Daily water surface elevations for mainstem gages along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers

The hydrologic regime is a fundamental driver of ecosystem patterns and processes in the Upper Mississippi River System. This database represents a comprehensive, searchable dataset of Upper Mississippi River System's hydrologic conditions to support scientific and management applications. It comprises daily water surface elevations from 140 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gaging stations along the mainstem of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Water surface elevations have been standardized to all be in the same vertical datum (North American Vertical Datum of 1988). Gaps of 7 days or less of missing data have been filled by linear interpolation between the first and last days proximal to the gap with data. Users are advised to do further quality assurance processes to ensure data are suitable for their own use. The database incorporates historical gage data with a process to incorporate future gage data from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers servers into the database on an annual basis. The water surface elevations therein can be used to describe historical environmental conditions, contextualize contemporary conditions, project future conditions, conduct scientific research on aquatic and floodplain organisms and processes, assess existing and future without-project conditions as required for Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program restoration project, and many other applications. The Upper Mississippi River System Water Surface Elevation Daily Values Database can accessed at https://umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/water_elevation/hydro_db/umrr_hydro….