As part of a collaborative study with the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey developed a drainage network for the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina using the most recent available lidar data, representing the years 2015 and 2022. This dataset includes the delineated drainage network (drainage_network.zip) and rasters representing the breached and filled digital elevation model (raleigh_dem_fil.tif), the flow accumulation raster (raleigh_d8_fac.tif), and the flow direction raster (raleigh_d8_fdr.tif). Raster files are available as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs, meaning they are formatted to work on the cloud or can be directly downloaded. The drainage network was delineated for all locations with an upstream drainage area greater than 0.075 square kilometers (approximately 18.5 acres) and represents perennial streams, ephemeral streams, ditches, stream buried in pipes, and artificial paths through water bodies. This dataset was developed for use in the development of a model that can remotely predict streambank erosion potential along streams in the Greater Raleigh, NC Area. However, the drainage network and supporting raster files have the potential to be used in numerous applications including watershed delineation.

This dataset contains tabular data at three scales (city, tract, and synoptic site) and related vector shapefiles (for watersheds or buffers around synoptic sites) for areas included in the Carbon in Urban River Biogeochemistry Project (CURB) to assess how social, built, and biophysical factors shape aquatic functions. The city scale included 486 urban areas in the continental United States with greater than 50,000 residents. Tabular data are provided for each urban area (CURB_CensusUrbanArea.csv) and all U.S. Census tracts within seven urban areas (Atlanta, GA, Boston, MA, Miami, FL, Phoenix, AZ, Portland, OR, Salt Lake City, UT, and San Francisco, CA; CURB_CensusTract.csv) to characterize a range of social, built, and biophysical factors. In six focal cities (Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, Salt Lake City, UT, and Portland, OR) up to 100 sites were selected for synoptic water quality sampling. For each synoptic site tabular data (CURB_SynopticSite.csv) are provided to characterize a range of social, built, and biophysical factors within the watershed (Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Portland, Salt Lake City) or within a buffer of the site (Miami). Vector shapefiles are provided for the watershed boundaries (CURB_Synoptic_Watersheds.zip) for all synoptic sites in each city except Miami, FL where 400-m buffers (CURB_Miami_Synoptic_Buffers.zip) around the synoptic site were used.

As part of a study to quantify floodplain flood attenuation ecosystem services, datasets were developed representing a baseline (current floodplain condition) and counterfactual (floodplain flood storage removed) scenario for 18 sites in the Schuylkill River Watershed, Pennsylvania. This data release contains rasters (3-m resolution) of baseline and counterfactual flood depth grids for the 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, 0.04, 0.02, and 0.01 annual exceedance probability (AEP) scenarios in the Schuylkill River Watershed, Pennsylvania. Depth grid raster datasets were used as input for riverine flood modeling in the Federal Emergency Management Agency HAZUS Program to estimate damages to buildings under various flood intensities. The HAZUS Program is a tool to estimate damages and associated losses due to natural disasters like floods. The data release also contains polyline shapefiles of (1) six floodplain storage volume cross-sections for the 0.01 AEP baseline scenario flood inundation boundary at each USGS streamgage of interest and (2) water surface cross-sections extending across all areas of interest inundation boundaries based on the 0.01 counterfactual scenario boundary. Floodplain storage volume cross-sectional lines (Schuylkill_Volume_xns) were used in the approximation of average floodplain flood water storage capacity of each area of interest. Water surface cross-sections (Schuylkill_DepthGrid_xns) were used for water surface interpolation in depth grid processing.

As part of a collaborative study with the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey developed a suite of high-resolution lidar-derived raster datasets for the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina, using repeat lidar data from the years 2013, 2015, and 2022. These datasets include raster representations of digital elevation models (DEMs), DEM of difference, the ten most common geomorphons (i.e. geomorphologic feature), lidar point density, and positive topographic openness. Raster footprints vary by year based on extent of lidar data collection. All files are available as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF, meaning they are formatted to work on the cloud or can be directly downloaded. These metrics have been developed to pair with field geomorphic assessments for use in the development of a model that can remotely predict streambank erosion potential along streams in the Greater Raleigh, NC Area, however, they have the potential to be used in numerous applications.

This data release contains 15 datasets and associated metadata of watershed characteristics and data related to stream water quality and constituent load estimation for 15 study watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Dataset periods vary but range within 2000 to 2021. The 15 datasets are organized as individual child items. The data release includes three Geographic Information System shapefiles: (1) 01: Watersheds shapefile for the 15 study watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia; (2) 02: Stormwater drainage areas shapefile for the 15 study watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, August 2021; and (3) 03: 200-foot stream buffer shapefiles for 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The data release includes four comma separated value (csv) format datasets related to watershed characteristics: (1) 04: National Land Cover Database land cover at 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia from 2001 to 2019; (2) 05: Impervious areas within 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia from 2000 to 2020; (3) 06: Property parcel building construction dates and densities in 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia in 2021; and (4) 07: Population density in 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia from 2000 to 2020. The data release also includes the following eight csv format datasets related to stream water quality and constituent load estimation: (1) 08: Daily average stream base flow at 14 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2002-2020; (2) 09: Streamwater quality assurance sample results for 19 water-quality constituents in 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for years 2000-2020; (3) 10: Laboratory standard reference samples for the Gwinnett County, Georgia study for years 2014-2020; (4) 11: Streamwater sample constituent concentration outliers from 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2003-2020; (5) 12: Model calibration data for fitting regression models used to estimate streamwater loads for 12 constituents in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2003-2020; (6) 13: Models coefficients and statistics for regression models used to estimate streamwater loads for 12 water-quality constituents in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2003-2020 (includes 488 portable document format files (pdf) with reports and plots for evaluating model fits); (7) 14: LOADEST estimation dataset used to estimate streamwater loads for 12 constituents in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2003-2020; and (8) 15: Streamwater load and yield estimates for 12 constituents in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia for water years 2003-2020.

This dataset contains geomorphic metrics across 32 cross-sections at four catchments within the Clarksburg Special Protection Area in Montgomery County, Maryland. These data were derived from raw cross-sectional data collected by the Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection. Geomorphic metrics include channel area, bed location, channel depth, channel width, and bank movement for each bank. The catchment types included in this assessment were a majority agricultural catchment which began to be developed in 2016, a forested "control" catchment, and two urbanizing catchments with a high density of stormwater best management practices, in which cross-sectional surveys were collected pre-, during, and post-construction.

As part of a collaborative study with the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey is assessing streambank erosion potential in selected stream reaches throughout the Greater Raleigh metropolitan area. Rapid field measurement techniques were used to assess streambank stability at 124 stream segments between January and March 2022. Field data were collected using the Bank Erosion Hazard Index (BEHI) and Near Bank Stress (NBS) assessment methods (Rosgen, 2001; Rosgen and others, 2008) as well as the Rapid Geomorphic Assessment (RGA) method (Simon and others, 2007). This Data Release contains a dataset with all stream site information, field measurements, and streambank stability assessment results; stream site photographs; [...]

In this study, we develop urban ecosystem accounts in the U.S., using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) framework. Most ecosystem accounts focus on regional and national scales, which are appropriate for many ecosystem services. However, ecosystems provide substantial services in cities, improving quality of life and contributing to resiliency for substantial parts of the population. Our models estimate energy savings for indoor cooling resulting from heat mitigated by trees and rainfall intercepted by trees. Both models cover major cities in the contiguous U.S. and report the results through physical supply and use tables for multiple accounting periods (2011 and 2016). Using conservative assumptions, urban trees provide substantial heat mitigation (4,098 and 4,229 GWh, valued at $523 and $539 million in 2011 and 2016, respectively) and rainfall interception (2,422 and 2,627 million m3, valued at $434 and $425 million for 2011 and 2016, respectively). Interannual differences largely reflect variations in weather patterns. Our work shows how Earth observation data can support urban ecosystem accounting. We provide model code within a public repository to facilitate model runs elsewhere, enabling the SEEA EEA and Earth observation user communities to reuse our models and provide feedback for improvement.

Alterations to stream hydrology, which includes changes in stream geomorphology, are primary impacts of anthropogenic disruption. In North Carolina, hydrological alterations lead to environmental impacts through degraded ecosystems and water quality. In collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Mitigation Services (DMS), the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center datasets as proxy measurements of the extent of altered hydrology in riverine systems across the State. The datasets consists of an inventory and characterization of small scale, mostly agricultural ponds and artificial drainage which are a both significant hydrologic modifications in the region. Ponds are impoundments that have been used for flood control, water supply, irrigation and recreation. The constitute modifications to the stream network that fragment the aquatic habitat by limiting river network connectivity necessary for fish passage. A dataset was developed to quantify small ponds as proxy measures of barriers to flow in stream network across the State. The USGS used a combination of the 2016 National Land Cover Dataset and the National Hydrography Dataset to identify 135,366 dams that are less than 10 acres. The features are more refined than larger scale assessments such as those in the National Hydrologic Dataset (NHD) Plus High Res and provide a starting point for determining mitigation strategies. Artificial drainage has major ecosystem impacts through the development of extensive ditch networks that reduce storage and induce large-scale vegetation changes. This has been a widespread practice of water table management for agriculture in Eastern North Carolina. However, these features are challenging to identify and because of their structure has been determined by non-natural factors. A dataset of open ditches was processed by calculating terrain (also, positive) openness ? a value based a line-of-sight approach to measure the surrounding eight zenith angles as viewed above the landscape surface. The result from calculating openness with high resolution DEMs (LIDAR) was then refined by masking natural water ways (stream valleys) and channels that are associated with transportation and urban areas.

Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection has collected datasets to assess the health of streams since the early 1990s. Datasets include geomorphic stream cross-sectional surveys, fish and benthic macroinvertebrate counts and taxa abundance, and water chemistry data collected at the time of benthic and fish sampling (dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, air temperature, and water temperature). Data span years 1992 to 2020 at five watersheds within the Clarksburg study area. Watersheds include a forested reference site (Soper), an urban site with centralized stormwater management (Crystal Rock), and three treatment watersheds (TR104, TR109, and Cabin Branch) within the Clarksburg Special Protection Area that transitioned from agriculture to suburban development with distributed stormwater management. These data were used to assess the impacts of distributed stormwater management on stream ecosystem function. All datasets were collected by Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection.