Natural Monthly Flow Estimates for the Conterminous United States, 1950-2015

People and nature rely on the fresh water flowing through rivers for drinking, irrigation, recreation, and habitat. Using advanced machine learning techniques, the United States Geological Survey has generated monthly estimates of the amount (cubic feet per second) of water naturally flowing in all the rivers in the conterminous United States. Natural flows are the amount of water expected to flow based on rainfall and absent any human diversions or alteration. This application was developed by The Nature Conservancy to help make this data accessible through a simple map interface.

Instructions: Zoom to your reach of interest, or use the search tool to locate your reach, and click on the reach to view collected data. Or if you already know your ComID, type or paste it into the box below the map and click submit.

Note: The USGS and The Nature Conservancy conducted a more focused modeling effort for rivers in California. Since the modelling region and methods were different, the estimated natural flows are different as well. For rivers in California, we recommend using the data available here: https://rivers.codefornature.org.

Suggested Citation: Miller, M.P., Carlisle, D.M., Wolock, D.M., and Wieczorek, M., 2018, A database of natural monthly streamflow estimates from 1950 to 2015 for the conterminous United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12685