Checking for non-preferred file/folder path names (may take a long time depending on the number of files/folders) ...

Hierarchical Classification of the Hydrologic landscapes of the North American Continent (shapefile - v0)


A newer version of this resource http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/00c1d461e9554a71a4b2d4ba80507a4c is available that replaces this version.
Authors:
Owners: This resource does not have an owner who is an active HydroShare user. Contact CUAHSI (help@cuahsi.org) for information on this resource.
Type: Resource
Storage: The size of this resource is 58.4 MB
Created: Oct 10, 2025 at 9:26 p.m. (UTC)
Last updated: Mar 16, 2026 at 11:51 p.m. (UTC) (Metadata update)
Published date: Oct 15, 2025 at 8:30 p.m. (UTC)
DOI: 10.4211/hs.c2bebfeeda8240a2b3711a3432f38a45
Citation: See how to cite this resource
Content types: Geographic Feature Content 
Sharing Status: Published
Views: 1405
Downloads: 245
+1 Votes: 1 other +1 this
Comments: No comments (yet)

Abstract

NOTE: The shapefile in this resource represents a work in progress.

This shapefile shows a hierarchical classification of the North American continent into hydrologically meaningful regions. The classification consists of 5 broad domains, subdivided further into 35 hydrologic provinces. The province outlines are derived from existing polygons that outline the Level III Eco-Regions of North America. The hydrologic domains are color coded (north = blue, west = red, central = yellow, east = green, island = purple); the provinces are named within the shapefile and shown in a shade representative of their domain. A ready-to-use image is provided in the PDF file. The boundaries of the provinces were derived through multiple community workshops and expert consultations. This process, the reasoning for drawing the boundaries where they are, and perceptual models of hydrologic behavior for each province will be described in an upcoming set of publications.

The files in this resource are provided here to make it possible to start using this classification, with the understanding that this is a work-in-progress. We ask users to check for a final set of citations in due course.

This research was supported by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) with funding under award NA22NWS4320003 from the NOAA Cooperative Institute Program. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NOAA.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
North America
North Latitude
72.0000°
East Longitude
-52.7000°
South Latitude
17.9000°
West Longitude
-178.3000°

Content

Data Services

The following web services are available for data contained in this resource. Geospatial Feature and Raster data are made available via Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services. The provided links can be copied and pasted into GIS software to access these data. Multidimensional NetCDF data are made available via a THREDDS Data Server using remote data access protocols such as OPeNDAP. Other data services may be made available in the future to support additional data types.

Additional Metadata

Name Value
The field named prov_code in the attribute table Short code or ID for the province (e.g., tundra)
The field named prov_label in the attribute table Human-readable province name (e.g., N1. Tundra)

Related Resources

The content of this resource is derived from Commission for Environmental Cooperation. (1997). Ecological Regions of North America: Toward a Common Perspective. http://www.cec.org/files/documents/publications/1701-ecological-regions-north-america-toward-common-perspective-en.pdf
This resource has been replaced by a newer version Knoben, W. J. M., H. McMillan, Y. Fan, S. Carney, I. Garousi-Nejad, J. Masterman, J. S. Read, K. van Werkhoven, M. P. Clark (2026). Hierarchical Classification of the Hydrologic landscapes of the North American Continent (shapefile - v1), HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/00c1d461e9554a71a4b2d4ba80507a4c

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Funded as part of the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) NA22NWS4320003

How to Cite

Knoben, W. J. M., H. McMillan, Y. Fan, S. Carney, I. Garousi-Nejad, J. Masterman, J. S. Read, K. van Werkhoven, M. P. Clark (2026). Hierarchical Classification of the Hydrologic landscapes of the North American Continent (shapefile - v0), HydroShare, https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.c2bebfeeda8240a2b3711a3432f38a45

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

Comments

There are currently no comments

New Comment

required