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.
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.
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676
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
Dataset copied.
Dataset copied.
Internal feature number.
ESRI
6-digit DNR basic hydrologic unit identifier
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
Nebraska is officially divided into 13 river basins so the numbers in the first set range from 01 to 13. The basins are numbered in upstream order from the Missouri River. For example, water flowing from the Big Blue River is the most downstream and is numbered 01, while the White River-Hat Creek basin water flows north into South Dakota and into the Missouri River so is numbered 13. Each river basin has been subdivided into the drainage areas of the major streams in the basin. The Little Blue and the South Platte river basins have as few as four divisions while the Republican River Basin has 17. Consequently, the second group of two-digit numbers range from 01 to 17 for each river basin numbered in upstream order. The last two-digit number further subdivides the major stream divisions into the BHU. These numbers range from 01 to 99. Although these last two digits were originally numbered in upstream order, revisions made during the delineation, digitization, processing, and verification processes and subsequent updates required that basic unit numbers sometimes be added or removed. As a result, these numbers are no longer necessarily in upstream order.
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
11-digit NRCS watershed identification number
Natural Resources Conservation Service
8-character code used by US Geological Survey and Nebraska Department of Water Resources used to identify the location of a streamflow gaging station. As used in this data file, the same number will be used in all of the watersheds that drain into the identified gage up to the next upstream gage.
US Geological Survey and Nebraska Department of Water Resources
6-character code used by Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to identify watersheds they are monitoring for stream water quality rules and regulations
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality
2-digit River Basin identifier (same as first two digits of (River basin name).hyd-id described above)
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
See on-line link at Identification_Information <http://dnr.ne.gov/databank/metadata/strm_doc2.html>
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
2-digit River Basin identifier (same as 3rd and 4th digits of (River basin name).hyd-id described above)
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
2-digit River Basin identifier (same as last two digits of (River basin name).hyd-id described above)
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
6-digit DNR basic hydrologic unit identifier to show what watershed water flowing from this watershed runs into
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
6-digit DNR basic hydrologic unit identifier to show which watershed flows into this watershed
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
6-digit DNR basic hydrologic unit identifier to show which other watershed flows into this watershed
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
Area of the watershed in thousands of acres. This value is calculated by dividing the Area (computed by ArcInfo in square meters) by 4046.8564 acres/sq. meter and then dividing by 100. The number was then truncated to the nearest 100 acre.
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
Water Divisions divided by state statues
Department of Natural Resources
Nebraska Water Resources Divisions
Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
Standardized 8 digit USGS hydrologic unit code (Level 1, 2, 3 and 4)
USGS
8-digit USGS Hydro Unit
USGS
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676
None
This data is in double 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 Natural Resources Commission.
301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 94676