Hydrography Presentations

This is from the online program of the AWRA 2026 Geospatial Water Technology Conference for Session 31: "California has developed a suite of custom tools and streamlined workflows to produce Elevation-Derived Hydrography (EDH) that is both technically robust and fully aligned with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) requirements. This presentation offers a practical, behind-the-scenes look at how we generate EDH efficiently while strengthening quality control, compliance, and repeatability across projects. We will highlight a selection of the tools and processes used to produce EDH, condition flow, and automate validation checks, compliance, and reporting to support consistent review and delivery. Attendees will see how these components work together as an integrated production system, reducing manual effort, minimizing rework, and improving confidence that outputs meet 3DHP specifications. Whether you are building a new EDH workflow, refining an existing process, or simply looking for ways to improve throughput without sacrificing standards, this session will provide actionable ideas." https://events.rdmobile.com/Sessions/Details/3454870

California’s Hydrography Data Stewardship Team, a partnership between the Department of Water Resources and California State Universities, is transforming the state’s foundational water data. A recent pilot project tested QL 1 and QL 2 elevation-derived hydrography (EDH) produced from high-quality LiDAR, exploring both its benefits and feasibility under USGS specifications. Join us to see how the results are helping to shape California’s next generation of hydrography.

Status of a pilot to assess the benefits of using QL1 lidar for EDH in the context of USGS requirements to answer the question, is it really better to use QL1 lidar over QL2 lidar when creating hydrography to the 3DHP standard.

NHDPlus is an integrated suite of application-ready geospatial data sets that incorporate many of the best features of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), the National Elevation Dataset (NED), and the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD). More information on NHDPlus is available at https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/nhdplus-national-hydrography-dataset-plus . In July 2016 the NHDPlus team presented a workshop in Sacramento, California intended for Geographic Information System (GIS) practitioners, hydrologic modelers, and water resource analysts. The workshop was sponsored by the California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum (http://cwemf.org) and it provided the opportunity to learn about NHDPlus basics and applications based upon the experience gained by the NHDPlus team and other users, since NHDPlus Version 2 was first released in late 2012. Techniques, tools, and data enhancements were among the many topics covered. The videos in this playlist are from the lecture modules of that workshop.

A handout on the CA DWR 3D Hydrography Stewardship Program as of December 2025