The DNR in cooperation with NRCS, USGS. DEQ and NGP delineated and computerized the boundaries of drainage areas that formed the basic hydrologic units needed for water resources planning andother uses. These basic hydrologic units were designed so they could be aggregated to many combinations of watershed or river basins. They have been integrated into the NRC's computer data systems so they are available to all with the facilities to access the Natural Resources Data Bank. The specific source of the HUC8 boundaries was the U.S. Geological Survey's Hydrologic Unit Map of the State of Nebraska. The lines from this 1:500,000 scale were transferred on to 1:24,000 scale quad sheets, then digitized and processed along with the rest of the lines on the quad maps as described above.
Section 2-15,100 of the Nebraska statutes gives the DNR responsibility for conducting the State Water Planning and Review Process. The statutory purpose of the planning process is to coordinate and direct the planning efforts of the state agencies and the university divisions with responsibilities and interest in the water resources field. The statutes add that the process shall be designed to, amon other things, develop and maintain the data, information, and analytical capabilities necessary to provide state agencies and other water interests with a support basse for water planning and management activities. The basic hydrologi units are an important part of the hydrologic section of that information support base.
Following precedents established over a period of many years by others, the State Water Plan divided the state into 13 river basins. Those boundaries were incorporated into the state statutes governing the DNR in 1973. Thirteen commissioners are now elected from 12 of those river basins, and 3 are appointed by the Governor. By statue, the river basins must be delineated on the Nebraska river basin map officially adopted by the Commission and on file in the NRC office. On December 13, 1990 the Commission adopted the system of basic units and the resulting river basin boundaries as the map required by Sec. 2-1504.
ground condition
None, acknowledgement of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.
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Most of the original data was digitized from 7 1/2 quad maps where they were available. This digitized information was processed on a PC with a FORTRAN program and then plotted at 100% scale and overlayed on the original to verify the accuracy. Many checks were programmed into the FORTRAN program to help correct or identify inaccuracies. Other error checking and correcting was accomplished using visual inspection, Paradox 3.0 and Arc/Info 6.0 and later Arc/Info 7.0.
The hydrologic codes were checked against a list of valid codes through a FORTRAN program on a PC. Additional checks were made on an Arc/Info workstation. All codes were valid. Maps were generated and a 100% visual check was approved. All data was checked several times through several error checking programs in Arc/Info 6.0 and 7.0 to determine if there were any polygons left unattributed or polygons with wrong attributes.
In most cases the information was digitized from 7 1/2 USGS quadrangles maps. In area were they were not complete or we did not have them, other maps were used such as the 15-minute series in Nebraska and the 1:250,00 and 1:500,000 series maps in areas of the states bordering Nebraska.
medium to low - this data does not meet any standards
medium to low - this data does not meet any standards
spatial and attribute information
Basic Hydrologic Units (BHUs) are the drainage areas of the smallest units in the DNR system. They are subdivisions of the areas in the systems of six state and federal agencies: the DNR, Department of Water Resources (), Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Game and Parks Commission (GPC), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and Soil Conservation Service (SCS). They were created by dividing all streams essential to those systems at all the division points in those systems. All points such as stream gages ( and USGS), end points of water quality stream segments (DEQ), and fisheries stream segments (GPC), basin and subbasin boundaries (DNR, and USGS), hydrologic units (USGS), and watershed boundaries (SCS) were used to divide the essential streams to create elemental stream reaches that could be added together in different combinations to duplicate any of those systems. Delineating the drainage area of these elemental stream reaches produced the smallest subdivisions of the drainage areas used by those agencies. Therefore, basic units can be aggregated to any of their watersheds or basins. Basic units are not all classic drainage areas. The SCS used some major streams as dividing lines for their watersheds, so it was necessary to make some of the basic units conform to that convention. Some of these basic units cover only the drainage area on the right bank of a stream, and some cover the complementary area on the opposite side of the stream.
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Standardized 8-digit UGS hydrologic units (Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4)
USGS
Standardized 8-digit UGS hydrologic units (Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4)
USGS
Name of 8-digit river basin
USGS
Name of 8-digit river basin
USGS
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676
None
This data is in single precision format. After the data was put in ARC/INFO Export format, we compressed the data using PKZIP and ZIP2EXE. However, upon request we will output it to another format if you are not able to use this one.
Spatial and attribute information
You can either order by leaving a message over the web site or call Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676