The Lake Tahoe Basin Stream Catchment Database: A resource for water quality monitoring in the basin

Although the Lake Tahoe Basin and its receiving waterbody, Lake Tahoe, are intensively monitored, managed, and studied, there has been no centralized resource for evaluating variation in environmental characteristics among watersheds (i.e., catchments). To address this opportunity, we compiled and calculated 161 variables for 60 non-overlapping contiguous watersheds draining to Lake Tahoe . Watershed-scale variables include climatic, topographic, vegetation, edaphic, hydrologic, and anthropogenic characteristics. Data were downloaded from publicly-available sources including: the National Elevation Dataset, USDA SSURGO soils, Calfire FRAP dataset of fire perimeters, the National Land Cover Dataset, and the Rangeland Analysis Platform. We compiled data in a Geographic Information System at the scale of the watershed. Existing and custom scripts were used to process data and derive variables that could not be obtained from existing databases. These data will be useful for environmental managers and scientists who work in the Lake Tahoe Basin and can assist with future site selection intended to span environmental gradients.