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Chesapeake Bay

Upper Chesapeake

Left: the Upper Chesapeake basin (WBD HUC4 0206) with its NHDPlus HR network, the upper Chesapeake Bay and the basin's larger lakes and reservoirs as water, and our model (USGS 01495000) in orange. Right: that model drawn large, every one of its channels, with its water bodies in blue.
Left: the Upper Chesapeake basin, with our model (USGS 01495000) in orange and the upper Bay and the basin's larger lakes and reservoirs in blue. Right: that model drawn large, its channels in orange and its water bodies in blue.
  • 1 published SWAT+ model
  • NHDPlus HR: 17,027 km of network flow paths, 1.81x NHDPlus V2.1's 9,385 km, over catchment areas that differ by 7.0 % between the two datasets
  • 67 USGS gauges with a 90 % daily record, 2014-2024 (5 of 5 HUC8s covered)
  • 5 HUC8s both datasets carry, 13,245.5 km² (WBD HUC12 sum)

Not in this comparison: HUC8 02060001 (in NHDPlus HR only) and 02060008 (in NHDPlus V2.1 only).

Basin: HUC4 0206 (Upper Chesapeake) of the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset.

Our models in this basin

Chester-Sassafras · USGS 01495000 (Big Elk Creek at Elk Mills)

Model outputs

  • Little Gunpowder Falls at Laurel Brook, MD · USGS 01584500 · gauge drainage area 93.5 km² · Not offered: no channel at the gauge, so no flow chart
  • Big Elk Creek at Elk Mills, MD · USGS 01495000 · gauge drainage area 133.6 km² · Open the model

NHDPlus HR, not Version 2, in this basin

020,00040,00060,00080,000100,000020,00040,00060,00080,000100,000NHDPlus Version 2.1, kmNHDPlus HR, kmSusquehanna River BasinPotomacLower ChesapeakeUpper ChesapeakeUpper Chesapeake
Each point is one basin (WBD HUC4): its network flow paths in NHDPlus Version 2.1 (across) and in NHDPlus HR (up), filled with canals and ditches in both counts, hollow without them. On the line, the two would be equal. Ringed: the two datasets' areas for this basin differ by more than 5 %: Upper Chesapeake. In this figure, this basin's points are orange.

National models at this basin's gauges

At the 49 USGS benchmark gauges in this basin: NWM v2.1 median KGE 0.43, NHM median KGE 0.49. This is the national models' published skill at these gauges, not SWATGenX's. Source: Towler et al. 2023 data releases, DOI 10.5066/P9QT1KV7 (NWM v2.1) and 10.5066/P9DKA9KQ (NHM).

A model of your Bay watershed

We build a SWAT+ model for a USGS stream gauge in the Bay's four regions, on NHDPlus HR. You download it as files you open in SWAT+ Editor and run, and you keep the files.

Free, $0, to try it on a real station. Starter, $50 / month USD. MAX, $100 / month USD. Cloud calibration is pay as you go, on every plan including Free.

See the plans and order

Chesapeake Bay: all our models and work · Lower Chesapeake · Susquehanna River Basin