Crosswalk of Waterbody Identifiers between National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution, National Hydrography Dataset Plus V2, and Hydrolakes datasets for the Contiguous United States

Overview:
There are multiple systems for mapping waterbodies within the conterminous United States. Prominent among them are the "High Resolution" and "Version 2" editions of the National Hydrography Dataset Plus. The National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlusHR, Moore and others, 2025) uses "Permanent Identifiers" to identify waterbodies, while the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2 (NHDPlusV2, McKay and others, 2012) uses "COMID" for the same purpose. While waterbodies may exist in both datasets, their spatial representation can vary, and there can be many-to-one relationships in both directions. One waterbody polygon in the NHDPlusHR may overlap with multiple waterbody polygons in the NHDPlusV2 and vice verse. The Hydrolakes dataset (Messager and others, 2016) is another system for mapping waterbodies. This system uses "Hylake Identifiers" to differentiate spatially explicit representations of waterbodies.

This data release provides a simple method to look up waterbody identifiers across these three datasets. In each datafile, overlapping waterbodies were identified and the respective waterbodies identifiers are listed. The datafiles also include the surface area for each data source and the surface area that is shared between data sources. Three of the files represent pairs of data sources. The fourth file represents the areas that are shared across all three datasets. There is also a data dictionary file that contains definitions for each of the columns in the datafiles.

Files:
- NHDPlusHR_NHDPlusV2.csv: Data file of lookup table between Permanent Identifier and COMID
- NHDPlusHR_Hydrolakes.csv: Data file of lookup table between Permanent Identifier and HylakeID
- NHDPlusV2_Hydrolakes.csv: Data file of lookup table between Permanent Identifier and HylakeID
- NHDPlusHR_NHDPlusV2_Hydrolakes.csv: Data file of lookup table between Permanent Identifier and COMID and HylakeID
- Data_Dictionary_Waterbody_Crosswalk.csv: Metadata file with definitions for columns in the data files.

References:
Moore, R., McKay, L., Rea, A., Bondelid, T., Price, C., Dewald, T., & Hayes, L. (2025). User’s guide for the National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlus HR) (Report Nos. 2025–5031; Scientific Investigations Report, p. 78). USGS Publications Warehouse. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20255031

McKay, L., Bondelid, T., Dewald, T., Johnston, J., Moore, R., and Rea, A., 2012 “NHDPlus Version 2: User Guide”

Messager, M. L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., & Schmitt, O. (2016). Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach. Nature Communications, 7(1), 13603. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13603