HyG: A hydraulic geometry dataset derived from historical stream gage measurements across the conterminous US

Abstract

Abstract Regional- and continental-scale hydrologic models are increasingly important forecasting tools, yet they rely on highly variable channel parameters (e.g. width, depth, hydraulic resistance) that remain unquantified for millions of stream reaches across the country. Existing hydrologic models utilize over-simplified channel geometries that directly impact the accuracy of streamflow estimates, with cascading effects for water resource and hazard prediction. Here, we present a hydraulic geometry dataset, termed ‘HyG’, derived from discharge field measurements at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gages across the conterminous United States (CONUS). The HyG dataset includes (1) at-a-station hydraulic geometry parameters, (2) at-a-station hydraulic resistance (Manning’s n) calculated from the Manning equation, (3) daily discharge percentiles, and (4) regionalized downstream hydraulic geometry parameters based on HUC4 (Hydrologic Unit Code 4), derived from a total of 4,051,682 individual measurements from 66,841 total gages. The regionalized HyG dataset can be used directly to improve channel representations in models over CONUS. The original HyG relationships can also be regionalized for finer scales if required.