Description: Line shapefile depicting isolines created from the 1991-2020 precipitation raster dataset from the Spatial Climate Analysis Service, Oregon State University. This file should be used in conjunction with the 30 Year Precipitation dataset (1991-2020) for the Susquehanna River Basin. The attribute field for inches has been interpolated from the raster's VALUE field. The inch values should be viewed as approximate. The conversion is listed in the Entity Attribute Overview section of the document.
Description: Monthly 30-year "normal" dataset covering the Susquehanna River Basin, averaged over the climatological period 1981-2010. Contains spatially gridded average annual precipitation ain inches at 800m grid cell resolution. Distribution of the point measurements to the spatial grid was accomplished using the PRISM model, developed and applied by Dr. Christopher Daly of the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University. This dataset was heavily peer reviewed, and is available free-of-charge on the PRISM website.
Description: Polygon shapefile representing the area underlain by shales with the potential for natural gas extraction in the Susquehanna River Basin. This dataset includes the estimated subsurface extent within the Susquehanna River Basin of the Marcellus, Utica-Antes, Burket, Geneseo, Mandata, Middlesex, Needmore, and Rhinestreet Shales combined. This dataset was created using New York geology from the NYS Museum, NYS Geologic Survey, 1999 and Pennsylvania geology from PA DCNR, 2001. To depict potential natural gas shale area within the Susquehanna River Basin, only display formations with a 'Yes' attribute for the field "GAS_SHALE".
Copyright Text: Natural Gas Shale extent, Robert Pody, Hydrogeologist, SRBC.
Description: Point shapefile representing the spatial distribution of median fecal coliform counts (colonies per 100 milliliters) in the Susquehanna River Basin. The results were obtained from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) STORET database for 95 stations in the basin. Samples were collected from 1986 to 2018.
Description: Monthly 30-year "normal" dataset covering the Susquehanna River Basin, averaged over the climatological period 1991-2020. Contains spatially gridded average total precipitation at 800m grid cell resolution. Distribution of the point measurements to the spatial grid was accomplished using the PRISM model, developed and applied by Dr. Christopher Daly of the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University. This dataset is available free-of-charge on the PRISM website.
Description: Different geologic materials, structures, and land uses all influence the rate in which water can recharge underlying aquifers. This dataset combines factors influencing recharge through standardization and weighting assignments using the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)-GIS framework to identify land-surface areas that have the potential to provide a large fraction of recharge. Percent impervious cover, land surface slope, percent sand and clay, depth to bedrock, drainage density, karst density, and fault density are used to describe recharge potential within the Susquehanna River Basin (basin). Many of these data layers are used to predict baseflow via regional regression equations in ungaged locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region; baseflow is often used as an approximation of recharge. Input criteria were prioritized using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is an additive weighting model that can be combined with MCDA. Three general “first-level factors” were identified based on three primary zones of infiltration or recharge; those include the land surface, shallow-subsurface (soil) geology, and structural/bedrock geology. Weighting assignments of input datasets are presented in the table below.WeightFirst-Level FactorsWeightSecond-Level Factors40Land Cover / Terrain25Percent Impervious15Land Surface Slope20Shallow-Subsurface Geology15Percent Sand2.5Percent Clay2.5Depth to Bedrock40Structural / Bedrock Geology25Drainage Density10Karst Density5Fault DensityRecharge potential is described as an index from 100-500, with 100 illustrating areas of least recharge potential and 500 illustrating areas of highest recharge potential. This dataset can be extracted and reclassified in user defined areas for local assessments using the quantile classification scheme.Reclassification of input datasets, and dataset sources are described in the "Lineage" section of the metadata.
Copyright Text: Pierre MaCoy, P.G. and Graham Markowitz, P.G., 2023.Identifying Optimal Groundwater Recharge Locations and Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas within the Susquehanna River Basin. Susquehanna River Basin Commission. 4423 North Front Street. Harrisburg, PA 17110.
Description: Different geologic materials, structures, and land uses all influence the rate in which water can recharge underlying aquifers. This dataset combines factors influencing recharge through standardization and weighting assignments using the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)-GIS framework to identify land-surface areas that have the potential to provide a large fraction of recharge. Percent impervious cover, land surface slope, percent sand and clay, depth to bedrock, drainage density, karst density, and fault density are used to describe recharge potential within the Susquehanna River Basin (basin). Many of these data layers are used to predict baseflow via regional regression equations in ungaged locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region; baseflow is often used as an approximation of recharge. Input criteria were prioritized using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is an additive weighting model that can be combined with MCDA. Three general “first-level factors” were identified based on three primary zones of infiltration or recharge; those include the land surface, shallow-subsurface (soil) geology, and structural/bedrock geology. Weighting assignments of input datasets are presented in the table below. WeightFirst-Level FactorsWeightSecond-Level Factors40Land Cover / Terrain25Percent Impervious15Land Surface Slope20Shallow-Subsurface Geology15Percent Sand2.5Percent Clay2.5Depth to Bedrock40Structural / Bedrock Geology25Drainage Density10Karst Density5Fault DensityThe resulting raster dataset describes recharge potential as an index from 100-500, with 100 illustrating areas of least recharge potential and 500 illustrating areas of highest recharge potential. This polygon feature class represents all land surface areas that have corresponding pixel values within the 5th (or highest) quantile recharge class. Verification of these areas via desktop methods is described in detail in the study report available on the Commission's website at https://www.srbc.net/our-work/reports-library/Areas of high recharge potential may potentially overlie open water in features such as in rivers, streams, lakes, or reservoirs. Open water locations may be suitable for recharge, however some input datasets may not be applicable and/or complete for these areas. We combined “waterbody” features from the National Hydrography Dataset (USGS, 1999) and areas classified as “open water” in the National Land Cover Database (USGS, 2019) to comprehensively describe surface waters in the Basin. High recharge potential areas overlying surface waters are denoted by “Yes-Water” in the “High_Pot” attribute field. Reclassification of input datasets, and dataset sources are described in the "Lineage" section of the metadata.
Copyright Text: Pierre MaCoy, P.G. and Graham Markowitz, P.G., 2023. Identifying Optimal Groundwater Recharge Locations and Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas within the Susquehanna River Basin. Susquehanna River Basin Commission. 4423 North Front Street. Harrisburg, PA 17110.