Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

The LakeCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 (Version 2.1) Catchments for the Conterminous United States: Dam Density and Storage Volume

Metadata Updated: November 14, 2023

This dataset represents the dam density and storage volumes within individual local and accumulated upstream catchments for NHDPlusV2 Waterbodies based on the National Inventory of Dams (NID). Catchment boundaries in LakeCat are defined in one of two ways, on-network or off-network. The on-network catchment boundaries follow the catchments provided in the NHDPlusV2 and the metrics for these lakes mirror metrics from StreamCat, but will substitute the COMID of the NHDWaterbody for that of the NHDFlowline. The off-network catchment framework uses the NHDPlusV2 flow direction rasters to define non-overlapping lake-catchment boundaries and then links them through an off-network flow table. The NID database contains information about the dam2019s location, size, purpose, type, last inspection, regulatory facts, and other technical data. Structures on streams reduce the longitudinal and lateral hydrologic connectivity of the system. For example, impoundments above dams slow stream flow, cause deposition of sediment and reduce peak flows. Dams change both the discharge and sediment supply of streams, causing channel incision and bed coarsening downstream. Downstream areas are often sediment deprived, resulting in degradation, i.e., erosion of the stream bed and stream banks. This database was improved upon by locations verified by work from the USGS National Map (Jeff Simley Group). It was observed that some dams, some of them major and which do exist, were not part of the 2009 NID, but were represented in the USGS National Map dataset, and had been in the 2006 NID. Approximately 1,100 such dams were added, based on the USGS National Map lat/long and the 2006 NID attributes (dam height, storage, etc.) Finally, as clean-up, a) about 600 records with duplicate NIDID were removed, and b) about 300 records were removed which represented the same location of the same dam but with a different NIDID, for the largest dams (did visual check of dams with storage above 5000 acre feet and are likely duplicated - about the 10,000 largest dams). The (dams/catchment) and (dam_storage/catchment) were summarized and accumulated into watersheds to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a point data type.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

References

https://gaftp.epa.gov/epadatacommons/ORD/NHDPlusLandscapeAttributes/LakeCat/FinalTables/
https://edg.epa.gov/metadata/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid=52F2F469-AC5D-40B9-B1FD-0DFD8AC53B47

Dates

Metadata Created Date October 3, 2023
Metadata Updated Date November 14, 2023
Data Update Frequency R/P3Y

Metadata Source

Harvested from LakeCat Harvest

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date October 3, 2023
Metadata Updated Date November 14, 2023
Publisher U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development (ORD), Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA), Pacific Ecological Systems Division (PESD),
Maintainer
Identifier 52F2F469-AC5D-40B9-B1FD-0DFD8AC53B47
Data First Published 2015-04-23
Language en-US
Data Last Modified 2023-11-13
Rights public (Data asset is or could be made publicly available to all without restrictions)
Category environment
Public Access Level public
Data Update Frequency R/P3Y
Bureau Code 020:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/NHEERL/WED/NonGeo/LakeCat.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Data Quality True
Data Dictionary https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/lakecat-metrics-and-definitions
Data Dictionary Type text/html
Harvest Object Id c4ae1bdb-7067-477d-8df6-e897cef2162d
Harvest Source Id 54618c4c-64b6-4a3b-9748-ad612299d8a0
Harvest Source Title LakeCat Harvest
Homepage URL https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/lakecat-dataset
License https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html
Old Spatial -125.0,24.5,-66.5,49.5
Program Code 020:072
Related Documents https://gaftp.epa.gov/epadatacommons/ORD/NHDPlusLandscapeAttributes/LakeCat/FinalTables/, https://edg.epa.gov/metadata/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid=52F2F469-AC5D-40B9-B1FD-0DFD8AC53B47
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 091432808b1db24fab8998e938073891d5b50cf032f01b4f35ac26f68b12d82a
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -125.0, 24.5, -125.0, 49.5, -66.5, 49.5, -66.5, 24.5, -125.0, 24.5}
Temporal 2015/2030

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.