Abstract

The National Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), Current Events
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Karen Hanson

The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), a companion dataset to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), is a nationally consistent, seamless, and hierarchical hydrologic unit boundary 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 units. The usefulness of accurate hydrologic units based on natural surface-water flow and topography cannot be overstated. This dataset is invaluable for hydrologic-based analytical and statistical applications.

This presentation provides an overview of WBD stewardship activities taking place across the nation. These activities include; data enhancements, international cooperative efforts with Canada and Mexico, new coastal delineations, integration with other national programs and changes in the program design which improves the integration of WBD data directly into scientific investigations.