USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station
20190403
Fraction of Runoff from Forest Service Lands
vector digital data
This feature class contains water runoff metrics from Forest Service lands. Note: 'Forest Service Lands' are here defined as those lands within the Forest Service administrative boundaries; these include some inholdings and other non-USFS lands enclosed within these boundaries. This feature class was generated from the original study "Modeled historical streamflow metrics for the contiguous United States and National Forest Lands" (Luce, et. al., 2017) and the 2012 snapshot of the stream layer from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). More information pertaining to the original streamflow dataset is available on the Research Data Archive: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/Product/RDS-2017-0046.
Available water supply varies greatly across the United States depending on topography, climate, elevation and geology. Forested and mountainous locations, such as national forests, tend to receive more precipitation than adjacent non-forested or low-lying areas. However, contributions of national forest lands to regional streamflow volumes is largely unknown. This streamflow metrics feature class provides a high resolution, spatially explicit estimate of annual and summer flow volumes that can be used in more extensive studies of water quantity and water quality. In addition, the dataset highlights the relative importance of national forest lands to overall water quantity.
20120101
Ground Condition
None planned
-124.762581
-66.949828
49.376613
24.539839
ISO 19115 Topic Categories
climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
environment
inlandWaters
None
water supply
water yield
variable infiltration capacity (VIC)
streamflow
National Forest
National Research & Development Taxonomy
Ecology
Ecosystems
& Environment
Natural Resource Management & Use
Hydrology
watersheds
sedimentation
Water
None
National Forests
United States
None
These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation: Luce, Charles H.; Lute, Abigail C.; Kormos, Patrick; Livneh, Ben. 2017. Modeled historical streamflow metrics for the contiguous United States and National Forest Lands. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2017-0046. The USDA Forest Service makes no warranty, expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, completeness or utility of these geospatial data, or for the improper or incorrect use of these geospatial data. These geospatial data and related maps or graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The data and maps may not be used to determine title, ownership, legal descriptions or boundaries, legal jurisdiction, or restrictions that may be in place on either public or private land. Natural hazards may or may not be depicted on the data and maps, and users should exercise due caution. The data are dynamic and may change over time. The user is responsible to verify the limitations of the geospatial data and to use the data accordingly.
This project was funded by the USDA Forest Service Washington Office Wildlife, Fish, Water, Air and Rare Plants staff and support provided by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.5.1.7333
not applicable
Flow metrics were calculated for National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) version 2 stream segments that had a COMID (unique identifier) in the value added attributes table (VAA). Since not all stream segments in the NHD flowline layer are in VAA, not all stream segments have flow metrics. Headwater catchments with no area in the NHD did not accumulate flow and therefore do not have flow metrics. Secondary divergences do not receive flow from upstream, therefore only secondary divergences with a local catchment area have flow metrics. A value of 0 for mean annual flow (MA) or mean summer flow (MS) indicates that the catchment is not covered by the VIC grid. This occurs most frequently along coastlines and international borders. This in turn results in 'NA' values for the portions of total mean annual flow (pMA_fs) or summer flow (pMS_fs) coming from National Forest System lands. If national forest mean annual flow (MA_FS) or national forest mean summer flow (MS_FS) are 0 and the corresponding MA or MS values are NOT 0, this simply means the national forests do not contribute to flow in this catchment.
not applicable
Using outputs from the Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrologic model, we calculated mean annual and mean summer (July and August) streamflow metrics based on total flow and flow from national forest lands for each 1:100,000 scale National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) stream reach in the contiguous United States. These results were initially exported as twenty-one comma-delimited ASCII text files (for different drainage areas and processing units across the United States) containing 1915-2011 mean annual flow and mean summer flow. These tables also contain the mean annual and mean summer flows from National forest system (NFS) lands as well as the portion of total mean annual flow contributed by flow from NFS lands. These data provide insight into 1915-2011 hydrologic regimes and national forest contributions to total water yield and were joined to the NHD stream layer snapshot from September, 2012 to create this feature class for use in spatial illustrations and studies.
20170101
Vector
String
2993526
8.98315284119521e-009
8.98315284119521e-009
Decimal Degrees
D North American 1983
GRS 1980
6378137.0
298.257222101
S_USA.Hydro_Pct_StreamFlow_NFS
Feature class: A collection of geographic features with the same geometry type (such as point, line, or polygon), the same attributes, and the same spatial reference.
Esri GIS Data Dictionary
OBJECTID
Internal feature number.
Esri
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
COMID
NHD Plus Version 2 COMID, a permanent identifier for each stream segment.
USDA Forest Service
ID
FDATE
Date of last feature modification.
NHD Data Dictionary (https://nhd.usgs.gov/userGuide/Robohelpfiles/NHD_User_Guide/Feature_Catalog/Data_Dictionary/Data_Dictionary.htm)
Date in MM/DD/YYYY format
RESOLUTION
Source resolution. Currently NHD is available as separate resolutions. Plans are to develop a single-resolution database with the highest resolution data that can be generalized.
NHD Data Dictionary
High
1:24,000/12,000
NHD Data Dictionary
Medium
1:100,000
NHD Data Dictionary
Local
>1:12,000
NHD Data Dictionary
GNIS_ID
Unique identifier assigned by GNIS, 10-char value. GNIS_ID = "null" if no name associated with the feature.
NHD Data Dictionary
ID
GNIS_NAME
Proper name, specific term, or expression by which a particular geographic entity is known, length 65.
NHD Data Dictionary
Name
REACHCODE
Unique identifier. The first eight digits are the WBD_HUC8. The next six digits are randomly assigned, sequential numbers that are unique within a HUC8, length 14.
NHD Data Dictionary
Code
FLOWDIR
Direction of flow relative to coordinate order, length 4.
NHD Data Dictionary
Textual description
WBAREACOMI
Permanent identifier of the waterbody through which the flowline flows
NHD Data Dictionary
ID
FTYPE
Feature type
NHD Data Dictionary
Textual description
FCODE
Five-digit integer value; comprised of the feature type and combinations of characteristics and values.
NHD Data Dictionary
Code
ENABLED
Internal field for data processing
USDA Forest Service
Text
GNIS_NBR
Internal field for data processing
USDA Forest Service
ID
MA
Mean annual flow (January-December)
USDA Forest Service
Cubic meters per year
MA_FS
Mean annual flow from national forest system lands
USDA Forest Service
Cubic meters per year
PMA_FS
The portion of total mean annual flow contributed by flow from national forest system lands. Range is 0 to 1.
USDA Forest Service
Percentage
MS
Mean summer (July and August) flow
USDA Forest Service
Cubic meters per year
MS_FS
Mean summer flow from National forest system lands
USDA Forest Service
Cubic meters per year
PMS_FS
Portion of total mean summer flow contributed by flow from National forest system lands. Range is 0 to 1.
USDA Forest Service
Percentage
UNIT
Unit
USDA Forest Service
Code
SHAPE
Feature geometry.
Esri
Coordinates defining the features.
GIS_MILES
Length of a feature in miles, calculated by converting the data from Decimal Degrees to meters with the formula LengthMeters * 0.000621469277.
Geometry
The length of a feature in miles.
SHAPE.LEN
Length of feature in internal units.
Esri
Positive real numbers that are automatically generated.
USFS Chief Information Office, Enterprise Data Warehouse
data@fs.fed.us
The U.S. Forest Service makes no warranty, express or implied, nor assumes any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or utility of these geospatial data or for the improper or incorrect use of those data. The data are dynamic and may change over time. The user is responsible for verifying the limitations of the geospatial data and for using the data accordingly.
20190403
USFS Chief Information Office, Enterprise Data Warehouse
data@fs.fed.us
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time