BetaBetaDataset
To provide standardized watershed and catchment-scale landscape metrics that support stream assessment, watershed characterization, ecological analysis, and water resource management across the conterminous United States
The StreamCat Dataset was developed by the EPA Office of Research and Development to reduce the technical difficulty of linking landscape characteristics to streams and watersheds by integrating national geospatial environmental datasets with the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlusV2) framework
The dataset contains over 600 landscape metrics for approximately 2.65 million stream segments and associated catchments in the conterminous United States, including natural variables such as soils, geology, and climate, as well as anthropogenic indicators such as urbanization, agriculture, dams, roads, and watershed integrity indices.
The data were generated by integrating national geospatial datasets, landscape rasters, hydrological layers, and environmental monitoring information using GIS analysis, watershed accumulation algorithms, spatial modeling, and the NHDPlusV2 hydrographic framework. Metrics were derived through automated geospatial processing in R, Python, ArcPy, and other GIS tools.