Output files corresponding to "Continental patterns of submarine groundwater discharge reveal coastal vulnerabilities"

Corresponding peer-reviewed publication

This dataset corresponds to the output files that were produced for the study reported in:

• Sawyer, Audrey H., Cédric H. David, and James S. Famiglietti, (2016), Continental patterns of submarine groundwater discharge reveal coastal vulnerabilities, Science, 353(6300), 705-707. DOI:10.1126/science.aag1058. 

When making use of any of the files in this dataset, please cite both the aforementioned article and the dataset herein. 

Data sources

The following sources were used to produce files in this dataset:

• The National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) Version 2, obtained from http://www.horizon-systems.com/nhdplus/NHDplusV2_data.php.  Regions used are: Northeast (NE: 01), Mid-Atlantic (MA: 02), South-Atlantic North (SAN: 03N), South-Atlantic South (SAS: 03S), South-Atlantic West (SAW: 03W), Lower Mississippi (MS: 08), Texas (TX: 12), California (CA: 18), and Pacific Northwest (NW: 17).
• The second phase of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS2), obtained from ftp://hydro1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/s4pa/NLDAS.  Model outputs used are: NLDAS_MOS0125_MC.002, NLDAS_NOAH0125_MC.002, and NLDAS_VIC0125_MC.002.
• The United States 2010 Census dataset (CENSUS 2010), obtained from: http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2010DP1/County_2010Census_DP1.zip.
• The United States 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2011), obtained from: http://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd2011.php.

Description of files

The files in this dataset contain are described below:

• NHDFlowline_CONUS_coastline.zip.  This zip file contains a shapefile with the coastline of the Contiguous United States as described by NHDPlus V2, and was merged from a subsample of all river reaches available in regions used. 
• Catchment_CONUS_coastline.zip.  This zip file contains a shapefile with the contributing catchments of NHDPlus V2 corresponding to the above coastline, and was merged from a subsample of all catchments available in regions used. 
• Catchment_CONUS_coastline_centroid.zip.  This zip file contains a shapefile with the centroids of the above catchments. 
• SGD_Coastal_Vulnerabilities.csv.  This .csv file contains the following data (units are in parentheses):
  • COMID. Unique feature identifier in NHDPlusV2 (-).
  • LENGTHkm. Length of coastline feature (km).
  • REACHCODE. Reach identifier in NHDPlusV2; reaches can include multiple features; Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) is computed by reach, not feature (-).
  • AREAsqkm. Area of coastal catchment feature (km²).
  • REGION. NHDPlusV2 region: NE = Northeast, MA = Mid-Atlantic, SAN = South Atlantic North, SAS = South Atlantic South, SAW = South Atlantic West, TX = Texas, MS = Lower Mississippi, CA = California, PN = Pacific Northwest (-).
  • RLENGTHkm. Total length of coastline accumulated by REACHCODE (km).
  • RAREAsqkm. Total area of coastal catchment accumulated by REACHCODE (km²).
  • BGRUNkgpsqm. Average annual infiltrating runoff for REACHCODE (kg/m²)
  • SGDsqmpy. Average annual fresh SGD rate for REACHCODE (m²/y).
  • RCOUNT. Number of features by REACHCODE (-).
  • PDENpsqkm. Population density for coastal catchment feature (km^-2).
  • SWIVULN.  Vulnerability to saltwater intrusion: - 1 = vulnerable, 0 = not vulnerable (-).
  • PCTDEV11.  Percentage of reach area with developed or agricultural land use in 2011 (%).
  • CONTVULN. Vulnerability to offshore contamination associated with direct groundwater discharge: - 1 = vulnerable, 0 = not vulnerable (-).

Known bugs and limitations in this dataset or the associated manuscript.

No bugs have been unveiled since publication of this dataset or the associated manuscript.  Vulnerability thresholds are subjective and could be adjusted for different applications, refer to published manuscript for approaches used here.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences, and NSF grant EAR-1446724 (A.H.S); the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA, and grants from the NASA SWOT and Sea Level Science Teams (C.H.D. and J.S.F.).