The Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset: Consistent, Binational Watersheds for the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin

Ecosystem‐based management of the Laurentian Great Lakes, which spans both the United States and Canada, is hampered by the lack of consistent binational watersheds for the entire Basin. Using comparable data sources and consistent methods, we developed spatially equivalent watershed boundaries for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Water Resources Association 2016-10, Vol.52 (5), p.1068-1088
Main Authors: Forsyth, Danielle K., Riseng, Catherine M., Wehrly, Kevin E., Mason, Lacey A., Gaiot, John, Hollenhorst, Tom, Johnston, Craig M., Wyrzykowski, Conrad, Annis, Gust, Castiglione, Chris, Todd, Kent, Robertson, Mike, Infante, Dana M., Wang, Lizhu, McKenna, James E., Whelan, Gary
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Basins
Bays
Boundaries
Catchment area
Catchments
Connecting
Data
Drainage channels
Ecosystem management
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Government
Hydrography
Hydrology
Lakes
Laurentian Great Lakes
Methods
Surface water
surface water hydrology
Tributaries
Water resources
Watersheds
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Summary:Ecosystem‐based management of the Laurentian Great Lakes, which spans both the United States and Canada, is hampered by the lack of consistent binational watersheds for the entire Basin. Using comparable data sources and consistent methods, we developed spatially equivalent watershed boundaries for the binational extent of the Basin to create the Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset (GLHD). The GLHD consists of 5,589 watersheds for the entire Basin, covering a total area of approximately 547,967 km2, or about twice the 247,003 km2 surface water area of the Great Lakes. The GLHD improves upon existing watershed efforts by delineating watersheds for the entire Basin using consistent methods; enhancing the precision of watershed delineation using recently developed flow direction grids that have been hydrologically enforced and vetted by provincial and federal water resource agencies; and increasing the accuracy of watershed boundaries by enforcing embayments, delineating watersheds on islands, and delineating watersheds for all tributaries draining to connecting channels. In addition, the GLHD is packaged in a publically available geodatabase that includes synthetic stream networks, reach catchments, watershed boundaries, a broad set of attribute data for each tributary, and metadata documenting methodology. The GLHD provides a common set of watersheds and associated hydrography data for the Basin that will enhance binational efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes.
ISSN:1093-474X
1752-1688
DOI:10.1111/1752-1688.12435