Estimated mean annual natural ground-water recharge in the conterminous United States

This 1-kilometer resolution raster (grid) dataset is an index of mean annual natural ground-water recharge. The dataset was created by multiplying a grid of base-flow index (BFI) values by a grid of mean annual runoff values derived from a 1951-80 mean annual runoff contour map. Mean annual runoff is long-term average streamflow expressed on a per-unit-area basis.

The concept used to construct the dataset is based on two assumptions: (1) long-term average natural ground-water recharge is equal to long-term average natural ground-water discharge to streams, and (2) the base-flow index reasonably represents, over the long term, the percentage of natural ground-water discharge in streamflow.