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South Carolina Water Science Center Publication Abstracts

Development of a 14-digit hydrologic unit code numbering system for South Carolina

By D.E. Bower, C. Lowry, M.A. Lowery, and N.M. Hurley

USGS Water Resources Investigations Report WRIR 99-4015

Abstract

A Hydrologic Unit Map showing the cataloging units, watersheds, and subwatersheds of South Carolina has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, funded through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 319 Grant, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. These delineations represent 8-, 11-, and 14-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes, respectively. This map presents information on drainage, hydrography, and hydrologic boundaries of the water-resources regions, subregions, accounting units, cataloging units, watersheds, and subwatersheds.

Of the 1,022 subwatersheds delineated for this project, 1,004 range in size from 3,000 to 40,000 acres (4.69 to 62.5 square miles). Seventeen subwatersheds are smaller than 3,000 acres and one subwatershed, located on St. Helena Island, is larger than 40,000 acres. The total drainage area for each of the 1,022 subwatersheds is given in table 1 (3 Mb pdf file of Sheet 1) of the report.

The source maps for the basin delineations are 1:24,000-scale 7.5-minute series topographic maps and the base maps shown on figure 1 (7 Mb pdf file of Sheet 2) are from 1:100,000-scale Digital Line Graphs; however, the data are published at a scale of 1:500,000. In addition to the two PDF files of map sheets 1 and 2 from the report, a GIS dataset of the hydrologic unit map in Arc/Info Export format also is available for downloading (holding the Shift key down, left-click on the mouse to save the file to your local disk) (Arc/Info export file of 14-digit HUC map). The codes used to attribute the polygons and lines in the Arc/Info coverage are explained in the metadata (20 Mb metadata text file for 14-digit export file).

The hydrologic unit map and its associated codes provide a standardized base for use by water-resource managers and planners in locating, storing, retrieving, and exchanging hydrologic data. In addition, the map can be used for cataloging water-data acquisition activities, geographically organizing hydrologic data, and planning and describing water-use and related land-use activities.

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