National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative

This hydrologic dataset was one of several abiotic layers to provide best available conditions representing the landscape. The data collected and compiled for the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GPLCC) will inform regional-scale landscape assessments with spatially explicit representation of natural resource, habitat, conservation, management and other social and environmental values. Preliminary analyses will summarize spatial statistics, and data are ultimately expected to directly inform species and habitat distribution models and vulnerability assessments. Future research efforts applying these data may include regional hydrologic modeling, wetland habitat vulnerability and connectivity assessments, species distribution modeling, and investigation of interactions among land use, land cover and prairie habitat distributions. A simple summary of the data and discussion of potential applications and implications for future work (e.g., species distribution modeling and vulnerability assessments) will accompany the distribution of these data via the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GPLCC). Purpose provided by original data sources: "The NHD is a national framework for assigning reach addresses to water-related entities, such as industrial discharges, drinking water supplies, fish habitat areas, wild and scenic rivers. Reach addresses establish the locations of these entities relative to one another within the NHD surface water drainage network, much like addresses on streets. Once linked to the NHD by their reach addresses, the upstream/downstream relationships of these water-related entities--and any associated information about them--can be analyzed using software tools ranging from spreadsheets to geographic information systems (GIS). GIS can also be used to combine NHD-based network analysis with other data layers, such as soils, land use and population, to help understand and display their respective effects upon one another. Furthermore, because the NHD provides a nationally consistent framework for addressing and analysis, water-related information linked to reach addresses by one organization (national, state, local) can be shared with other organizations and easily integrated into many different types of applications to the benefit of all."

• Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative
• LC MAP - Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal