High Plains Aquifer Saturated Thickness Contours 1996-97

10,085 water-level measurements and 49 stream elevations define the saturated thickness of a 174,000 square mile aquifer underlying eight central U.S. states. The U.S. Geological Survey created this digital map set based on 1996-97 data to document the original High Plains Water-level Monitoring project map. It represents the principal water source for irrigating about 13 million acres of agricultural land.

Use Cases

• Model regional groundwater volume changes by analyzing saturated thickness contours over the 174,000 square mile area.
• Assess aquifer health for agricultural planning using the 1996-97 water-level measurements from 10,036 wells.
• Map the aquifer's physical boundaries defined by erosional extent, streams, and physiographic features.
• Estimate hydraulic properties like conductivity by correlating contour data with known sediment type variations.

Strengths

• Based on 10,085 direct water-level measurements and 49 stream elevation points.
• Covers a large, economically critical area of approximately 174,000 square miles.
• Subjected to the formal review standard of U.S. Geological Survey reports for topological and attribute consistency.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, representing a snapshot from 1996-97 with no more recent updates.
• Spatial resolution is limited to contour lines derived from point measurements, not a continuous high-resolution surface.
• Specific column names, data formats, and exact row counts for the digital features are not provided.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Geological Survey High Plains Water-level Monitoring project, documented in Professional Paper 1400-B.

Collection Method

Saturated thickness calculated by subtracting water-level elevation from the base of aquifer value at each measurement location.

Time Range

1996-1997

Freshness

null

Geography

High Plains Aquifer in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, USA.