A simple makefile for downloading the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD).

The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) are used to portray surface water on The National Map. The NHD represents the drainage network with features such as rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, coastline, dams, and streamgages. The WBD represents drainage basins as enclosed areas in eight different size categories.

• make
• wget

From the command line:

$ wget https://github.com/JeffPaine/nhd_downloader/archive/master.zip
$ unzip master.zip -d nhd_downloader
$ cd nhd_downloader/

Then, run a command as described below to download the data you need. Zip files will be saved to zip/ and the resulting gdb files will be unzipped to gdb/.

$ make subregions

These are subregions (HUC 4) as defined by the Watershed Boundary Dataset. Download size: ~12.8 Gigabytes

$ make SUBREGION_HUC_CODE

See the Makefile for example subregion codes and names.

$ make states

Download size: ~17.5 Gigabytes. Note: this will cause overlap and duplication of data as it includes reaches that extend out of a state's boundaries. Hence, the significantly larger download size.

$ make STATE_TWO_LETTER_ABBREVIATION

$ make clean