Abstract

Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) Applications
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Karen Hanson

The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is a national consistent, seamless, and hierarchical hydrologic unit dataset based on topographic and hydrologic features across the United States. This dataset provides a consistent framework for local, regional, and national applications to manage, archive, exchange, and analyze data by hydrologic features.

The usefulness of hydrologic units in a variety of sizes based on natural surface-water flow and topography cannot be overestimated for potentially invaluable analytical and statistical purposes and applications. This presentation will outline the process for retrieval of the WBD, and provide an overview of the components of the data structure. The major portion of the session will focus on describing a wide range of applications for this data, such as watershed management, water-quality initiatives, watershed modeling, resource inventory and assessment, fire assessment and management, Total Maximum Daily Load, and more.