Basin characteristics and point locations of road crossings in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island for highway-runoff mitigation analyses using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model

This data release documents the location of intersections between roads and streams, referred to as road crossings, and associated basin characteristics to support highway-runoff mitigation analyses using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM, Granato, 2013) in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The data set of road crossings was generated from the intersections of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Transportation Dataset (roads) and the StreamStats modified National Hydrography Dataset (streams) and in addition to the three-state study area, includes areas of New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire that are within drainages that cover the three states. Pertinent basin characteristics were defined for sites within CT, MA, and RI and include the following: drainage area, 10-85 slope, longest flow path, number of road crossings by road class, impervious cover, length of roads by road class, and length of streams. Coordinates, street name, and road classification associated with the road crossing point also are included. Users can delineate basins and compute these characteristics, among others, on the USGS StreamStats web application. This data release contains one shapefile in a zipped folder and two tables: RoadCrossingsShapefile.zip, BasinCharacteristics.txt, and BasinCharacteristics_Definitions.txt. The basin characteristics are included in the metadata file and as a separate table for the user’s preference.