Identifying headwater streams across the conterminous United States - spatial database

Detailed metadata via the paper and associated files can soon be found at: doi 10.23719/1532382 or contact corresponding authors Headwater streams play critical roles in hydrologic and biogeochemical processes and functions, yet their spatial distribution and land cover context remain poorly understood at continental scales. Building from a high-resolution conterminous United States (CONUS) hydrography network dataset - the USGS Nahtional Hydrography Dataset-High Resolution (NHDPlus HR), we quantified the spatial extent, density, and upstream catchment characteristics of headwater stream segments across the conterminous United States (CONUS). We identified approximately 8.4 million kilometers of headwater streams (stream order 1&2), finding that 77% of the total stream network is comprised of headwaters. We modified the extent of NHDPlus HR in Indiana and portions of North Carolina and South Carolina to be consistent with surrounding stream densities of like ecoregions. The zipped ESRI geodatabase includes: 1) a gridded raster (30m resolution) of headwater catchments and associated metadata. 2) Polyline file for CONUS NHD-HR-headwaters modified stream orders 1&2 and associated metadata 3) Reference polygons that informed the inclusion or exclusion of USGS HUC12s in the analysis for Lane et al 2025 Ecosystems. Polygons include US census international boundary, two US coastline polylines, and NHD HUC12 with the exclusion flags to determine use in the analyses. 4) a readme file describing the included files