Enhanced version of RF1 to support surface water-quality modeling. Included improved reach traces and time of travel in reaches and reservoirs.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

  • 2002

    • Enhanced River Reach File 2.0 (ERF1_2)

      • Enhanced version of RF1 to support national and regional-scale surface water-quality modeling. Includes the incremental and total drainage area derived from 1-km elevation data, as well as mean flows and velocities.
      • MainstemIDs Available, via ERF1 (see above)
      • Link to data

  • 2006

    • National Hydrography Dataset Plus, Version 1 (NHDPlus V1)

      • Based on 2004-6 snapshots of NHD MR (1:100,000-scale), WBD, and 30-m seamless National Elevation Dataset (NED). Includes many "Value Added Attributes (VAAs)" to aid in network navigation. Also includes mean annual and mean monthly flow volume and velocity estimates for approximately 1.6 million flowlines. Covers CONUS, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

  • 2007-2024

    • National Hydrography Dataset High Resolution (NHD HR)

      • Mostly based on 1:24,000-scale USGS topographic maps (1:63,360 in Alaska), with much higher resolution data in some areas. Has been continuously updated since 2007. Final stable version released in January 2024 contains  more than 30 million flowlines nationwide, including US territories and including hydrography in Canada and Mexico in areas upstream of the U.S.
      • MainstemIDs Planned/In Work
      • Link to data
      • Link to data

  • 2012

    • National Hydrography Dataset Plus, Version 2.1 (NHDPlus V2)

      • Based on 2012 snapshots of NHD MR (1:100,000-scale), WBD, and 30-m seamless National Elevation Dataset (NED). Includes many "Value Added Attributes (VAAs)" to aid in network navigation. Also includes mean annual and mean monthly flow volume and velocity estimates for approximately 1.6 million flowlines. Covers CONUS, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

  • 2015

    • National Stream Internet (USFS) (NSI)

      • Based on modifications of the NHDPlus V2 hydrographic network to accommodate spatial stream-network (NSS) models. MainstemIDs from the NHDPlus V2 features should match with NSI features via the COMID field.
      • MainstemIDs Available based on NHDPlus V2 COMIDs
      • Link to data

  • 2019

    • E2NHDPlusV2_us

      • Used for SPARROW water-quality models. Topologically reconditioned version of the NHDPlusV2 routing network, including enhanced attributes to improve flow routing and the physical description of flowlines. The modifications pertain only to NHDPlus data table values; no physical changes were made to the spatial locations of flowlines or catchments. Only flow connections and directions (from and to nodes) were altered, no geometric edits were made to the NHDPlus V2.1.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

    • National Water Model (NWM)

      • The National Water Model geospatial fabric is based on NHDPlus V2, with some modifications. Selected flowline connections and flowline directions have been modified and catchments and flowlines have been merged or split to better suit the modeling approach. Additional flowlines and catchments in Canada and Mexico upstream of CONUS have been added based on DEMs.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

  • 2021

    • National Hydrography Dataset Plus, High Resolution National Release 1 (NHDPlus HR NR 1)

      • Based on NHD HR, WBD, and 3DEP 10-m resolution snapshots taken by processing unit, between 2016 and 2019. Includes all datasets initially known as "Beta" versions. Complete for CONUS, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and some Pacific island territories. Includes hydrography in Canada and Mexico in areas upstream of the U.S.. Includes mean annual flow estimates and VAAs for more than 24 million flowlines.
      • MainstemIDs Planned/In Work
      • Link to data

    • SWOT River Database (SWORD/SWOT)

      • SWORD will serve as the framework for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission to measure surface waters globally. SWORD river vector products consist of river reaches (∼10 km long) and nodes (∼200 m spacing). SWORD contains a total of 213,485 reaches and 10.7 million nodes.
      • MainstemIDs Planned/In Work
      • Link to data

  • 2022

    • NHDPlus High Resolution EPA Snapshot 2022 Data (NHDPlus HR EPA 2022)

      • Based on the Beta production version of NHDPlus HR. Same content as NHDPlus HR NR1, but with minor differences in attribute field names, aliases and coded value domains.
      • MainstemIDs Planned/In Work
      • Link to data

  • 2024 (Q4)

    • National Hydrography Dataset Plus, High Resolution National Release 2 (NHDPlus HR NR 2)

      • Planned National Release 2 will include updated data for Hydrographic Regions 01, 02, 06, 14, 15, and 16. Data in all other regions will be unchanged from National Release 1.
      • MainstemIDs Planned/In Work
      • Link to data

  • 2024-Present

    • 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP)

      • Derived from high-resolution elevation data (lidar or ifsar). Hydrologic features from the NHD HR have been loaded to a web service with  the MainstemIDs populated. The 3DHP will significantly improve the level of detail, currency, and content of hydrography data by deriving (1) three-dimensional (3D) stream network datasets and watersheds from high-quality 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) data and (2) other elevation derivatives to support applications like hydrologic and hydraulic modeling.
      • MainstemIDs Available
      • Link to data

 

References: 

  • Blodgett, D., Johnson, J.M., Sondheim, M., Wieczorek, M., and Frazier, N., 2021, Mainstems: A logical data model implementing mainstem and drainage basin feature types based on WaterML2 Part 3: HY Features concepts: Environmental Modelling & Software, v. 135, p. 104927, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104927. 
  • Blodgett, D.L., 2023, Mainstem Rivers of the Conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, February 2023): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P92U7ZUT. 
  • Moore, R.B., and T.G. Dewald. 2016. The Road to NHDPlus—Advancements in Digital Stream Networks and Associated Catchments: Journal of the American Water Resources Association 52(4): 890–900. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12389.  
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