USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset (HUC)#

huc · theme hydro · live

Hydrologic unit boundaries (HUC2 to HUC16) for the United States, from the USGS/NRCS Watershed Boundary Dataset.

import easysnowdata as esd

aoi = (-121.94, 46.72, -121.54, 46.99)   # Mount Rainier
huc_gdf = esd.hydro.basins.huc(aoi, level=8)

No account needed for the default route

source="usgs-wbd" is open. source="gee" needs earthengine — see the credentials page.

Sources#

2 routes serve this product; the first is the default and source= picks another. The return contract is the same either way.

source

provider

credentials

resolution

extent

temporal

latency

notes

usgs-wbd (default)

vector_http

none

—

United States

continuously updated

—

the public ArcGIS REST service: no credentials, server-side spatial query, paged because it times out on large pages

gee

gee

earthengine

—

United States

static (2017)

—

the 2017 snapshot; the REST service is newer and needs no account

Where each route points#

usgs-wbd — USGS WBD (ArcGIS REST) live

https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer

gee — Earth Engine live

USGS/WBD/2017/HUC{level}

Variables#

variable

units

dtype

nodata

categorical

huc

—

—

—

no

name

—

—

—

no

areasqkm

km2

—

—

no

Provenance#

Licence · Public domain (US government data)

DOI · 10.3133/tm11A3

Cite the data as

Jones, K.A., Niknami, L.S., Buto, S.G., and Decker, D. (2022). Federal standards and procedures for the national Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), 5th ed. U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods 11-A3.

Documentation

Loader · easysnowdata.hydro.basins.huc