National Hydrography Dataset

GeoSpatial Services is working in partnership with the National Park Service’s Regional Office to develop a National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) stewardship program for Alaska parks. The NHD is the portion of the National Map which describes surface water features and is maintained by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The NHD relies on a state-based stewardship process for integrating compliant updates in to the national dataset.

NHD National Dataset

Typically, a state has one or two state agency staff trained in the Quality Assurance (QA) and data submittal tools/process, called data stewards. Their job is to take locally updated data, perform the QA checks, and prepare it for upload to the NHD. This process insures that NHD updates are based on the best local knowledge and that they are compliant with national standards. In the lower 48 states this arrangement has been successful to varying degrees. Alaska on the other hand, presents some unique challenges due to its size and inter-jurisdictional nature. NPS has asked GSS to serve as the NPS Alaska data steward. Thus far, GSS has completed NHD edits for portions of the Chitna and Copper River/Copper Lake watersheds in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve. We are currently working with NPS to update their coastline data based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) information.


Completed Geodatabase with Imagery
for Nabesna, Alaska Project